New venue for Shell Houston Open
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2003 Shell Houston Open | Preview | 22 Apr 2003
The Houston Open gets a new venue for the first time since 1985 and moves from the Woodlands for the first time since 1975, when the tournament is played at the Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Texas this week.
Having been played at the Woodlands Golf Club until 1985 then the TPC at the Woodlands from 1985, the move coincides with the Houston Golf Association shifting to its new headquarters at Redstone.
The event will be played at Redstone Golf Club for the next two years before moving to the adjacent Rees Jones designed course, which is still under construction, in 2005.
Opened just this year the Redstone Golf Club course was designed by PGA Tour pro Peter Jacobsen and one of the foremost golfing teachers in the US, Jim Hardy. The greens are TifEagle the same as were used last week at Harbor Town with the fairways another Bermuda variety in TifSport.
Redstone Golf Club measures some 7,500 yards but course designer Jim Hardy is adamant that it will not be played at that length. “Now, before everyone sees that number and gets all crazy, let me say it’s not our intention, nor is it the PGA Tour’s intention, to play this course at 7,500 yards during the Houston Open – or any other time, for that matter,” explains Jim Hardy, anticipating the hew and cry of golf industry critics who see exploding course length as the next sign of imminent apocalypse.
Of course, a new venue adds a whole new dimension to the likely winners of the event with everybody playing this course for the first time under tournament conditions. Recent winners in Houston, albeit on another golf course, have been Vijay Singh, Hal Sutton, Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby and David Duval.
Interesting to see two Australians having won the event in recent years perhaps reflecting the Australians capacity to handle the Texas winds.
Leading players entered as this goes to print are Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, David Toms, Justin Leonard, Jerry Kelly, Chad Campbell, a resurgent Hal Sutton and a three-time runner up in this event and Masters hero, Jeff Maggert.
Australasians entered at this stage are Steve Alker, Steve Allan, Stuart Appleby, Aaron Baddeley, Greg Chalmers, Gavin Coles, Steve Elkington, Mattie Goggin, James McLean, Geoff Ogilvy, Anthony Painter, Rod Pampling, Adam Scott and John Senden. Paul Gow awaits a start from number two on the bench but should be a good chance of teeing it up on Thursday.
