Out of the Rough: Texas Children's Houston Open (2026)

With just three weeks until the Masters Tournament, the PGA Tour makes the first of two stops in Texas for this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open.

This event was once part of the FedEx Cup Fall series but two years ago, moved to its new spring placement in the schedule in place of the former WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

This will also be the third year that the event operates under the title sponsorship of Texas Children’s Hospital.

Most recently, the event operated under the sponsorship of Cadence Bank for just one year in 2022 (there was no event in 2023 as the event made its move from the fall to the spring on the schedule.) Prior to Cadence Bank’s one year run as the event’s sponsor, this tournament operated under the sponsorship of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2021, Vivint in 2020 and went unsponsored in 2018 and 2019. It endured a sponsorship with Shell from 1992 to 2017.

With the list of recent changes to the event, the course remains the same as this year’s event will be played once again at the Memorial Park Golf Course. This will be the fifth consecutive year (no event in 2023) that the public course in Houston, Texas has hosted the event.

The Field

With the Masters in just three weeks time, many of the World’s best will head to Texas to get some final tune-ups in.

Among them is World No. 1 and Texas native Scottie Scheffler who will desperately be looking to right-the-ship as he prepares to attempt to win a third Green Jacket.

Chris Gotterup (No. 10,) Ben Griffin (No. 16,) Harris English (No. 21,) Ryan Gerard (No. 26,) Shane Lowry (No. 29) and Min Woo Lee (No. 30) round out those ranked within the top 30 of the Official World Golf Rankings teeing it up this week.

Lee comes in as the defending champion, having held off a late charge by Scottie Scheffler and Gary Woodland by a stroke to claim his maiden PGA Tour title.

Other former winners of this event playing this week include Stephan Jaeger (2024) and Tony Finau (2022,) 

The Course

Memorial Park Golf Course is actually a public course that sees upwards of 30,000 rounds played by amateur golfers each year.

The course was overhauled in 2019 by Tom Doak who used Brooks Koepka to consult on.

Koepka’s influence is present as this course now plays much like that of a major event. The course emulates major conditions with its combination of length and difficult green-side runoffs.

It was in disrepair and was on the verge of losing its place on the Tour until the revitalization came along.

Memorial Park Golf Course now plays as a long par 70 at 7,412 yards and will test every aspect of each golfer’s game.

It plays very untraditionally with five par threes and just three par fives. Although there is a decrease in the number of par fives, they still play crucial in any potential winner’s game.

The par threes too play long at this course, as that is the case for everything at this golf course.

The only real chance at consistent birdies here come on the par fives and as previously mentioned, must be capitalized on for anyone hoping to win.

Approach play will be key here, especially with the long-iron approach shots. The course on paper already plays long but plays even longer than what it advertises.

Half of the ten par-fours featured this week play over 490-yards as well.

Only five holes on this golf course feature a scoring average under par. The five 490-plus yard par-fours and the 237 yard par-three are the most difficult holes on this course.

Even looking back to the 2021 and 2022 playings of this event at Memorial Park, the shortest par-three, par-four and par-five each played with a scoring average over par as well.

There isn’t much in terms of bunkers, water hazards or out-of-play areas, but the thick rough that too offers difficult lies can derail any hole.

Due to Koepka’s influence, this course features major-esque greenside run-off areas that will see greens hard to hold. Due to this, golfers must come with a competent around-the-green game this week as well. 

Greens in regulation will be crucial as well, simply because any hopeful winner cannot leave any strokes out on the course.

Recent run of form will be hard to use this week as the conditions and type of course is unlike anything we’ve seen on Tour. However, last week’s Valspar Championship is relatively similar to this week’s event.

In all, golfers will be facing firm conditions, tight runouts around the green and the unpredictable gusting Texas winds that all make this golf course play much more difficult than the scorecard may suggest.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, there is at most a ten-percent chance of precipitation for both Thursday and Friday. Saturday and Sunday both call for just a five-percent chance. Temperatures will be at the highest on Thursday at 88-degrees before falling to 76-degrees on Friday. Temperatures will continue to drop into the week as Saturday calls for 71-degrees. Temperatures will rebound to 79-degrees on Sunday. Winds will be a factor this week, currently set at a peak of 16 miles-per-hour on Thursday. From there, the winds will settle to 15 miles-per-hour on Friday, 13 miles-per-hour on Saturday and 14 miles-per-hour on Sunday.

