The 13th hole at Redstone Golf Club © Peter Corden
Steve Stricker ??/1 © Keith Allison
I am writing this as we are still waiting on the result from Bay Hill, but I don’t think it’s really going to have much effect on this year’s Shell Houston Open. I think we have gathered from this week’s tournament that Tiger is back to winning tournaments even if he’s missing fairways. And by the time you read this he could be holding his eighth Arnold Palmer Invitational Trophy and that Justin Rose has a problem holding a lead after 36holes and with putts from 5/6 feet.
Rees Jones designed the Tournament course at Redstone Golf Club, where during construction artifacts belonging to the Atakapa Indians were found all around the grounds of the Redstone Golf Club. That history has been incorporated into the design of Redstone’s logo with a reflection of a green over water within an Indian Arrowhead outline.
The 7,457 yard par-72 layout has been carved out of woodlands lush with oak, pine and cypress trees. The course also has wetlands that are filled with native plants and flowers. Past Shell Houston Open champions at Redstone Golf Club include Fred Couples, Vijay Singh, Stuart Appleby, Adam Scott, Johnson Wagner and Paul Casey.
Hunter Mahan ??/1 © Keith Allison
My Tips to Win
Steve Striker 18/1 seems to have got his schedule and performance down to a tee, he’s played three tournaments this year and he’s finished 2nd, tied 5th and tied 2nd – pretty impressive don’t you think? In the last six years at the Houston Open Steve has had a couple of Top 5 and Top 10 finishes, so I feel on this form he will be in the mix again come Sunday afternoon.
Louis Oosthuizen 20/1 has played this event twice and made the Top 20 on both occasions and was leading going into the final round only to shot a 75 last year. Two week’s later he was involved in a play-off with Bubba Watson at the Masters and we tipped Louis in both tournaments at odds of 60/1. It’s not been the warm up to the Masters the South African would have wanted. Louis already has a win on the European Tour but has missed the cut on two of his four events on the PGA Tour, this week on a track he enjoys playing, lets hope he gets back to winning ways.
I think another title defence could be on the cards this week with last year’s champion Hunter Mahan 14/1. Hunter currently sits in twelfth place at Bay Hill and if he stays there will mean that Hunter has now only been outside the Top 20 twice in his eight starts on the PGA Tour. The other two finishes were 25th and 26th place finishes, as you can see consistency seems to go hand-in-hand with the Mahan name this year.
Chris Kirk ??/1 © secretinthedirt.com
My Each-Way Tips:
Chris Kirk 40/1 should be coming into this week in a positive mood, he currently sits in 21st place at Bay Hill and is -2 for his final round, he also had a runners-up spot here in 2011 in his first full year on the PGA Tour. It’s been an eventful 2013 for the Georgian, with two top 5 finishes and a missed cutfrom his six events so far. But the lad knows how to win, with two Web.com and 1 PGA Tour victories to his name already.
As I am writing this Thorbjørn Olesen 50/1 sits in fifth place at Bay Hill and is level par for the three holes he played yesterday, I don’t think he is going to win but he will be teeing it up in Houston taking a lot of confidence with him. Thorbjørn won his first European Tour event at the beginning of April last year. From his four European Tour events, he has only been outside the Top 25 once and has two Top 5 finishes. The Danish lad has always had plenty of talent, now it looks like he has the ambition to match it.
Outside Tip:
This weeks outside tip is going to be Cameron Tringale 90/1. Cameron has just shot a 74 to miss out on the Top 25 places at Bay Hill, he played steady golf for the four rounds off the back of his third place finishes at Tampa Bay Championship two weeks ago. Cameron has a couple of other Top 25 finishes this year and should be in a positive frame of mind returning to Houston where he finished in the Top 10 last year. He also shot a third round 66 the here in 2011 but followed that up with an 81!! He obviously learnt from that round last year.
For updated betting odds during the tournament go to planetgolfreview.com
