Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park – 2025 Preview

With the Florida Swing concluded, and only two weeks before the Masters, the PGA Tour heads west to Memorial Park Golf Course and the Houston Open. One of the country’s best public, municipal courses, Memorial Park is a long par 70 that measures 7,475 yards and can trace its origins back to 1912. The course features five par 3s and three par 5s. There are only 21 bunkers on the entire course and only four water danger holes. The defense of the course is the unique green complexes that feature plenty of undulations and short-grass runoffs with false fronts. “Nothing is hidden, it’s all out in front of you. But these green complexes can be treacherous if they don’t hit their target,” said course superintendent, Parker Henry.

Playing two-thirds of a stroke over par after its first four editions, Memorial Park emphasizes the importance of a well-rounded game. Due to the tournament moving from its fall slot (where it was held from 2020-2022) to the spring for last year’s event, the agronomy change has allowed the course to play less challenging. What was once a wall-to-wall bermudagrass course is now overseeded with Poa trivialis on the greens, with the biggest change  –  switching from penal 2.5″ Bermuda rough to the much easier and shorter 1.25″ ryegrass overseed. What was once one of the toughest non-major tee-to-green courses on Tour became less so thanks to this switch in turf necessitated by the tournament’s seasonal change. Players can take more aggressive shots coming out of the rough than in years past without having to worry about “fliers” or bad lies from the unpredictable Bermuda turf.

According to the data, and also the type of golfer that signs up to play here annually, this is one of the clearest “bomber” courses on the PGA Tour. Whether it’s past winners (Stephan Jaeger, Tony Finau, Carlos Ortiz), contenders (Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson, Thomas Detry, Alejandro Tosti), or golfers who have played here all four previous tournaments (Taylor Pendrith, Wyndham Clark, Jason Day, Keith Mitchell, Luke List), players who crush the ball off the tee typically have a sizeable advantage at the second longest course on Tour.

The Field

Headlining the 144-player field are nine of the top-30 ranked players in the world led by No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 2 Rory McIlroy. Other notables include Wyndham Clark, Houston resident Sahith Theegala, Tony Finau, Sungjae Im and Jason Day. Stephan Jaeger also returns to defend his 2024 title. McIlroy, who is currently the hottest player in the world, will be getting in his Augusta National prep this week as he makes his course debut. With two runner-up finishes in the last three years, Scheffler returns to Memorial Park looking for his first Houston Open victory.

There is also a decent mid-tier group of golfers in attendance this week including Si Woo Kim, Maverick McNealy, Aaron Rai, J.J. Spaun, Thomas Detry, and Taylor Pendrith. The first two Houston Open champions at Memorial Park, Carlos Ortiz and Jason Kokrak will again be absent this week as each is on the LIV Tour. There is a 36-hole cut on Friday with the top-65 and ties making it through to the weekend to compete for the $9.5 million purse.

Memorial Park Golf Course – History

Memorial Park Golf Course had its official beginning in 1912 when a rudimentary 9-hole course with sand greens was laid out and intended for soldiers who were staying nearby at Camp Logan. In 1935, architect John Bredemus redesigned the course and added a second nine. The course hosted the Houston Open 14 times from 1947-1965 before the event moved to different state courses in both Humble and The Woodlands.

In 2017, after Shell did not renew its deal after 25 years of sponsoring the Houston Open, Astros owner Jim Crane began planning to have the event return to the city of Houston. While Memorial Park underwent a complete restoration in 1994, it was still not suitable enough for PGA Tour standards. So fast forward to 2019 when Crane hired famed course designer Tom Doak to dramatically change the course with the goal of keeping it playable for the average golfer, and yet making it a more demanding challenge for Tour professionals.

Though the routing remained unchanged, the course was transformed in numerous ways. The course has a much more wide-open look thanks to the elimination of underbrush and many of the overhanging trees in certain areas. The ravine that runs through the front nine was incorporated into more holes. Eight of the original greens were moved and certain other holes were altered in different ways. Tour player, Brooks Koepka was brought on as a consultant to Doak’s team. His contributions included getting rid of half of the bunkers, incorporating more short grass around the greens, and creating additional water hazards on the closing stretch of holes.

Along with the aforementioned agronomic changes, there is one major hole change for this year’s event. The green on the 17th hole was moved 30 yards farther back along the water, creating a landing pad to where the old green was, in an effort for the players to attempt to carry the ball over the water. That should create some excitement on the hole by adding pressure down the stretch. Two bunkers were also added to the left of the green.

There have been small tweaks to a couple of par 3s. On the 9th hole, the green surface was brought in closer to the right-hand side of the front along the water to allow for a well-struck shot to remain on the green instead of rolling off into the water. The same was done on the left side of the 15th green.

Finish Position and Strokes Gained History at Memorial Park (2020-2024)

This includes the average finish position and Strokes Gained per round since 2020 for each of the categories. Players are sorted by SG: Total. Memorial Park is the 13th-least (out of 44) predictive annual course on Tour.