By Andy Lack

Greetings, and welcome to a weekly feature on RickRunGood.com. My name is Andy Lack, I host the Inside Golf Podcast, a twice weekly golf betting and DraftKings show, as well as the betting preview with Rick on the RickRunGood YouTube page and 300 Yards to Unknown Podcast Feed. I am incredibly excited to provide an in-depth course breakdown for each weekly PGA Tour stop. I’ve been able to find my lane by looking at golf courses from a deeper lens, via architecture, agronomy, and so much more. Every single Monday, I will break down absolutely everything you need to know about the weekly PGA Tour venue before you make your bets and DraftKings lineups. So without further ago, let’s dive in!

The Basics 

• Course: Memorial Park
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Designer: John Bredemus (1935), Tom Doak, with Brooks Koepka as a player consultant re-design (2019)
• Length: Par 70; 7,412 yards
• Hazards: Water comes into play on four holes
• Fairways: 419 Bermuda-grass
• Rough: 419 Bermuda-grass (2.25 inches)
• Greens: 7,000 square feet featuring MiniVerde Bermuda-grass running 12-12.5 ft on the stimpmeter

 

The Cadence Bank Houston Open has a robust history on the PGA Tour, as the event has been held at a number of different courses in the greater Houston area and moved around on the schedule various times. As part of the restructuring of the fall swing, the tournament moved to November in 2019. In 2020, after nearly a 60 year layoff, the Houston Open returned to the recently renovated Memorial Park. Since moving to the iconic Bredemus design, Carlos Ortiz and Jason Kokrak have claimed victory. Unfortunately, neither will be competing this year due to their decision to defect to the LIV Tour.

Memorial Park has long been rated as one of the finest municipal golf courses in the country. A nine hole course first launched in 1912, but the track expanded to 18 holes in 1936 under the guiding eye of John Bredemus. Memorial Park went on to host the Houston Open on the PGA Tour 14 times (1947, 1951-1963). After a 19 million dollar renovation funded by Houston Astros owner Jim Crane via the Astros Foundation, the course was deemed ready to provide a vigorous test for the best of the world. Crane smartly brought in Tom Doak to lead the renovation, and Brooks Koepka lended his hand as a player consultant. The pair delivered on a 7,400 yard plus course that can cater to PGA Tour golf, while also accommodating 60,000 rounds a year of public play. The routing of the course virtually stayed the same, but Doak did what Doak does best, beef up the green complexes.

Diving into the routing, Memorial Park is one of the few courses on the schedule that features five par threes, and Doak did well to create some variety. There is at least a 12 yard difference between all five. Players will have a different club on every single one of the one shooters, which is far less common on PGA Tour courses than one would think. Memorial Park provides a nice variety of par fours as well, and the course really shows its teeth in the form of five par fours that measure over 490 yards. Along with the 236 yard 11th hole, these five two-shotters make up five of the six hardest holes on the course. Each of the five feature a scoring average of 4.1 or higher, and the 14th hole, which measures nearly 530 yards (!), plays to a scoring average of 4.33 and features a 35% bogey rate. The three par fives provide some respite, but the 16th hole actually plays over par, and ranks as one of the hardest par fives on the entire PGA Tour. The trio of par fives ranked as the second hardest set of par fives on the schedule last year. With five par threes, and a par of 70, at 7,412 yards, Memorial Park is one of the longest courses on the PGA Tour. It’s a big boy golf course, and one of the firmest tests that players will reckon with all year.

Off the tee, Doak designs tend to feature generous landing areas, but at Memorial Park, the sticky Bermuda rough certainly presents a challenge. Doak is known for his ability to create torturous green complexes, and what I love most about his design philosophy is that he understands that Tour pros have become such strong bunker players that sand is no longer a hazard. Memorial Park only features 19 bunkers. Instead, the greens are framed by short-grass and heavily contoured slopes that repel approach shots. When we consider it’s sheer length, the potential for swirling winds, the sticky Bermuda rough, and the heavily contoured green complexes framed by short-grass, it is far from a surprise that Memorial Park ranks one of the five toughest courses on the PGA Tour. Before we dive into the stats, here were a few player quotes that stood out to me, expanding on the distinct challenge of Memorial Park.

