Golf
Houston Open preview: Will it be Lee’s time in Texas?
With the Valspar Championship behind us the Florida Swing has come to an end and the PGA Tour is heading south to Texas for the Houston Open.
Memorial Park Golf Course plays host to the event, as it has since 2020, with it proving to be an incredibly testing circuit averaging a winning score of 13-under-par since 2020.
Unsurprisingly, this year’s market is headed by Scottie Scheffler who is an incredibly short-priced 11/4, so we have chosen to look elsewhere for some value.
Find our selections for the Houston Open below.
Will Zalatoris 18/1
After a 2023 riddled with injuries, Will Zalatoris has come back with a bang in 2024 and will be seeking to secure his first PGA Tour title since he won the FedEx St. Jude Championship back in 2022.
He has already come close twice this year, finishing T4 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after finishing as the runner-up at the Genesis Invitational back in February. These two impressive performances give us enough confidence to believe that he is getting back to his best and we can excuse a poor showing at The Players last time out.
Good ball-striking and the ability to hit long, accurate irons will be key here, with green hitting at the forefront of previous victors’ success. Zalatoris has approached the green better than most this year, ranking sixth on the Tour in that aspect – at just over 68%, his greens in regulation hitting is also solid enough.
With a scattering of par fives and longer par fours, many approach shots will be hit from around the 200-yard mark and that is where Zalatoris can really set himself apart, ranking 18th on the Tour for his approach play from 200-225 yards.
At 18/1, Zalatoris is fourth in the betting and will be hoping to at least find himself in the 8 places available with William Hill come the end of the week, whilst a win could see him shorten significantly in the betting for the upcoming Masters.
Kyoung-hoon Lee 60/1
Having finished last season with a flurry of missed cuts and T50 or worse finishes, it is fair to say that big things weren’t necessarily expected of K. H. Lee on the PGA Tour in 2024. However, despite missing the cut in half of his outings so far, he has been trending upwards, recording a T9 and T4 finish in his last three appearances.
At 60/1 he is still considered amongst the outsiders for this tournament, but he seems to handle tougher tests well and Memorial Park certainly fits into that category. He faired well enough at the Valspar last week and this will be a good opportunity for him to really kick on.
Lee is a reliable all-rounder who gains strokes on the rest of the Tour, albeit in a minor fashion, in most aspects including the key ones for this course which include tee-to-green, putting and driving.
Already a two-time winner on the Tour, Lee knows what it takes to get over the line and only needs to improve one place on last week to see himself into the 8 places available with William Hill. An outsider he is, but without a chance he is not and at 60/1 he looks to be a great value play.
