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2021 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open Betting Tips & Selections

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As the fall season begins to wind down, the PGA Tour makes a pit stop in Houston, Texas, to play the 2021 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course.

In the past, the Tour has gone to Houston the week before the Masters, but the schedule change this season has resulted in the event being featured in the swing season. This will be the second year of a two year contract with Memorial Park as the tournament’s host.

Memorial Park Golf Course is a Par 70 layout, measuring 7,432 yards and features Bermudagrass greens. Historically, the main defense for the course will be fairly thick rough and tightly mowed runoff areas around the greens. Memorial Park also features three Par 5’s and five Par 3 holes.

The field will consist of 132 players with the top 65 and ties making the cut. There are some big names making the trip to Houston including: Brooks Koepka, Tony Finau, Tyrrell Hatton, Sungjae Im, Joaquin Niemann, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Reed and Adam Scott.

Scottie Scheffler (+1800, Bet365):

Scottie Scheffler came very close to a magical final round on Sunday at Mayakoba. In the end, Hovland was rock solid, and Scheffler made a few mistakes down the stretch that would force him to settle for a solo fourth place finish,

Although he didn’t do quite enough to earn a win in Mexico, Scottie still comes to Houston with a great deal of momentum and confidence. The former Texas Longhorn has shown throughout his career that he enjoys returning to the state that he has called home since the age of six. Last season, he finished runner up to Billy Horschel at the WGC Match Play in Austin, Texas.

On paper, Scheffler has the proper skill set to tame Memorial Park Golf Course, which may prove to be a tough test if it plays like it did last season. When looking at the leaderboard from the inaugural tournament at Memorial Park, what stands out immediately is golfers who hit the ball long and straight peppered the leaderboard. Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Sam Burns, and Hideki Matsuyama all finished in the top seven of the event, and Scottie’s skillset mirrors theirs nicely.

Scottie Scheffler very well may be the most talented golfer on Tour who is yet to have a win. The 25-year-old has a strong chance to change that this week if he can make some putts when it matters most.

Tyrrell Hatton (+2800, Bet365):

One of the most important aspects of competing at Memorial Park Golf Club is being able to scramble around the greens, and few on Tour do that better than Tyrrell Hatton. The course has an abundance of steep run-off areas that can cause some real trouble on the scorecard if a player isn’t careful. Last year, Carlos Ortiz gained almost seven strokes around the green, and Hatton has the crafty know-how to replicate that this week.

While his finish last week in Mexico was just average, the Englishman has played some good golf recently and finished in a tie for 2nd at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship five weeks ago and 18th at the CJ Cup in October.

Hatton’s tendency to get a little loose off of the tee is most definitely a concern this week, but Memorial Park may suit his eye as he finished tied for ninth in the field last season here in Greens in Regulation Gained. The 30-year-old also seemed to like the undulating green complexes and gained 5.8 strokes putting which ranked seventh in the field.

Currently the 19th ranked player in the world, Hatton hasn’t had a win on Tour since March of 2020 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. I am a firm believer in Hatton’s overall talent and believe he has the right type of game for Memorial Park; especially if it plays a bit difficult.

Patrick Reed (+4000, DraftKings):

Despite a second-place finish two weeks ago in Bermuda, Patrick Reed has been extremely underwhelming over the course of the past five months. The strong performance two weeks ago seemed to be more of an outlier than the norm when evaluating his other recent performances.

With that being said, Reed’s betting odds have drifted to a number that I consider “close your eyes and bet it” territory. While there is absolutely a chance that Reed struggles again this week, there is also a higher-than-odds-indicate chance that he wins the golf tournament.

In the past, we have seen Reed win despite seemingly not being in the best of form. In his two most recent victories, the 31-year-old won the Farmers Insurance Open after a missed cut, WGC Mexico after a 51st place finish the week before. If anyone can spike a win out of nowhere, it’s the guy in the field who has nine PGA Tour victories on his resume.

Ian Poulter (+9000, Bet365):

When discussing golfer’s who have had excellent results in the state of Texas, you’d be hard-pressed not to mention the name Ian Poulter. In 2018, Poults willed his way to victory at Golf Club of Houston by defeating Beau Hossler in a playoff, which earned him a trip to Augusta National the following week. Last season, Poulter showed once again that he loves a Texas Track by finishing in a tie for third place at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.

In his four most recent trips to Texas, Poulter is averaging more than three strokes putting on the field per event. The Englishman feels more than comfortable on fast bermudagrass greens and should be up to the challenge once again in Houston.

A tough test where scrambling is key really suits Poulter’s game, as evidenced by the fact that he gains about 0.6 strokes per round on the field in difficult conditions. Additionally, he ranks 8th in the field in Scrambling Gained, which will absolutely play a factor on these tough green complexes.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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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.”

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.

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How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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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.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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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.

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