• Scottie Scheffler: “The golf course can be pretty challenging from the Bermuda rough and you’ve got to hit the ball in play. If you’re hitting it in the rough to elevated greens that you can’t hold just because you’re hitting knucklers out of the rough, so it was very important to get the ball in the fairway.”
• Carlos Ortiz, “I think the golf course, it’s really easy to get out of position and when you’re there, you have to think two steps ahead, try to put it where worst case scenario, you’re going to have a good look for par instead of trying to push it, because you can’t push it with these greens. I don’t know if you guys have seen them, but they’re pretty undulating and they all fall off, so if you start pushing, it’s easy to go over and you’re going to have hard a time putting,”
• Jason Day, “This is very difficult around the greens with the Bermuda-grass and the runoffs, they’re vary, very inconstant in order in regards to sponsor bouncing up the slopes. So if you can leave yourself in some decent locations around the greens, you can have a good opportunity at getting up and down pretty easy or you can leave yourself feeling pretty frustrated at the end of the day.”
• Adam Scott, “Yeah I mean, just generally, the course is relentless. It’s just demanding off the tee. It requires something long and straight, and then you must hit the green in the right spot. Dustin’s ball was on the green for a good ten seconds today and ended up in the water, so you have to be very precise on some of them. The challenge is all around the greens, the course is still kind of growing in and that makes its very difficult from down in the low areas around the greens. You know, you just have to get a little bit creative this week and somehow get it up and down and save par.” 

 

Memorial Park arguably features the most difficult green-side surrounds that players will face all year. It’s hard to advocate for ever going too crazy on around the green stuff. This tournament will still be won by the best ball-striker, but if you’re choosing between lower priced options to include in your player pool, I would say that competence around the greens is a worthy tie-breaker. Last week, I wrote about how the defining feature of El Camaleon is the mangrove jungle, and competence off the tee was a must. I don’t believe that Memorial Park is as black and white of a test. It’s the type of course that requires a complete game. Still, outside of Augusta National, and maybe Bay Hill and Muirfield Village, Memorial Park features my heaviest weight on around the green play all season. So without further ado, let’s dive into the stats.

 

Stats 

• Off the Tee 
  • Last year, only 9.5% of strokes gained at Memorial Park came off the tee, compared to the Tour average of 15.2%.
  • Also last year, Memorial Park ranked 20th out of 38 courses in strokes gained off the tee difficulty, and in 2020, it ranked 32nd out of 40 courses in off the tee difficulty.
  • Memorial Park features average sized fairways, but driving accuracy over the past two years has only been 56% compared to the Tour average of 62%. This can be explained by two reasons. Reason number one is that this course generally plays firm and fast in November. Balls that move on the ground are subject to run through the fairway. Reason number two is that Memorial Park is a driver heavy golf course. Driving distance here is 291 yards compared to the Tour average of 282 yards, and the sheer length of the course almost forces players to hit driver. Unless players want to be left with extremely long approach shots into undulating green complexes, pros will need to give it all they’ve got off the tee. I absolutely believe that distance helps on this golf course. More on that soon.
