The PGA TOUR has wrapped up its Florida Swing and now heads to the Lone Star State for the Texas Children’s Houston Open – the first of two events in the state before the year’s first major championship.

The host venue will be Memorial Park Golf Course, as it has been every year since 2020. The yardage pops off the scorecard – 7,421 yards as a par 70 – and it plays every bit of that number. With plenty of room off the tee, we’ve seen bombers like Min Woo Lee and Tony Finau have plenty of success around this course.

From a statistical standpoint, some of the most correlated stats to success are those that benefit the bombers. Apex height, ball speed and clubhead speed are all highly correlated to finishing position at Memorial Park, with putting becoming less important relative to other TOUR stops.

Scottie Scheffler opened as the betting favorite this week but his Tuesday withdrawal has turned this odds board on its head. Now there are 16 golfers at +4000 or shorter, with Min Woo Lee occupying the top of the board at +1550. I’ve been tracking the closing odds for over seven years and I could only find 11 other tournaments that had at least 16 golfers at +4000 or shorter without a golfer with odds of +1000 or shorter.

This event has been in the middle of the pack in terms of “stickiness” – how often players have the same results year over year. But this year feels more wide-open than most. Of course, the outright odds have ramifications throughout the betting board and impact all markets so we will need to scour the entire board to locate the best value propositions.

I enjoy the high-risk, high-reward proposition that Chandler Blanchet offers. He won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship last October, solidifying his PGA TOUR card for 2026. His first five PGA TOUR events didn’t go very well, and he failed to make the cut in any of them. However, his last two events look more like his stellar 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season. He finished runner-up in Puerto Rico and earned a T18 finish at the Valspar Championship last week. He’s beginning his maturation process and is a viable Top 20 option at +435, available at DraftKings Sportsbook.

You may have gotten acquainted with Sudarshan Yellamaraju at THE PLAYERS Championship, where he finished T5 – the highlight finish of his young career. However, Yellamaraju has been solid in 2026, making the cut in six of his seven starts, and he also earned top-20 finishes at both the Sony Open in Hawaii and the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. He’s a bomber off the tee, ranking inside the top 25 in driving distance, but he struggles a bit with accuracy. That won’t be a problem at Memorial Park. Yellamaraju should continue his impressive play and is worth a Top 20 consideration at +285.

Already with two wins this year, I couldn’t draw up a better golf course for Chris Gotterup than Memorial Park. He’s been hemmed in off the tee for the last few weeks, but now it’s time to pull driver everywhere, without regard for strategy. Ranking fourth in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee this season, that’ll be a significant advantage for Gotterup. When firing on all cylinders, Gotterup is capable of gaining one stroke per round off the tee, something he’s done on three different occasions this year. It provides such a massive floor that he doesn’t need to be perfect to win. That’s evidenced by losing strokes on approach during his win in Hawaii and losing strokes putting during his win in Phoenix. Gotterup is currently +2050 to win the Texas Children's Houston Open and notch his third victory of the year.

After an incredible start to the season, Jake Knapp has quickly cooled the industry sentiment on him. He withdrew prior to hitting a shot at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and then missed the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship, where he lost more than six strokes ball-striking in two rounds. I’m willing to forgive quickly and view his play at TPC Sawgrass as the outlier and embrace the fact that he rattled off five straight top-11 finishes prior to that. On paper, this should be a great venue for Knapp, who can remove the regulator and let it fly off the tee. He’s one of the few power hitters who is an accomplished putter, making him a rare and dangerous player. This will be his third trip to Houston after finishing T27 last year. With his immense upside, I believe a Top 10 wager provides value at +220.

It’s not often that I type the name Wyndham Clark into this column, but if it’s not here, it might not be anywhere. Clark plays a style of golf that is full throttle. He likes to rip driver off the tee and take aim at every pin flag. He’s a momentum player, so when things are going well, he can stay hot and put up very low numbers. Of course, he could also go in the opposite direction, but I’m willing to be an optimist this week. Clark will weaponize his driver and look to build on his great history at Memorial Park, which includes gaining more than 13 strokes from tee to green in his last 16 rounds. With a high level of volatility, I want to take advantage of the upside when possible, making Clark an appealing Top 5 play at +760.

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