Event Overview
Memorial Park Golf Course, which opened in 1936 and is located near downtown Houston, is a municipal course. Last year, Tom Doak remodelled the course with Brooks Koepka’s aid.
This week’s event will be a Par 70 course with a total length of over 7400 yards. With Brooks’s influence on this redesign, you can be sure it will be a demanding and challenging ball-striking test.
The revised course includes three Par 5s and five Par 3s, with several of the latter stretching out to over 200 yards. There are numerous Par 4s that are between 450 and 500 yards long. One of the course’s distinguishing features is the lack of bunkers that really come into action; instead, the course has minimal amounts of water throughout, as well as challenging slopes and run-off areas, particularly on and around the greens. Each and every club in the bag will be put to work this week.
This week, golfers will need to be precise with their approaches and have a strong around-the-green game to get up and down on these tough Bermuda greens. Long hitters should be able to take advantage of the several Par 5s and shorter Par 4s that will be in play this week one on the back 9 is drivable for most, so I’ll be looking for individuals who can blast the ball far off the tee. The ability to hit approaches well from the 175-225 yard range will also be important this week, with numerous Par 3s going over 200 yards.
Overall this week I’m looking for players who can play big boy golf courses well. When looking at the leaderboard last year all of the players at the top stand out in the ball striking statistics this isn’t a course for finesse and precision but more out and out T2G play.
PGA Houston Open 2022 – Event & Course Details:
| Course: | Memorial Park Golf Course |
| Location: | Houston, TX |
| Date: | Nov. 11-14, 2022 |
| Par: | 70 |
| Yardage: | 7,412 yards |
| Purse: | $8.4 Million / Winner $1.4 Million |
| Fairways/Rough: | Bermudagrass |
| Greens: | Bermudagrass |
| Defending Champion: | Jason Kokrak |
Key Skill Sets Required:
01. Driving Distance
A long and demanding course of the tee box. Plenty of Par 4 ‘s over 450 yards and the addition of 3 long Par 5’s. All of this means I’m favouring big boy players of the tee box this week. No place for the faint hearted. The last few weeks on tour have favoured precision, not the case this week.
02. SG Off The Tee
A big boy golf course faces the players this week, this is somewhat different from all other fall season events so far. Driving on the course is of significant importance and therefore I have paid particular attention to those players who thrive off the tee box, if doing your own research I suggest this is an area to concentrate on.
03. SG T2G
On a super demanding layout makes sense to look at recent strokes gained T2G performance. Looking at the leaderboard from last year shows this is a real ball striking test and the world’s most elite players from tee to green rise to the top of the leaderboard come Sunday evening. I expect a similar story in 2022.
04. Proximity to hole from 175 Yards+
This is a tough and demanding track the players face there is a significant amount of shots From 175 yards or greater rather than look at green in regulation data this week I want to look at proximity to the whole from 175 to 225 yards there will be a higher volume of shots from this distance than the average week on tour. Like we have touched upon, this is a real ball striking test.
05. Par 3 Scoring efficiency
There are 5 par 3 holes this week some of them extremely demanding at over 200 yards it therefore makes sense to pay particular attention to par 3 scoring. I will also be paying close attention to players who have performed well on par-3 holes over 175 yards in length.
PGA Houston Open 2022 – Best Outsiders to consider
1. Sabastian Munoz
- A player who has the ability to go super low at any given time, he excites me in the FRL market this week. Its advised we wait for the draw before confirming that bet.
- A previous winner of this event in 2019.
- Ranked in the top 15 for SG Approach play over the past 50 rounds on tour from this field.
- Ranked in the top 15 SG T2G over the past 50 rounds on tour from this field.
- Ranked in the top 5 for SG Par 4 scoring over the past 50 rounds on tour, this will be crucial this week.
2. Alex Smalley
- A long driver of the ball, whose game should suit the test that lies ahead this week.
- A previous top-20 finish at this event shows his liking for the course set-up.
- Ranked in the top 20 for SG Off The Tee over the past 50 rounds.
- Ranked in the top 10 for proximity to the hole from 200 + yards, long iron play is a key factor on this layout.
- Gains strokes vs the field Putting on the Bermudagrass we face this week.
3. Lee Hodges
- A player who has the arrives in solid form with a top 10 2 weeks back at the CJ cup.
- Gained strokes with his approach play over the field average in each of his last 8 events, showing his iron game is sweet right now.
- Gained strokes Off The Tee vs the field in each of his last 6 events.
- Ranks in the top 10 SG Approach play over the past 36 rounds on tour.
- Ranked in the top 10 Proximity to the hole from 200+ yards, we know that long irons will be a factor this week