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Ball Striking

• Average Driving Distance

• Proximity to the Hole from 200-Plus Yards

• Par Five Average Scoring

• Strokes Gained: Around the Green

• Scrambling

• Strokes Gained: Putting on Bermuda (SG: PUTT Bermuda)

• Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)

• Par Three Average Scoring

• Bogey Avoidance

Betting Card

Chris Gotterup (+2450)

Of those playing this week, Gotterup ranks second overall in my stats-based model. He is currently second on Tour in par-five average scoring, sixth in average driving distance, 27th in SG: APP, 30th in SG: PUTT Bermuda, 37th in SG: ATG, 39th in both par-three average scoring and bogey avoidance, 52nd in GIR%, 54th in both ball striking and scrambling and 62nd in proximity to the hole from 200-plus yards. In other words, he’s top third on Tour in each of the 11 statistical categories I took into consideration this week. He last played THE PLAYERS Championship where he placed 56th. Prior to that he placed 18th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, missed the cut at The Genesis Invitational, placed 37th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, won the WM Phoenix Open, 18th at the Farmers Insurance Open and won the Sony Open in Hawaii. He also placed 18th at this event a season ago and 57th in 2024. 

Adam Scott (+4000)

Of those teeing it up this week, Scott ranked first in my stats-based model. He is currently third on Tour in par-three average scoring, ninth in SG: APP, 17th in both proximity to the hole from 200-plus yards and par-five average scoring, 23rd in scrambling, 26th in average driving distance, 27th in bogey avoidance, 31st in ball striking, 44th in GIR%, 49th in SG: PUTT Bermuda and 97th in SG: ATG. He last played THE PLAYERS Championship where he placed 56th. Prior to that he placed 11th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, fourth at The Genesis Invitational, 30th at the Farmers Insurance Open, 24th at The American Express and 40th at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He last played this event in 2022 where he placed 54th. He also placed 32nd in 2021. 

Ryan Gerard (+5000)

This was one of my two first clicks this week. Gerard definitely has cooled off since his red-hot start to the season, but it’s not like he’s playing bad golf. He placed 27th at THE PLAYERS Championship, 51st at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, 23rd at the Cognizant Classic, 28th at The Genesis Invitational, 45th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, 11st at the Farmers Insurance Open, second at The American Express and second at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He also placed ninth at this event a season ago. Gerard is currently fourth on Tour in GIR%, sixth in SG: APP, 12th in par-five average scoring, 15th in ball striking, 19th in bogey avoidance, 39th in par-three average scoring, 73rd in SG: PUTT Bermuda, 88th in average driving distance, 90th in scrambling, 127th in proximity to the hole from 200-plus yards and 131st in SG: ATG. 

Ryan Fox (+8000)

I know Fox recently had surgery to remove kidney stones which saw him withdraw from THE PLAYERS Championship, but the surgery was non-invasive and required lasers to blow apart the stones. In other words, I think he’ll be alright this week. He is currently third on Tour in par-three average scoring, ninth in proximity to the hole from 200-plus yards, 16th in average driving distance, 17th in scrambling, 23rd in SG: PUTT Bermuda, 24th in bogey avoidance, 28th in SG: ATG, 75th in SG: APP, 86th in ball striking, 97th in par-five average scoring and 105th in GIR%. We last saw Fox at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he placed 32nd. Prior to that he placed seventh at The Genesis Invitational, 24th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and 24th at the WM Phoenix Open. He placed 15th at this event a season ago and 78th in 2024. 

Sudarshan Yellamaraju (+12500)

One of the new fan-favorites of the PGA Tour offers great value this week. He last played THE PLAYERS Championship where he placed fifth. Prior to that he placed 27th at the Puerto Rico Open, 17th at the Cognizant Classic, 54th at the WM Phoenix Open, 56th at the Farmers Insurance Open, missed the cut at The American Express and placed 13th at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He is currently seventh on Tour in ball striking, eighth in proximity to the hole from 200-plus yards, 11th in SG: PUTT Bermuda, 15th in average driving distance, 25th in GIR%, 28th in SG: APP, 32nd in bogey avoidance, 37th in par-five average scoring, 84th in par-three average scoring, 100th in scrambling and 145th in SG: ATG. He’ll be making his tournament debut this week.

2025 Betting Card

• J.J. Spaun (+3500) - MC

• Wyndham Clark (+3500) - T5th

• Min Woo Lee (+4000) - 1st

• Sam Ryder (+13000) - T61st

2024 Betting Card

• Wyndham Clark (+1400) - T31st

• Si Woo Kim (+3500) - T17th

• Alex Noren (+4500) - T11th

• Kurt Kitayama (+6000) - T36th

• Taylor Moore (+10000) -  T2nd

• Andrew Novak (+17000) - T53rd