After an exciting week of tournament play from Austin, the PGA Tour returns to its standard 72-hole format for the 25th installment of the Houston Open under Shell’s sponsorship. The Golf Club of Houston’s field this week is decked with elite golfers, featuring five top 10 players from the Official World Golf Rankings.
World No. 1 Jordan Spieth will be part of the action in Humble, Texas, and will look to tune-up his game as he prepares to defend his Masters title in a week’s time. But it’s not just Spieth who’s looking to come away with a win at the Houston Open, so we’ve taken a closer look at several notable golfers below that could just as well come away with a much-needed victory this weekend.
Subpar play of late has got to be concerning for the world’s best golfer, Jordan Spieth (+600). After winning at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in late January, Spieth has failed to crack the top 15 since. He does have four top-25 finishes over his last five starts, though, so at least he hasn’t totally tanked just yet.
And luckily for the Dallas native, this was the exact time of the year last season that he shifted into high gear en route to his win at The Masters. Spieth finished second at Humble last year after losing the playoff in the final round to J.B. Holmes, and his excellent form from that event would carry on to his victory at The Masters in the following week.
It’s also worth noting that the GCH’s course pretty much emulates that of Augusta’s, so this week’s tournament is pretty much an early teaser of what we could expect from most of the players at The Masters, especially from Spieth. With the way things are going for the 22-year-old phenom as we speak, you bet that he’ll need to put on one heck of a show this week in preparation for his title defense.
Phil Mickelson
Look no further than good ol’ Phil Mickelson (+1,400) if you’re in search of a player with a ton of success at the Golf Club of Houston. Lefty has made it to the top 20 in each of his last five starts on this week’s course, including winning it all back in 2011 and a T4 finish in 2012.
Furthermore, the 45-year-old Mickelson also has five top-20 finishes this 2016, with three of them in the top five at that. With a fantastic history at Humble and a solid record this year to boot, Mickelson could very well win his first event of 2016 this week and just in time for his quest at a fourth green jacket at Augusta.
Sleepers
Louis Oosthuizen
You know who’s had a terrific March? Louis Oosthuizen (+2,000). The South African played three tournaments this month, wound up in the top 20 in each of those starts, and also improved his finish in each succeeding tournament during that span.
Oosthuizen’s stellar month began with solid T14 finish at the WGC-Cadillac Championship, which was then followed-up with a T7 at the Valspar Championship. Then this past weekend, he qualified for the knockout stage of the WGC-Dell Match Play as the 16th seed, having beaten top-seeded Jordan Spieth in the first round of play and ending up as the runner-up of the tournament.
And although the 33-year-old missed the cut at the Houston Open in his last two appearances, he still has three top-20 finishes at the event in his career, including a superb solo third back in 2012. If Oosthuizen’s upward trend of late does indeed hold up, there’s no other finish left to overcome other than a win at GCH this weekend.
Charley Hoffman
Few golfers have had undeniable success at the Golf Club of Houston, and one such player is Charley Hoffman (+5,000). In eight lifetime starts at the Houston Open, Hoffman made the cut in all of them with four top 25s and a sweet T11 finish from just last season.
The 16-year veteran is also playing much better of late after a rough start to the year. Hoffman has a pair of top-20 finishes this March and also managed to salvage one win at the top-heavy WGC Match Play tournament this past week, making the UNLV product one tasty dark horse pick at Humble, alright.
Long Shot
Johnson Wagner
As an unheralded former tournament winner at the Houston Open, World No. 130 Johnson Wagner earned the special distinction of being corporate sponsor Shell’s “sports ambassador” at this week’s event. Though Wagner’s win at Humble was from way back in 2008, he did recently end up as one of two players that lost in the playoff bout to J.B. Holmes at GCH last year (Spieth being the other runner-up finisher).
Then again, Wagner’s play this year has been rather abysmal to say the least. He missed all five cuts this 2016, has failed to reach the top 10 of a tournament since the OHL Classic last November, and has not won at the PGA Tour level since January of 2012.
Throw in the fact that there have been different winners and second-place finishers in each installment of the Houston Open for the past decade, and it’s safe to say that another magical outing from Wagner at Humble this week is far from becoming a reality.
Writer’s Prediction
At long last, Oosthuizen (+2,000) wins his first PGA Tour event of the year.
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