Another Scheffler/Clark Showdown? 2024 Houston Open Picks

The Houston Open moves from being a Fall series event, to now being a core part of the Spring PGA Tour Schedule. With the move from Fall to Spring, we also see a real uptick in the quality of the field participating in this event this year. It will be interesting to see how differently Memorial Park Golf Course will play with the change in season of this event. With The Masters quickly approaching, this week could be most interesting to gauge where some of the game’s top players are as they have some of their final tune up’s before heading over to Augusta. As always we will make our three picks of a player from the top, middle, and bottom of the odds board. Let’s dive in!

Wyndham Clark

(AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

If Scottie Scheffler didn’t exist, Wyndham would be a three time winner this season, with all of them coming in signature events. The last two weeks he has played, Wyndham has finished runner up to Scottie. Scottie is once again in the field this week alongside of Wyndham, but it feels like this week might just mean a little more to Wyndham than to Scottie. Scottie is in the middle of what could become a historic run of form. However, there is no doubt he is trying to peak for The Masters and sees this as more of a primer for that event. Wyndham falls in a similar category, but would likely benefit more from lifting the trophy this week over Scheffler and vanquishing the demons of some gut wrenching runner up finishes before they face off again at Augusta National. With Wyndham’s combination of immense length off the tee, hitting it close with his irons, and exceptional feel on the greens, he is my pick to win this week in Houston.

Joel Dahmen

Dahmen is coming into this event in solid form. He has made the cut in each of the last three events that he has played in, including his best finish of the year coming in at T11 two weeks ago at The Players. Joel also has a history of good form at Memorial Park for this event. In the last two years, he has finished T9 and T5 respectively. The biggest thing holding Joel back this year is his putting. He is having a really difficult putting season this year, gaining strokes in that area only 2 of the 8 events he has played in this year. If he even just putted Tour average for this week, I think we see a good result out of him. I think he turns in a solid week on the greens and finishes in the top 10 this week in Houston.

Alex Smalley

There is simply no other way to put it, Smalley is not in great form right now. He has missed the cut in his last five starts. However, he has a great history of results at The Houston Open. He has finished T4 and T15 in the last two editions of this event. He is a player who is longer than average off the tee, which tends to translate well to Memorial Park. He is hemorrhaging strokes on and around the greens in his play this year. If he could event just get closer to average, not even above average, we could see a real jump in his performance. He is more often than not gaining strokes off the tee and in approach, which is a good sign that points towards improvement in his finishes being on the horizon. I think he feels comfortable on this course and returns to some better form finishing in the top 20 this week.

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