For Shane Lowry and Séamus Power, the Houston Open at the municipal Memorial Park course offers quite different incentives: for Lowry, it’s about shaking off a run of disappointing back-to-back missed cuts ahead of the Masters, for Power it’s about making the most of getting into the field off the reserve list in his quest to regain a full PGA Tour card.
Lowry has opted to make it playing six weeks in seven on tour after those missed weekends at both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players, even if the wide fairways at the downtown Houston public course are a stark contrast to what lies ahead at the Masters at Augusta National in just a fortnight’s time.
Playing with a scorecard in hand, however, provides Lowry the opportunity to get back to the sort of form he showed earlier in the year when he had chances to win in both Dubai and then again at the Cognizant Classic where that late collapse – two double-bogeys on 16 and 17 in his final round to lose out to Nico Echavarria – left some mental scars that contributed to poor showings the following two weeks.
Power is not the field for the Masters, although a win this week would earn an exemption. More pertinently, though, is likely to be for the Waterford man to make the most of his place in the field on the back of Bud Cauley’s withdrawal in strengthening his current position of 89th on this season’s FedEx Cup standings.
RM Block
Min Woo Lee defends a title he won last year when he fended off world number one Scottie Scheffler while Rory McIlroy was also in the mix down the stretch.
“Obviously Scottie not playing hurts [the strength of the field]. I guess a few of us are saying, ‘nice that he’s not playing’ ... it doesn’t matter if he plays or not, we again try to do the best we can. We’re trying to set up for major tournaments and big tournaments. He’s going to be there, so you can’t fear him or anything,” said the defending champion.
Meanwhile, Leona Maguire and Lauren Walsh will seek to rebound from missed cuts at last week’s Founders Cup when they compete in the Ford Championship in Arizona.
Nelly Korda, the world number two, has her sister Jessica back for this week’s event, the first time in three years that the elder Korda has teed up in an LPGA Tour event.
“Three years is a very long time. A lot has changed in three years, physically, emotionally, and just in general, so I don’t know [what to expect], just taking it one day at a time and seeing where it puts me,” said Jessica Korda.
Lowdown – Texas Children’s Houston Open
Purse: €8.5 million/$9.9 million (€1.55m/$1.78m to the winner)
Where: Houston, Texas, USA
The course: Memorial Park Golf Course – 7,475 yards par 70 – was originally designed by John Bredemus but in recent years the public facility has undergone multi-million dollar upgrading overseen by architect Tom Doak with player input from Brooks Koepka. It is a public course located in downtown Houston and has proven to be a popular stop on the PGA Tour ... the layout includes a very strong finishing stretch, with the 16th (a par 5 of 616 yards) and 17th holes located on either side of a lake with peninsula greens, while the par 4 18th measures 503 yards and features three greenside bunkers. Scottie Scheffler and Tony Finau share the course record with 62s.
The field: Scottie Scheffler’s withdrawal at the start of the week took away the world number one, while Rory McIlroy had previously opted not to play. Their absence may deprive the tournament of some stardust with only Chris Gotterup from the world’s top-10 playing. Brooks Koepka had a hand in the course’s redesign and will hope to use that knowledge in his ongoing quest for a tour win since returning from LIV.
72-hole record: 260 (-20) – Min Woo Lee (2025)
Playoff holes: 18, 18, 17, 18 (sudden death).
Irish in the field: Shane Lowry is among the early wave of players, in a group with Wyndham Clark and Rickie Fowler (off the 10th, 12.42pm Irish time); Séamus Power is in a group with Emilo Grillo and Trey Mullinax (off the 10th, 5.42pm Irish time).
Betting: Defending champion Min Woo Lee’s liking for Memorial Park has the Aussie leading the market at 10-1 although Chris Gotterup has the better form this season and looks decently priced at 14-1. Brooks Koepka is trending well and is available at 22-1. Sahith Theegala is worth an each-way look at 35s.
On TV: Live on Sky Sports Golf (from 12.30pm).
