Texas Children's Houston Open 2025: Course and current form stats

• Long parkland course, wide fairways, quick greens

• Rai [25/1] ready to land PGA Tour title No 2

• Hughes [80/1] offers each-way hope

• The Masters starts on April 10. Read Dave Tindall's guide to the 2025 Masters here!

Tournament Notes

First held in 1946, the Houston Open is one of the longest-running events on the PGA Tour calendar. And this week's venue, Memorial Park, has staged the tournament 17 times.

This includes a gap of almost six decades between 1963 and 2020. Since then Memorial Park has hosted four PGA Tour events.

From 2020 thru 2022 it was played in November, before switching to March in 2024. To enable this change of date, there was no tournament in 2023.

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Course Notes

Located in a large urban Texas park, this week's venue has long been heralded as one of the country's leading public courses.

Starting out as a nine-hole venue 113 years ago, the course was completely re-designed in 1936. It was renovated again in 1995 at a cost of $7m.

Further renovations were carried out six years ago under the watchful eyes of architect Tom Doak and five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, ahead of its return to PGA Tour status in 2020.

This included the widening of some fairways, although the rough was toughened up to compensate. The comprehensive redesign brought ravines and water into play, while reducing the number of bunkers by almost two-thirds.

Located three miles west of downtown Houston, and approximately 35 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, Memorial Park is a parkland layout which covers an area of 250 acres.

For the three Houston Opens staged during Fall, both fairways and putting surfaces were laid with Bermuda grass. However, following the change of date to spring time, both were over-seeded. The fairways, which have average widths of over 30 yards, were sown with Perennial ryegrass, while the greens were laid with Poa trivialis.

Since last year, a new tee was built at 16, while the 17th hole has been extended by 30 yards, increasing the overall length of the course by more than 40. Although two new bunkers were positioned on 17, Memorial Park has less sand than any other PGA Tour venue.

Memorial Park's undulating putting surfaces are larger and faster than the PGA Tour average. Water, meanwhile, comes into play on just four holes. This week's layout will be the third longest (7,475 yards) of the 18 courses used, so far, on this season's PGA Tour.

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Good Current Form

World No 2 Rory McIlroy 6/17.00 travels to Texas chasing a third PGA Tour title of the season. His two successes, so far, have come at Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass.

The 35-year-old, who makes his debut at Memorial Park, has earned more World Ranking points during 2025 than any other golfer.

Fellow Brit Aaron Rai 25/126.00 is also in good shape following a trio of top-15 finishes. Two of these were the prestigious events staged at Bay Hill and TPC Sawgrass.

Rai, who is a one-time winner on the PGA Tour, tied-seventh in both of his last two visits to Memorial Park.

Meanwhile, Jacob Bridgeman 50/151.00 is moving ever-closer to a first victory at this level.

The 25-year-old from South Carolina was outside the world's top 200 at the start of this month, but is now a career-high No 70 thanks to a brace of podium finishes.

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Good Course Form

The world's leading golfer, Scottie Scheffler 7/24.50, makes his customary visit to Memorial Park.

The resident of Dallas has twice finished second here and, once again, heads the betting markets despite being without an official PGA Tour title since last June.

Tony Finau 28/129.00, meanwhile, is another course specialist who won here in 2022. Finau's highest finish this year, so far, came at Torrey Pines last month when he tied-fifth.

Finally, Mackenzie Hughes 80/181.00 and defending champion Stephan Jaeger 33/134.00 might be worth a look. The latter has had a busy year to date, already teeing-up in nine events, which have yielded a brace of top-six finishes.

Stroke Averages

Lowest Eight At Memorial Park (2020-24)
Average .... (Rounds)
68.00: Tony Finau (14)
68.38: Scottie Scheffler (16)
68.42: Aaron Rai (12)
68.58: Stephan Jaeger (12)
68.75: Mackenzie Hughes (16)
69.00: Ben Griffin (8)
69.00: Trey Mullinax (6)
69.17: Davis Riley (12)
Min. No. of Rounds = 6
Only those entered this week are included in table

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves

Read The Punter's preview for the Houston Open