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By Melanie Hauser
PGATOUR.com Correspondent

HOUSTON -- Houston, we have a problem.

An image problem.

No one thinks of the Bayou City as a golf city. And a great one, at that.

Houston legend Jackie Burke received the PGA TOUR's Lifetime Achievement Award from Commissioner Tim Finchem in 2003. (David Phillips/AP)

The fourth-largest city in the nation? Sure, everyone knows that. A traffic-jam of a freeway system? You bet. The home of Mission Control, the Astros, Texans, Rockets, Dynamo and George Herbert Walker Bush, better known as 41. Check. One-time home of the Oilers and Bum, too. Great place for awesome Mexican food and large mosquitoes.

Cutting edge heart surgeons Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley pioneered procedures at a medical center that includes the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. ZZ Top started here as a garage band not far from shopaholic central, the Galleria. The city opened its arms to Katrina evacuees and housed them in the world's first domed stadium.

And lets not forget the nagging humidity everyone grumps about.

But one of it's lasting legacies is the one no one seems to talk much about -- golf.

The PGA TOUR rolls into the city for this week's Shell Houston Open, where the talk will likely be mostly about next week's little event in Augusta Georgia. That get-together called the Masters.

The Houston Golf Association is putting on it's 60th version of the SHO -- 61st if you count 1969, when they instead helped host the U.S. Open at Champions -- and is pulling this one off a full month earlier than the longtime date. And, with the move, they're accommodating those Augusta-bound players with a course that has no rough -- just first cut -- and fast greens. Yes, they're Bermuda, not bent grass, but they'll still be quick.

But we're not here to talk field or course today. Or make predictions.

We're here to talk golf. Houston golf. We'll throw out some facts, tell a few stories, brag a little (it's a Texas tradition) and just maybe change your perceptions about this international -- and, yes, sprawling -- city near the Gulf Coast.

We all know golf hasn't been the same since Ben Hogan pretty much invented practice a few hours to the north. It hasn't been the same, either, since a pair of men from Houston Country Club invented the golf cart and the game's first sand wedge.

Yes, the latter -- invented by cotton man E.K. MacClain -- was picked and widely used by Walter Hagen in the late 20s. But the USGA declared it illegal in 1931 because of its concave back, opening the way for Gene Sarazen's sand wedge. But it was still the first.

And the golf cart? A car dealer named Dick Jackson got the idea from a teenager driving a Cushman scooter at Houston's River Oaks Country Club. A few modifications (a swivel seat and room for three passengers ) and Jackson patented the first cart -- the Arthritis Special -- in 1948.

And that's only a start.

Houston has been home to a professional golf event since 1946, when Byron Nelson beat Hogan and Sam Snead at the Tournament of Champions. It was the only time in history those three finished in that order -- Nelson-Hogan-Snead.

The city has played host -- as we noted -- to 60 Houston Opens (with various sponsors), one aforementioned U.S. Open, the 1967 Ryder Cup, five TOUR Championships, two different Champions Tour events (the old Doug Sanders Celebrity Classic and now the Administaff Small Business Classic), the 2007 Nationwide Tour Championship, the 1989 U.S. Amateur, assorted other USGA events, the NCAA Championship and a host of LPGA events dating back to the 1950s. The LPGA even called Houston its home for a few years when the organization was headquartered at Sweetwater Country Club in the mid-1980s.

Jimmy Demaret grew up here. Ditto for Jackie Burke, whose father was the first pro in Texas back in the 1920s. The senior Burke taught one Harvey Penick, in fact. And the younger Burke? Everyone who's anyone has dropped by for a lesson in golf -- and life. And no one champions -- no pun intended -- the amateur longer or harder than the crusty and curmudgeonly junior. And did we mention Burke's cousin grew up here, too? The sweet-talking, sweet-swinging Dave Marr.

And then there's Tommy Bolt, who passed through here and, well, used to try to take on Burke and Marr -- the kids -- at Memorial Park.

Demaret and Burke teamed up to open the prototype for a golf-only club -- Champions Golf Club -- back in the 1960s. And their office was where they came up with the concept for their unique nostalgic event in 1978 -- The Legends of Golf. They played it in Austin and, well, we all know what that led to.

Champions boasts one of the largest single-digit membership rosters in the country, not to mention , three members who walked on the moon (Alan Shepard, Gene Cernan and Charles Duke), the hybrid 6-iron Shepard snuck onto a mission and hit a ball on the moon with, country western star Clay Walker and -- at one time -- four PGA Champions (Burke, Marr, Steve Elkington and Jay Hebert).

And, oh, the SHO's sponsor -- Shell -- got into the game early on, as the sponsor of Shell's Wonderful World of Golf.

Dave Williams built a dynasty at the University of Houston, where his Cougars won 16 NCAA titles with players like Elkington, Billy Ray Brown, Fred Couples, John Mahaffey, Bruce Lietzke, Fuzzy Zoeller, Homero Blancas and Rex Baxter. Williams' team also launched a different career for one his walk-ons -- CBS' Jim Nantz, who was one of Couples' suitemates at UH. Heck, Nick Faldo was on the Cougars roster -- for about 20 minutes -- and Sandy Lyle signed, but never attended.

Houston was also home to a pair of famous brothers -- Claude Harmon's sons Dick and Butch. Dick taught here for the better part of three decades, while older brother Butch was here for a spell, too. He played host quite often to a young player named Tiger Woods, who'd work on his game at the men's-only Lochinvar, where Butch was the pro.

The city also served a backdrop for the movie "Tin Cup" and the end of two competitive careers. Hogan played his last round -- well, 11 holes and a tee shot at the 12th -- at Houston's Champions International in 1971 and Arnold Palmer bowed out after the opening round of the Administaff in 2006.

And who can forget the most poignant moment in the game to date -- the early morning memorial service at Champions for Payne Stewart in 1999. Stewart was due to play at the TOUR Championship that week and was en route -- via Dallas -- when he died tragically in a plane crash. Tom Lehman spoke at the service and a lone bagpiper walked out of the mist.

Over the years, anyone who's anyone in the game has dropped by to play a round or two in the city. Babe Zaharias, Kathy Whitworth, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Nelson, Hogan, Snead, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and Greg Norman. And yes, Woods, who won that 1999 TOUR Championship.

Hall of Famers Charlie Sifford and Nancy Lopez called Houston home for a spell and Carol Mann still does.

And there's this week's event -- the SHO, which has a few tales of its own.

It's the only TOUR event to be completely rained out twice and replayed later the same year -- in 1966 and 1991. It was the stage which introduced Gary McCord's wackiness to the world. He shared the lead after a first-round 64 in 1981 and, during his press conference, told reporters he was from the Planet Blothar and had been caught in a tri-zonal space warp. Yes, he made headlines.

And Ron Streck's win here in 1981? It was the first by a player using a metal driver.

We hope we've given you something to think about. And a new way to look at Houston. It's not just NASA and humidity, traffic jams and the lead-in to the Masters anymore. It's a city rich in golf -- and golf history.

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