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 three 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.
For GPP contests on DraftKings. I will be breaking down the key stats (past 24 rounds) and selecting golfers from different price tiers to provide flexibility for a DFS lineup.
For large-field tournaments, you can utilize our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups, or use our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.
Don’t forget about the other tools that FantasyLabs has to offer, such as the Trends tool and PGA Correlation Dashboard.
This analysis may reference Strokes Gained, a set of proprietary metrics generated by the PGA TOUR using millions of data points to calculate how many shots on average it takes a player to get the ball in the hole from every distance and situation. Strokes Gained is now available in the FantasyLabs PGA Models.
Strokes Gained: Approach
Last season, Memorial Park played pretty tough. Golfers were penalized for missing greens and had to face some difficult up-and-downs to save par.
- High-end target: Tyrrell Hatton – $10,000 (18th SG:APP)
- Mid-range target: Russell Henley – $8,900 (1st SG: APP)
- Value Target: Hudson Swafford – $6,800 (4th SG: APP)
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee
Memorial Park Golf Course is a long one with rough that can be relatively penal; therefore, a combination of distance and accuracy might be the best metric this week. There were some big hitters atop the leaderboard last year, with Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, and Sam Burns all finishing in the top seven.
- High-end target: Sam Burns – $11,100 (3rd SG:OTT)
- Mid-range target: Brooks Koepka – $9,900 (6th SG:OTT)
- Value target: Taylor Pendrith – $7.200 (1st SG:OTT)
Strokes Gained Putting: Bermudagrass + fast
The Bermudagrass greens played fast last year in Houston. Additionally, five of the top seven players on the leaderboard gained more than six strokes, putting each, which is more than we typically see on TOUR.
- High-end target: Sam Burns – $11,100 (1st SG: Putting Bermuda+Fast)
- Mid-range target: Patrick Reed – $9,100 (6th SG: Putting Bermuda+Fast)
- Value target: Chesson Hadley – $6,200 (3rd SG: Putting Bermuda+Fast)
Strokes Gained: Around the Green
With firm and undulating putting surfaces, holding the green on approach shots may prove to be a challenge. Memorial Park has many tightly mowed run-off areas. Golfers will have challenging up and downs around the greens. Carlos Ortiz gained 5.7 strokes around the green on the way to victory in 2020.
- High-end target: Tyrrell Hatton – $10,000 (4th in SG: ARG)
- Mid-range target: Shane Lowry – $8,200 (11th in SG: ARG)
- Value target: Harry Higgs– $7,100 (3rd in SG: ARG)
Strokes Gained: Par 5
Last year, Strokes Gained: Par 5 rated out as the most important statistic at Memorial Park. Carlos Ortiz and Hideki Matsuyama led the way in par-5 scoring and finished 1-2 on the leaderboard.
- High-end target: Cameron Smith – $11,200 (5th SG: Par 5)
- Mid-range target: Gary Woodland – $7,600 (6th SG: Par 5)
- Value target: Taylor Pendrith – $7,200 (3rd SG: Par 5)
