Cadence Bank Houston Open Key Fantasy Stats

Cadence Bank Houston Open

November 10th – 13th, 2022

Memorial Park Golf Course

Houston, TX

Par: 70 / Yardage: 7,412

Purse: $8.4 million

with $1,512,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Jason Kokrak

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

About half of the courses used by the PGA Tour during the year are open to the general public. The famous ones, like Pebble Beach, is a resort course that anyone can play, but the price tag of $575 is not cheap. The same with courses like TPC Sawgrass, home to the Players Championship is $400 during peak months in the winter and spring. Even places like the Plantation Course at Kapalua which will hold the Sentry Tournament of Champions, are $299. There are about 25 courses on the PGA Tour that anyone could play, but only two “municipal” courses on the PGA Tour, Memorial Park, and Torrey Pines. What makes them different, they are run by a local government that is open to all and have two different price marks, one for local residents and a price for non-residents.
Memorial Park is the cheapest course that holds a PGA Tour event. For locals, the course is $30 Monday through Thursday, $38 Friday through Sunday, and holidays. For non-residents, it’s $120 and $140, which is a bargain. With this price range, 60,000 play the course each year.
The course was first opened in 1912 as a nine-holer with sand greens and was built near a hospital for the use of convalescent soldiers. In 1935 the city hired architect John Bredemus to redo the course, and many thought the course was a true gem when it opened in 1936. The course was used in 1947, the second year of the Houston Open, and South African Bobby Locke won. In 1951 it became the regular venue of the Houston Open through 1963. It was won by the likes of Arnold Palmer, Cary Middlecoff, and Jack Burke, Jr. Because of its location in Downtown Houston, the course moved away after 1963 and fell in disrepair over the coming decades. For years many knew of the potential of Memorial Park, but the city had no money to renovate it.
But local Houstonian James Crane, who made it big in freight and then petroleum before buying the Houston Astros in 2011, was a scratch golfer who fell in love with Memorial Park. For decades Shell Oil was the sponsor of the Houston Open, and when they discounted their sponsorship in 2018, it looked like the tournament would end. But Crane stepped up and took over ownership of the event. At the same time, Crane stepped up to do a significant renovation to Memorial Park. He spent $34 million to renovate Memorial Park and upgrade the course to PGA Tour standards. He also built a short course on the property for the First Tee, expanded the driving range into a public version of Topgolf, and built a new clubhouse. In January 2019, they hired architect Tom Doak to do the renovation. In less than a year, he took out a lot of trees to give those playing it views of the Houston skyline and changed how the course played and looked. He redid all 18 greens giving them unique contours, strategic bunkering, and runoffs, giving it a different and tough new challenge so that players used the putter more from off the green. Doak did something different as he reduced the number of bunkers on the course from 54 to 20, thus reducing maintenance and making it easier for the average player. But he made the 20 bunkers very challenging and essential. Doak also emphasized the final five holes, making them exciting and challenging, with water coming into play on holes 15, 16, and 17. The players received the changes well when they returned to play the 2021 Houston Open at Memorial.

So the course has been played twice and shown much bite. Playing to a par of 70 and at 7,412 yards in 2021, the course played to an average score of 71.03 and ranked 8th hardest on the PGA Tour. Last year it played a bit easier to a 70,80 average and was the 9th hardest course on the PGA Tour. In looking at the stats that one item that sticks out, both its champions proved to be players that are average drivers off the tee and in getting the ball in the fairway and the ability to hit a lot of greens. A bit of an oddity, winners Carlos Ortiz and Jason Kokrak are now members of LIV Golf and won’t be around this week. Despite being average putters in their careers, they shined during the Houston Open week, which was why they both won.

So in looking at who the course favors, the first thing that hits us is how well the top players do in putting. Looking at the two events played at Memorial Park, of the 20 players that finished in the top ten, eleven of them finished in the top ten in putts per round. In putting average, Memorial Park ranked 10th last year of all the courses on the PGA Tour and T-15th in 2021. When Ortiz won in 2021, he was 5th in Strokes Gained Putting and ranked 7th in putts inside ten feet. For Kokrak in 2022, he was 3rd in Strokes Gained Putting during his winning Houston Open and was T-18th in putts inside ten feet.
Our second category is Proximity to the hole. Because Memorial is a public course, the greens are 7,000 square feet and even though the players averaged T-16th last year and 18th in 2021 in greens in regulation, getting the ball close to the hole is tougher. Last year Memorial Park ranked 5th in Proximity to Hole while Kokrak was T-21st, and in 2021 Memorial park was 10th, and winner Ortiz was T-22nd. Our third category looks at how hard making birdies and eagles are. Last year only 1,071 birdies were made, and in 2021, only 1,221 birdies were made, and in looking at Par Breakers, the course was 4th last year and 6th in 2021. This is a remarkable stat when you look at last year, and the PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and the Scottish Open courses had the least offense on the PGA Tour in 2022. Kokrak only made 20 birdies last year, and Ortiz made 18 birdies in 2021, so you can see this is a very tough nut to crack on this course. So we will be looking for players with a lot of offensive and make a lot of eagles and birdies. Our last category is one we rarely use, par 5 scoring averages. Memorial Park has just three par 5s, and they have been ranked the hardest on the PGA Tour to score on. In the field last year, they averaged a 4.86 average on the par 5s, the 2nd hardest on the PGA Tour. In 2021 they were T-1st along Torrey Pines in the U.S. Open, again showing how hard they were. Kokrak and Ortiz were 8 under on the par 5s for the week, showing how instrumental it was in both of their victories.

*Strokes Gained Putting: So, who saves the most strokes on the greens

*Proximity to Hole: The average length of a shot going into the green leaves a player

*Par Breakers: A combination of eagles and birdies made during the week to see who has the most.

*Par 5 leaders: A look at who plays the par 5s the best for the week.

115 of the 132 Players from this year’s field, with stats from 2023

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