Houston Open 2024 Each-way Tips: Picks from 20/1 to 80/1

• 20/121.00 Sahith Theegala is in sparkling form

• 70/171.00 Luke List looks ready for another big week

• 80/181.00 KH Lee is in form and a double winner in Texas

This 2024 PGA Tour season is a tough old gig.

Peter Malnati's win at the Valspar induced another raft of shrug emojis/Alan Partridge gifs and for me personally it was the second week in a row my 50/151.00 headline pick finished a shot out of the places.

Tom Hoge suffered the same fate at 150/1151.00 a few starts earlier so things feel close and perhaps the dig for gold will come up trumps in Texas.

This is week one of a fortnight in the Lone Star State before the US Masters tees off on April 11. Woohoo!

Texas, of course, is the home of Scottie Scheffler and the World No.1 is looking to make it three wins in a row in 2024 after his brilliant victories at Bay Hill and Sawgrass.

His canvas this time is Memorial Park - a 7,435-yard par 70 that is being used for the fourth season in a row.

The Bermuda putting surfaces are overseeded while one thing to note is the shorter rough.

An obvious difference is its place on the calendar as the previous three Houston Opens took place in November.

The champion managed at least a 65 at some point as we saw winning scores of -13 (Carlos Ortiz 2020), -10 (Jason Kokrak 2021) and Tony Finau (-16, 2022). Finau's win was part of the 2022/23 schedule.

Finau shares the course record of 62 with a guy named Scheffler.

There's a temptation by many to just back Scottie and leave it at that but 11/43.75 really is very short.

Back Sahith Theegala @ 20/121.00

Sahith Theegala so nearly landed the 50/151.00 each-way cash in The Players Championship when finishing ninth and I'm hoping he can scoop the jackpot here.

Theegala's top 10 was a clear PB for him at Sawgrass (74-MC previously) while his sixth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational the week before was also his best effort in three attempts at Bay Hill.

Add in a fifth in Phoenix and that's now three top 10s in his last four starts and let's not forget he opened up the new campaign by finishing runner-up at The Sentry.

Where driving was always a concern, Theegala has gained strokes Off The Tee in seven of his eight starts this season.

That has given him freedom to excel in other areas and at Sawgrass he ranked 20th for SG: Approach and 1st in SG: Putting.

After winning the Fortinet Championship in California last September there are no first-win nerves to consider and a second success looks imminent.

Now based in Texas, he's made the cut in both starts here and a Sunday 64 in his latest visit was the low round of the day, helping him to 22nd.

Theegala summed up his improvement as a golfer rather nicely at Sawgrass.

"The first year I played I was like, this course is so hard. I don't know how I'm going to compete," he said.

"Last year, honestly felt like I played well the first two days, and I think I made the cut on the number and shot like 9-over on the weekend, too.

"But it's cool to see the progression I've made since the first year and even since last year," added Theegala after finishing at 13-under.

Thanks to Scheffler taking a chunk out of the market, getting 20/121.00 for one of the Tour's in-form players is just fine.

Back Luke List @ 70/171.00

Luke List has hit some heights over the last six months and could be primed to 'pop' again after a quieter time so far in March.

The big-hitting American won the Sanderson Farms Championship in October and last month finished runner-up to the fast-finishing Hideki Matsuyama at Riviera.

Despite three solid opening rounds since then - 70 Cognizant, 69 Arnold Palmer, 69 Players - he's gone MC-56-MC in those events.

But the lack of punishing rough this week will help and despite an early exit in The Players there were some positive signs.

List was 3rd for SG: Approach (39th on the season) at Riviera and after negative numbers at the Cognizant and Arnold Palmer, he gained on SGA at Sawgrass.

And it was a similar story with the putter, usually his Achilles heel. List was 1st with the flatstick at Riviera and returned to positive figures at Sawgrass after his putter went into the minus in the two previous Florida events.

As for his tournament record, the two-time PGA Tour winner was third in this event at the Golf Club of Houston in its previous Spring slot in 2017.

Here at Memorial Park, List was the first-round leader in 2021, seventh after 54 holes and eventually 11th.

And last time he was in the top 30 with 18 to play before falling away.

In the former, he said: "I think you can take advantage of your length out there. I'm hitting a lot of drivers, which is nice for me, and I like the golf course a lot.

"Par 5s are long and I think for me I can get to a few of them with my length where a lot of guys are playing them as three-shot holes."

A PGA Tour winner in 2022 and 2023, List is capable of extending that run this week.

Back KH Lee @ 80/181.00

For a final pick I looked at Patrick Rodgers at 50/151.00 and Andrew Novak at 70/171.00.

But as he's the biggest price of the three, I'll side with KH Lee at 80/181.00.

Regular golf observers will know that Lee caused a stir when winning the 2021 AT&T Byron Nelson and then an even bigger one when defending it in 2022.

He had his parents, wife and daughter watching on site when making that successful defence and clearly will relish any event played in Texas.

Okay, that wasn't the case when he played here for the only time in 2020 but a Friday 70 was decent enough and he's rocketed up the world rankings since then.

Currently 89th in the OWGR, Lee enjoyed an excellent Florida Swing with fourth place at the Cognizant Classic and ninth in last week's Valspar Championship.

He ranked in the top 25 for SG: Tee To Green and SG: Putting in both events and was 2nd for Off The Tee at the Valspar.

Stripping it right down, he's a two-time winner in Texas and has two top 10s on Bermuda surfaces in his last three starts.

Not bad for an 80/181.00 shot in a field of limited quality.

Now read Steve Rawlings on the Houston Open!