19th Hole
2021 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open prop bets

On Sunday, Danny Lee’s final round 64 at the Mayakoba gave us a winner for the prop bets column and this week we are off to Texas for the second running of the Houston Open at Memorial Park.
The event is covered in Matt Vincenzi’s outright betting article, and here we will just concentrate on those ‘specials’ that pinpoint value outside of the winner market and may just add that crucial lesser-owned player for the fantasy line-ups.
Seamus Power Top 10 +350 (DraftKings)
Let’s face facts; the Irish-born 34-year-old has never played better than he has over the last few months.
Never previously better than 339 at the end-of-season rankings, Power is looking to end the year inside the top-100 and is on a form run that indicates better may be to come.
Having had to wait through the months of lockdown for an operation on his elbow, he then found himself isolating for ten days due to a positive result, but despite the prognosis that it would take months for the injury to heal, he has found himself in non-stop form since the Byron Nelson in May, where he finished a not-insignificant ninth at the Texas track.
Including that top-10, Power has played 46 rounds, carding no worse than 72, with 32 of those in the 60s. That level of play has resulted in a win at the Barbasol, two top-10s, a further four top-20 finishes and a 21st and 31st place.
Better than field average for both green-in-regulation and scrambling over the last three months will do no harm around this tricky track where run-offs are favoured over bunkers, whilst 17th in par-four performance over the same period fits in well with last year’s result when the top five in that category all finished in the top-15 overall (four finishing in the top seven on the final board).
Texas form, Bermuda form, in form with recent form 11/12/21? Yes, please!
Adam Long Top 10/Top 20 +900/+400 (DraftKings)
Just a coincidence, but here’s another 34-year-old with a remarkable level of consistency.
From The Players back in March, the Duke graduate has completed nine events recording finishes of between 20th and 29th at all, none of which quite match his two top-10s at Phoenix (in the form lines of so many of last year’s top-20) or medal positions at El Chameleon (read the same) but are maybe the catalyst for an improved effort on a track on which he was 11th last season.
Just a year ago, Long came into Memorial Park with a similar trio of mid-20 finishes before ranking fifth with his irons and 10th tee-to-green, all that despite a poor negative figure off the tee, eventually finishing 11th.
His sole win at La Quinta showed he is capable of beating the best – Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay behind – whilst his next best effort, according to the rankings, was a runner-up at the 3M Open, another event that links players nicely with this week’s challenge.
Long can rack up another top-20 to go alongside his record of ‘nothing spectacular, yet nothing done badly’ – a perfect attribute for this week’s tough test.
Martin Laird Top 10/Top 20 +1200/+500 (DraftKings)
Martin Laird is yet another that can be put into the ‘unspectacular’ bracket, but the Scot knows how to get it done on all types of tracks, having won at TPC Summerlin twice and also the Texas Open (-14) and at Bay Hill (-8).
An excellent driver of the ball who over the last three months is 19th for overall driving, 22nd for ball striking, 57th for greens and 19th for scrambling, it is clear that it’s just the flat stick that lets him down. However, as intimated with Long, this could be more of a test than a putting competition, and I’m hopeful that a return to Texas will spark just a little improvement from the recent 11th at his favourite Shriners and 22nd last week.
Laird will take encouragement from leading the driving accuracy and being 13th in greens-in-regulation in his final round on Sunday, and given that came after a month off, improvement can be expected.
Aaron Rai Top 10/Top 20 +1200/+500 (DraftKings)
Mention a track that requires a high percentage of greens found, and Aaron Rai will be in the top five on the European Tour.
At tight tracks such as Kenya, Wentworth and Valderrama, the winner of five professional events in three years is a master of fastidious play and continues to rank top-20 in most factors, no matter what the class. Beating Tommy Fleetwood in Scotland and Matt Fitzpatrick in Hong Kong is a sign of the 26-year-old’s ability, and it is just a matter of finding the right course for him on which to thrive.
Memorial Park gives us a bit of a headache with the two-gloved master – perfect in its layout to well serve his accuracy, yet maybe (only maybe) a tad long for him to compete with the bigger drivers. It’s only a ‘maybe’ as last season’s inaugural event here found eight of the top-20 finishers ranking outside of the top-30 in off-the-tee stats.
Last week’s top-15 was encouraging, finishing alongside the likes of Aaron Wise and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and being a player that can hold his form well, this may be the time to find him at a price well away from the proven bomber tracks.
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.