  • Last year, Memorial Park ranked 33rd out of 38 courses in missed fairway penalty, and in 2020, it ranked 22nd out of 40 courses in missed fairway penalty. Last year, Memorial Park also ranked 20th out of 38 courses in rough penalty, but in 2020, it ranked ninth out of 40 courses in rough penalty. The Bermuda-grass rough is enough of a problem to hold players’ attention, but not enough to deter players from hitting driver. If forced to choose between possessing elite distance or elite accuracy at Memorial Park, I would choose distance.
  • Here’s a quote from Matthew Wolff, “Yeah it definitely seems like a bomber’s golf course. There’s not too much trouble off the tee. I think 16 is really the only hole that you can really have a penalty shot off the tee in my opinion. You can definitely get it into the trees and into the rough and and that’s what makes this golf course hard. But at the end of the day, I think it’s going to set up really well for me. I’ll be able to hit driver a lot and get to cover a couple things that some people might not be able to.” 
  • Do the stats back up Wolff’s claim that Memorial Park is a bomber’s course? Yes and no. Last year, 16 of the top 25 players on the leaderboard gained to the field in driving distance. The top three players on the leaderboard: Jason Kokrak, Kevin Tway, and Scottie Scheffler, all hit the ball an extremely long way, Still, Kramer Hickok, Robert Streb, Russell Henley, and Denny McCarthy all finished top-11 on the leaderboard ranking well below average in driving distance. Eight of the top-10 players in driving distance made the cut, and six of the top-10 players in driving distance finished top-20 on the leaderboard. If we compare that to driving accuracy, exactly 16 of the top-25 players in the field also gained in driving accuracy. Scottie Scheffler and Martin Trainer finished top-five ranking below average in driving accuracy, but Joel Dahmen and Robert Streb both finished top-seven ranking first and third in driving accuracy. The top-10 last year in driving accuracy all made the cut, but only five out of the ten finished top-20 on the leaderboard.
  • If we compare this to 2020, exactly 16 of the top-25 on the leaderboard gained to the field in driving distance (again!) Eight of the top-10 players in driving distance made the cut, with five of them finishing in the top-20. Bombers such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Sam Burns all finished top-seven on the leaderboard, but Hideki Matsuyama, Sepp Sraka, and Tyrrell Hatton all ranked below average in driving distance and also found a way to finish top-seven on the leaderboard. The biggest difference in 2020 is that driving accuracy seemed to matter less. Ortiz won the tournament ranking below average in driving accuracy, and Gooch, Koepka, Straka, Day, and Mackenzie Hughes all finished top-seven on the leaderboard while losing to the field in driving accuracy. Of the top-10 players in driving accuracy in 2020, only one finished in the top-10: Hideki Matsuyama.
  • This brought me to the conclusion that distance and accuracy both help, but neither are essential. We saw last year that off the tee only accounted for 9% of strokes gained, an astonishingly low number. Carlos Ortiz won the tournament as as a neutral driver of the ball in 2020. Sepp Straka finished fifth that year losing over two strokes off the tee, and in 2021, four of the top-11 players on the leaderboard lost strokes off the tee.
  • The best way to look at off the tee this week is to identify players that raise their baseline on driver heavy golf courses. Memorial Park is one of the longest courses on the PGA Tour schedule, and it requires players to pull driver on nearly every single hole. Lack of distance or accuracy is far from a death sentence, but who are the players that actually gain an advantage off the tee on courses such as Torrey Pines, Bay Hill, and Muirfield Village? The players who gain the most strokes off the tee on long courses are Cameron Champ, Keith Mitchell, Luke List, Ryan Palmer, Ryan Brehm, Joseph Bramlett, Aaron Wise, Will Gordon, Sam Burns, and Emiliano Grillo. 

