2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open: Top Round 4 DraftKings Showdown Plays

By John Haslbauer | Mar 28, 2026, 8:00pm

The 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open has turned into a two-man race. With three rounds in the books, the championship will officially be decided tomorrow, as Gary Woodland and Nicolai Hojgaard are now an arm’s length clear from the rest of the field. With three rounds of data at our disposal, we’ll adjust our approach in DFS formats before Round 4 gets underway on Sunday. Conditions were benign on Saturday, but a firmer course resulted in a more difficult test for those with afternoon tee times. We should expect the course to get even firmer and more difficult in the final round.

Take a look at some of the best pillar players for Houston Open DFS contests ahead of the final round.

DraftKings Showdown Golf Strategy

DraftKings Golf Showdown Golf is a one-round Daily Fantasy format in which players aim to construct the best-scoring one-round lineup while staying within the allotted salary cap. To identify value in Golf Showdown, it’s typically best to focus on buy-low opportunities on players who’ve shown uncharacteristically poor putting in the prior round. There is also an opportunity to find leverage by identifying favorable weather splits and players who are more likely to card birdies-or-better.

Round 4 Houston Open Showdown Pillar Plays

At the 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open, there is a particular focus on players who rate out well in Driving Distance, Par-5 Scoring and Proximity 200+, as the Par 5s present the greatest opportunity to card birdies-or-better, and this lengthy layout produces ample long iron approaches. Players who can find birdies on these difficult par 4s and par 5s offer the greatest upside for DraftKings Showdown scoring. The three players below will be foundational plays in my Round 3 Showdown lineups for these reasons.

Nicolai Hojgaard ($9,500)

Hojgaard enters the final round in the best position he’s ever had to pick up his first career PGA TOUR victory. At -17, he sits just one stroke off of Gary Woodland’s pace, and five clear of the next closest chaser. Hojgaard has been red hot, shooting -15 over his last two rounds. While it’s difficult for any player to go low in consecutive rounds, Hojgaard seems primed to keep the momentum going, as he ranks 2nd in the field in Round 4 Scoring this season.

Ranking 1st for the week in terms of SG: T2G, Hojgaard has a golden opportunity to cap off a near-perfect display of golf in Houston if he can sustain this level of play for one more round.

Sudarshan Yellamaraju ($8,000)

Yellamaraju was featured pre-tournament in our Houston Open Sleepers primer, and he’s continued to pay off the course fit through the first three rounds. Entering Sunday T7 on the leaderboard, he has continued to flex his distance advantage and long-iron approach prowess. Yellamaraju has taken a balanced approach thus far, ranking top-20 in SG: OTT, SG: APP, and SG: ARG. That should lead to a high floor in round 4, as he’s demonstrated a variety of ways to score around Memorial Park.

In Showdown, finishing position points matter, and Yellamaraju strikes an ideal balance of salary value, leaderboard position, and profile fit to make a greater charge on Sunday.

Paul Waring ($6,900)

Speaking of leaderboard position value, you won’t find any other players on the Round 4 Showdown slate this cheap and inside the top-10. The first round leader of this event, Waring proved he’s more than just a one round wonder, posting an impressive -4, 67 on Saturday.

While a hot putter has propelled him to this position thus far (1st in SG: Putting), Waring’s driving distance given him an advantage off the tee as well. He ranked 12th in the field in SG: OTT through three rounds. He also showed some encouraging signs of life with the irons on Saturday, ranking 18th in SG: APP in round 3.

Best of luck if you choose to roster these Houston Open DFS picks.

2026 TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOUSTON ODDS

If you want to add sportsbook bets to your Houston DFS picks this week, you can shop the best odds at DraftKings Sportsbook for PGA Tour sleepers and more highly touted players using the pulldown menu. Best of luck if you choose to bet on these golf DFS picks! Click to bet below.

Photo Credit: AP/Matt Slocum

John Haslbauer

John Haslbauer writes about golf betting and DFS strategy for Lineups. He is a passionate golf fan, golf writer, and (casual) golfer. A graduate of Syracuse University, John works full-time in Social Influencer Marketing Strategy and is based out of Long Island, N.Y. He created thepgatout.com at the start of 2021 and co-hosts the Preferred Lines weekly podcast.