🏌️ Will Scheffler Win Again?

Good Morning. Only two players have won the Houston Open thrice - Curtis Strange and Vijay Singh.

Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark have finished winner and runner-up respectively in both of their previous two starts at the Houston Open.

Can they make it 3 out of 3 or will the law of averages catch up - don’t miss out on our top picks for the tournament we’re betting on!

⛳ This day in history: On this date in 1994, the Players Championship concluded at TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course with Australia’s Greg Norman setting a record score of 24 under par to win by four over Fuzzy Zoeller.

ODDS AND PICKS
Our Top Picks For Houston Open

🚩 The 2024 Houston Open at the Memorial Park Golf Course tees off tomorrow with a strong field of competitors, highlighted by top players from the OWGR and a host of PGA TOUR winners.

💰 Purse: $9.1 million, winner takes home $1.64 million.

Here are our top picks we’re betting on:

🚀 Most Likely to Win: It's hard to look beyond Scottie Scheffler (+275), considering he’s won 5 times on similar greens of over-seeded Bermuda. He has gained the most strokes per round (+1.38) in Texas - that’s home for him to go with his insane form. He also tops the list of golfers who have gained strokes to the field most frequently in the last 36 rounds. We're backing him to win his third consecutive tournament.

🚀 Key Player in the Top 5: Houston resident Sahith Theegala (+350) is our pick to finish in the top five. He has earned 4 Top 20s in his last five starts with 3 of those being Top 10s. Additionally, Theegala gains 1.05 strokes per round on courses with 2” or rough or lower - only behind Scheffler among those in the field this week.

🚀 Key Player in the Top 10: Si Woo Kim (+250) has shot 15 rounds with a better-than-average score over his last 19 rounds. He has finished within three strokes of the best score of the round three times, and within five strokes of the top score of the day on 11 occasions over the same duration. Additionally, he has one top-10 finish and three top-20 finishes in his past five tournaments and that solidifies his potential of finishing in the Top-10.

🚀 Key Player in the Top 20: Jason Day (+125) has played at Memorial Park all three times this event has been held here, and his course history is quite strong, reading T16, T54 and T7. He sits 25th in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and 12th in SG: Total over his past 24 rounds. We back him to finish in the Top 20.

🚀 Underdog Likely to Emerge: Mackenzie Hughes (+5000) has never finished outside the top 30 in three previous visits. A T-7 finish in his first outing at Memorial Park is his best result. The next two seasons, he posted four of eight rounds in the 60s (T29, T16), and his worst score was just 71. Hughes has the potential to emerge as the unlikely winner.

* All odds via BetMGM, at the time of publishing.

ALBATROSS
LPGA Receives Purse Boost When PGA's Viewership Declines

The women's game is reaching new heights this season, but the same can't be said about the PGA Tour.

💰 LPGA Fund Surpasses $120m: The JM Eagle LA Championship will offer a record $3.75m, which sees the overall prize fund for the LPGA Tour season now stand at over $120m - easily the highest in history.

✅ This record purse is the latest in a series of eye-catching prize funds available in the women’s game: last year’s US Women’s Open had a record purse of $11m – the largest ever in the women’s game.

✅ For the last two years, the LET’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International has had a $5 million purse.

🔻 PGA's Viewership Decline Continues: Just 1.886 million people watched Sunday's PGA Tour action at the Copperhead Course on NBC - a 27% fall from the last edition.

❌ Last week, The Players Championship was watched on TV by 17% fewer fans than the year before.

❌ Earlier, The Genesis Invitational saw a 51% drop on the Thursday despite Tiger Woods returning and the Arnold Palmer Invitational suffered a 30% falloff Year-on-Year in relation to TV viewing figures.

This is definitely a concerning pattern and it remains to be seen if things will change during the Masters.

TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
LIV Golf Now Raiding PGA Tour's Caddies

Phil Mickelson's brother and former caddie, Tim, is retiring from his role ahead of the Masters. Tim served as Phil's caddie for the past eight years and was on the bag for Mickelson's historic win at the 2021 PGA Championship.

📌 Phil's New Caddie: Mickelson has roped in veteran caddie Jon Yarbrough, who will be on the bag starting next week at the LIV Golf Miami event and the following week at the Masters.

Yarbrough, who has caddied for more than 20 years and for Scott Stallings for the past decade, won’t be on the bag for him this week at the PGA Tour's Houston Open.

📌 Surratt's New Caddie: Caleb Surratt, another LIV Golfer, is set to bring in a caddie from the PGA Tour. Brian Dilley, another veteran Tour caddie who had been on the bag of Akshay Bhatia, will take over for him.

Dilley is tight with Adam Hayes, the caddie for Rahm, and likely had a role in linking Surratt and Dilley together.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

JT*Jordan: Justin Thomas has Michael Jordan to thank for his first car - here's what he revealed on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert".

Monday Qualifiers: Callum McNeil, Rhein Gibson, Emilio Gonzalez and Sung Kang have qualified for the Texas Children's Houston Open via the Monday qualifiers.

The Woods: Tiger Woods and ex-wife Elin Nordegren were spotted together attending Charlie Woods’ state championship ring ceremony.

T-Mobile Match: LPGA's T-Mobile Match Play will take place again at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 3-7 - here's everything you need to know about the format.

LPGA Tour: The Kroger Queen City Championship will be held at the Arnold Palmer-designed TPC River's Bend in Maineville, Ohio September 16-22. It was previously hosted by the Kenwood Country Club.

One Club: The R&A has launched its 'One Club' membership program in a bid to "transform how fans and golfers around the world experience the sport year-round."

BIRDIE
The Lineup At Houston Open

The Texas Children’s Houston Open tees off tomorrow - here are the top performers with some of the best course history over the last three seasons.

🏌️ Scottie Scheffler: Well, no surprises here. Scheffler has a stunning record at Memorial Park and is the outright favorite to win this week.

His finishes: 9th (2022), 2nd (2021) and 32nd (2020)

🏌️ Mackenzie Hughes: Hughes has been very consistent at this venue over the past three seasons and is also one of our longshots to win this week.

His finishes: 16th (2022), 29th (2021) and 7th (2020)

🏌️ Tony Finau: Finau is the defending champion and makes this list despite missing the cut in 2021.

His finishes: 1st (2022), MC (2021) and 24th (2020)

🏌️ Jason Day: Day has never won this tournament but has been one of the most consistent performers at Memorial Park.

His finishes: 16th (2022), 54th (2021) and 7th (2020)

🏌️ Wyndham Clark: Clark hasn't been at his usual best at this venue but has a good enough record to make this list.

His finishes: 16th (2022), 41st (2021) and MC (2020)

DRIVING RANGE
Putt Like Tiger Woods

In this video, Tiger breaks down his approach to "the art of putting".

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