 

• Approach
  • Last year, 33.5% of strokes gained at Memorial Park came on approach, which is just slightly below the Tour average of 34.7%.
  • Last year, Memorial Park also ranked 16th out of 38 courses in strokes gained approach difficulty, and in 2020, it ranked 14th out of 40 courses in that same category. The Bredemus design also featured the 11th most difficult greens to hit on the PGA Tour schedule.
  • Given the large plurality of long par fours, Memorial Park should certainly be defined as a mid to long iron course. Across the last two years, nearly two thirds of all approach shots at Memorial Park have come from greater than 150 yards. More specifically, over 25% of approach shots have come from 200 yards plus. The best long-term mid to long iron players in this field have been Russell Knox, Austin Smotherman, Tony Finau, Lee Hodges, Justin Rose, Matthew NeSmith, Aaron Wise, Joel Dahman, Hideki Matsuyama, and Emiliano Grillo. 

 

• Around the Green 
  • Last year, a whopping 28.3% of strokes gained at Memorial Park came around the greens. This is the highest mark out of any PGA Tour course by a healthy margin, and quite literally double Tour average. This might be the most robust margin in any stat category for any golf course that I have come across. If you are wondering why this is the highest I am on around the green all year, this is your answer.
  • Last year, Memorial Park ranked ninth out of 38 courses in strokes gained around the green difficulty, and in 2020, it ranked third out of 40 courses in around the green difficulty.
  • Last year, Memorial Park also ranked seventh out of 38 courses in around the green difficulty from the fairway. In 2020, it ranked second out of 40 courses in this same category. There’s no two ways about it, short grass is awesome and we need more of it.
  • Last year, Memorial Park ranked 10th out of 38 courses in around the green difficulty from the rough, and in 2020, it ranked as the hardest course on Tour in that same category. 
  • The place that players actually want to be if they miss a green at Memorial Park is in a bunker (25th out of 40 courses in around the green difficulty), but the problem is that there are very few of these on the property!
  • I want to be clear, while this will be the heaviest that I will be on around the green metrics all year, Jason Kokrak still won this tournament last year losing nearly four strokes around the green. Kokrak does appear to be some strange outlier however, as he also triumphed at Colonial with extremely poor around the green play. It is also worth mentioning that Kokrak is a terrible bunker player, so the fact that there are very few bunkers at Memorial Park certainly helped his case. Still, the real reason for why he was able to get away with such poor around the green play was the fact that he gained 8.7 (!!) strokes putting. Same with Kevin Tway, who finished runner-up losing 0.6 strokes around the green and gaining exactly 8.7 strokes putting as well. It’s also worth mentioning that Kokrak hit 75% (!!) of his greens in regulation (3rd) and gained 6.4 strokes on approach (2nd), so he did a phenomenal job of avoiding too many scenarios where he had to chip at all. There were a few instances where he hit some poor chips, leaving himself eight feet for par, when stronger around the green players would have left themselves inside five feet. The flat-stick was always able to bail him out though, as Kokrak ranked eighth in the field in putting from five to 10 feet. For what it’s worth, runner-up Kevin Tway finished first in that category.
  • 2021 told a different story, as each of the top-five players on the leaderboard gained over 1.8 strokes around the green. It is no coincidence that Carlos Ortiz ranked second in strokes gained around the green en route to victory. Short game mavens such as Hideki Matsuyama, Talor Gooch, Jason Day, and Mackenzie Hughes all finished top-seven that year.
  • Ultimately, I still found it absolutely essential to identify players who are strong around the green, specifically on Bermuda-grass, as chipping out of Bermuda rough features a higher degree of difficulty and often even a different technique from Blue-grass rough, where players can simply slide the club under the ball. The best players around the green players on Bermuda-grass courses have been Danny Willett, Si Woo Kim, Mackenzie Hughes, Stephan Jaeger, Russell Henley, Byeong Hun An, Taylor Moore, Dylan Frittelli, Jason Day, and Scott Piercy.
  • If we really want to get in the weeds, I would look at how players perform around the green on courses that feature a ton of short-grass. The two short-grass intensive courses that immediately come to mind are Southern Hills and Augusta National. Southern Hills might be particularly telling, as that course features Bermuda-grass short grass as well. The players in this field that gained over a stroke around the greens at Southern Hills were Francesco Molinari, Si Woo Kim, Russell Henley, Jason Dufner, Tony Finau, Jason Day, Dean Burmester, Adam Hadwin, Sebastian Munoz, Brendan Steele, and Denny McCarthy.

 

• Putting 
  • Last year, 28.7% of strokes gained have come putting, which is healthily below the Tour average of 35.6%.
  • Last year, Memorial Park ranked 21st out of 38 courses in strokes gained putting difficulty, and in 2020, it ranked 20th out of 40 courses in strokes gained putting difficulty.
  • Over the past two years, Memorial Park has ranked on average 21st out of 40 courses in putting difficulty inside five feet, 19th out of 40 courses in putting from five to 15 feet, and 25th out of 40 courses in putting difficulty over 15 feet.
  • Memorial Park does feature fairly undulating, fast Bermuda-grass greens, but it still ranks towards the middle of the pack in terms of putting difficulty. The Bredemus design is an extremely firm test from tee to green, but players aren’t out of the woods yet when they reach the putting surface. The best Bermuda-grass putters in this field over the last two years have been Adam Long, Brendon Todd, Ben Taylor, Chesson Hadley, Sam Burns, Ryan Armour, Alex Noren, Denny McCarthy, Taylor Montgomery, and Kevin Tway. 

 

