Houston Open: The Final Warm Up
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2010 Shell Houston Open | Preview | 31 Mar 2010
With now only nine days until the 2010 Masters there is a lot of emphasis on this week’s Shell Houston Open as a final guide to prospects in golf’s first major of the year.
The event has become the official lead-in event to Augusta National, having replaced the Bell South tournament in that role since 2007.
The Tournament Course at the Redstone Golf Club in Humble just north of Houston, Texas has provided the venue to this event since 2006 when it replaced its sister course at Redstone, The Member Course, that season. Prior to that the event was played for 28 consecutive years at the Woodlands Country Club
The Rees Jones and David Toms designed layout has attracted the participation of many more of the leading prospects for The Masters in recent years due to the similarities in the set up of the golf course to that at Augusta National.
Not that the Masters Champion in each of the last three years has enjoyed any real success at this course in the week prior. When Zach Johnson won the Masters in 2007 he did not even play this event and both Trevor Immelman (2008) and last year’s winner at Augusta National, Angel Cabrera, missed the cut in Houston prior to winning the next week.
The players however do like the set up with fast sloping greens and shaved areas around the greens providing the opportunity to get the short game in shape for what they will experience in the ultimate test at Augusta National.
Last year’s winner Paul Casey is back to defend the title he won in an epic battle with J.B. Holmes. Casey eventually won in a playoff after Holmes had found the water at the first extra hole. Casey has played beautifully in recent weeks and stands a great chance of successfully defending.
J.B Holmes is also in the field looking for a victory to get him inside the field for Augusta next week. In fact for those not otherwise qualified this is the final chance to secure a place at Augusta, the winner of this event automatically earning a start.
Ernie Els is in the field looking for a three-peat of PGA Tour victories following his win in Doral and last week in Orlando. Els was planning to play Augusta National in practice early this week and then head across to Houston so he is on a tight and hectic schedule. Whether that will impact on how he performs this week remains to be seen but he did play reasonably well at this event in his only start on this golf course last year.
Vijay Singh has a great record in this event having won on three occasions although none have come at this particular layout. Singh was forced to withdraw last week with back issues but is in this week’s field as this is written. He has found some good form in recent starts but the back injury is a concern.
Phil Mickelson continues to tease in 2010 with the occasional glimpse of what we know he is capable of but he is not at his best just yet. This provides a chance to reach that peak prior to Augusta but two performances below average in the past two years in this tournament do not augur all that well for his chances.
There will be a lot of interest in just how Fred Couples plays this week. He has dominated the Champions Tour this season and although it is clear that is at a level or two below this he does enjoy a great record at Redstone. He has been third and fourth in his last two starts in this event and has won three times on the Champions Tour this season.
This is a golf tournament that has been good to Australians over the years. Bruce Devlin, Bruce Crampton, David Graham, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby and Adam Scott have all one at least once with Appleby and Crampton winning on two occasions. Geoff Ogilvy finished runner up to Johnson Wagner two years ago and took a share of the third round lead into round four in 2009 before finishing 6th.
Ogilvy, Scott and Appleby are in this week’s field and will be joined by Jason Day, David Lutterus, James Nitties, Aaron Baddeley, Matt Jones, Mathew Goggin, Greg Chalmers, Nick O’Hern, Rod Pampling and Steve Elkington.