• Scoring Stats 
  • I’ve already alluded at length to the challenge of Memorial Park, and on these type of tests, I am always looking for players that rate out highly in bogey avoidance and raise their baseline in difficult scoring conditions. The best players in this field over the last year in bogey avoidance have been Tony Finau, Adam Long, Scottie Scheffler, Aaron Wise, Andrew Putnam, Hideki Matsuyama , Sebastian Munoz, David Lingmerth, Ryan Armour, and Sahith Theegala. 
  • The players who raise their baseline in difficult scoring conditions, and who I would define as “hard course specialists” are Scottie Scheffler, Aaron Wise, Hideki Matsuyama, Sam Burns, Denny McCarthy, Joel Dahmen, Tony Finau, Scott Piercy, Brendan Steele, and Alex Smalley. 
  • Finally, Memorial Park is long. Being successful on long courses does necessarily mean that you need to be a bomber off the tee. Patrick Reed, Mackenzie Hughes, and even Brian Harman, who finished runner-up at the 2018 U.S. Open at the 7,800 yard Erin Hills, are all examples of players who are extremely short off the tee, yet perform admirably on long and difficult golf courses. Even Denny McCarthy finished seventh last year at the U.S. Open, fifth at Memorial, and 11th here. Often on longer courses with a low greens in regulation percentage, players with elite short games are even more deadly than bombers. Patrick Reed has won at Torrey Pines, Doral, and Augusta National despite being one of the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour. Mackenzie Hughes was in contention over the weekend to win the U.S. Open at the 7,600 yard Torrey Pines. I harp on this often, but many make the mistake of over-valuing distance off the tee on long golf courses. Why not simply just look at how players have performed on long golf courses? Those looking merely at power off the tee will never land on players such as Patrick Reed at these type of tests. The best players in this field on long golf courses have been Emiliano Grillo, Scottie Scheffler, Luke List, Gary Woodland, Chad Ramey, Charley Hoffman, Brice Garnett, Ryan Palmer, Hideki Matsuyama, and Tony Finau. 

 

• Comp Courses/Course History 
  • We do not have enough data yet to really make a judgement call on the predictive nature of course history at Memorial Park. In theory, one would expect it to rank extremely high in this category given the complex nature of the green complexes. Jason Kokrak did win here last year after not playing the prior year, and Joal Dahmen also fifth finished with while not playing the previous year either. Overall, the players in this field who have gained the most strokes per round at Memorial Park have been Sam Burns, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Long, Scottie Scheffler, Joel Dahmen, Aaron Wise, Mackenzie Hughes, Russell Henley, Sepp Straka, and Robert Streb. 
  • As previously mentioned in the around the green category, the golf course that comes to mind as the single best comp for Memorial Park is none other than Southern Hills. Both courses feature somewhat generous landing areas, Bermuda-grass fairways and rough, and undulating green complexes framed by short grass induced severe run-off areas. The players in this field that finished top-40 at Southern Hills were Brendan Steele, Justin Rose, Davis Riley, Sam Burns, Aaron Wise, Stewart Cink, Tony Finau, Gary Woodland, and Keith Mitchell. 
  • Although Bay Hill features far less short grass around the greens, the Dick Wilson design is another difficult Bermuda-grass golf course with a large plurality of long iron approach shots. In terms of difficult, driver heavy, long iron golf courses, Torrey Pines and Muirfield Village also fit the bill, but I have those covered in the scoring section with strokes gained total on long golf courses and strokes gained total in difficult scoring conditions. I wanted to highlight Bay Hill individually because of the similar agronomy. The best players in this field at Bay Hill have been Francesco Molinari, Jason Day, Emiliano Grillo, Scottie Scheffler, Charley Hoffman, Keith Mitchell, Brendan Steele, Luke List, Justin Rose, and Adam Hadwin. 

 

Model 

• Off the Tee (8%)
  • Strokes Gained Off the Tee: Long Golf Courses (8%)
• Approach (33%)
  • Strokes Gained Approach (16%)
  • Proximity 150-175 yards (5%)
  • Proximity 175-200 yards (4%)
  • Proximity 200 yards plus (8%)
• Around the Green (16%)
  • Strokes Gained Around the Green: Bermuda-grass (16%)
• Putting (10%)
  • Strokes Gained Putting: Bermuda-grass (10%)
• Scoring Stats (21%)
  • Bogey Avoidance (5%)
  • Strokes Gained Total: Difficult Scoring Conditions (8%)
  • Strokes Gained Total: Long Golf Courses (8%)
• Comp Courses (12%)
  • Memorial Park (5%)
  • Southern Hills (4%)
  • Bay Hill (3%)

 

Top 20

1. Aaron Wise
2. Hideki Matsuyama
3. Tony Finau
4. Scottie Scheffler
5. Sam Burns
6. Russell Henley
7. Alex Smalley
8. Luke List
9. Adam Hadwin
10. Ben Griffin
11. Gary Woodland
12. Russell Knox
13. Sebastian Munoz
14. Davis Riley
15. Patrick Rodgers
16. Emiliano Grillo
17. Mark Hubbard
18. Jason Day
19. Adam Long
20. Taylor Pendrith

 

Best of luck this week – AL