2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open Tournament Preview: Everything To Know About Memorial Park Golf Course
Another week of PGA Tour action brings us to Memorial Park Golf Course with the 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open. Compare Houston Open odds at the best sports betting sites to increase your potential PGA Tour golf betting payouts. Scottie Scheffler, Chris Gotterup, and Brooks Koepka project as the top favorites for this upcoming tournament.
Cast your brackets aside! While this week has long been known to kick off the Texas Swing in Austin, there’s a new sheriff in town after the PGA Tour decided to sunset the fan-favorite WGC Dell Match Play. Instead, the 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course is set to fill the void in this new slot on the schedule, just two weeks out from The Masters.
Change has been the only constant regarding this event. Texas Children’s is the sponsor of this revolving event for the third straight year, replacing Cadence Bank, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Vivint, and Shell prior to that.
Despite the change in the name, Houston remains a mainstay for this event, and Memorial Park will host it for the sixth consecutive year. Memorial Park is unquestionably the most challenging of the other venues we see each year across the Texas Swing. In four of the last five years of hosting, even par, through four rounds has been good enough for a T40 finish, so bogey avoidance and scrambling will be at a premium. Overall, players with a proven track record in difficult or major-like conditions should be best equipped to navigate Memorial Park.
Let’s get into the key facts and info about Memorial Park Golf Course before betting on Texas Children’s Houston Open odds.
2026 TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOUSTON OPEN ODDS: THE FAVORITES
To compare PGA Tour odds in legal sports betting states and other Texas Children’s Houston Open offerings, scroll to the bottom of this post. Find Houston Open odds on favorites shorter than 35-1 below.
TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOUSTON OPEN ODDS: FIELD AT A GLANCE
Since relocating to Memorial Park, the Houston Open has attracted some solid fields over the last four years. This field will especially turn some heads, as it has once again attracted World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is in desperate search to rediscover his World No. 1 form in what is likely his final start before Augusta.
There is a steep drop-off in this field after Scheffler, but the Texas Children’s Houston Open will still welcome 11 OWGR top-40 players. Chris Gotterup, Harris English, Shane Lowry, Min Woo Lee, Sam Burns, Jake Knapp, and Jason Day are expected to highlight as the betting favorites for this event.
Min Woo Lee returns to defend his maiden PGA Tour victory at this event in his 2025 debut. He carried a 5-stroke lead into Monday, and narrowly escaped a charging Scheffler and Woodland by just one stroke. Stephan Jaeger and Tony Finau also return as the only other past Texas Children’s Houston Open winners at Memorial Park in the field.
INTRODUCTION TO MEMORIAL PARK GOLF COURSE
This will mark the sixth consecutive year of play at Memorial Park for the Houston Open after a sustained 16-year stretch from 2003 to 2019 at the Golf Club of Houston. In 2019, Tom Doak completed a significant overhaul of Memorial Park, which was funded with $34M from the Houston Astros Foundation with input from Brooks Koepka. Before Doak’s renovation, Memorial Park had hosted the PGA Tour’s Houston Open 14 times between 1947 and 1963, with Arnold Palmer notably winning here in ’57.
Whenever a player is brought on in an advisory role, it’s usually more cosmetic for marketing purposes, with the architect’s vision prevailing. In the case of Brooks Koepka at Memorial Park, however, you can’t help but feel his influence. This renovated golf course does not possess the historical significance or stakes of a Major. Still, it’s been constructed to closely emulate Major conditions with a combination of length and difficult green-side runoffs that reward all-around skillsets in distance, ball-striking, and short game. Rory McIlroy played this event for the first time last year, and his T5 finish fueled enough momentum to finally capture his first career Masters win in his next start. Coincidence?
How It Breaks Down
Memorial Park is a long par-71, playing to 7,412 yards on the scorecard with three par-5s, five par-3s, and 10 par-4s. Half of the par-4s will play over 490 yards, imposing a stern ball-striking test on the field.
There are only five holes with a scoring average under par, which contrasts the birdie fest conditions we’ve become used to over the last month. Unsurprisingly, the five 490+ yard par-4s and 237-yard par-3 are the most complex scoring holes on the course.
What I found most interesting about Memorial Park is that through the first five years of play post-renovation, the shortest par-3 (155 yards), par-4 (382 yards), and par-5 (576 yards) each have a scoring average over par. This shows that the firm conditions, tight runouts around the green, and susceptibility to gusting Texas winds all make this golf course play even more complicated than the stock scorecard yardage would suggest.
Traits And Recent Notable Facts
Fast, oversized greens with tight surrounding runoff areas highlight Memorial Park’s identity. Unlike Southern Hills or other U.S. links-style courses, Memorial Park will call for creative shot-making around the greens, with many options to scramble when approaches inevitably miss their target.
The wind has been fairly calm in the first few iterations of this event, but we should always anticipate gusting winds whenever golfing in Texas, which will further emphasize short game. Over its first two years, Memorial Park has ranked inside the top 10 of most demanding courses to score from around the greens, both from the rough and tight fairway runoff areas.
Despite standing over 7,400 yards, the par-3s offer somewhat of a respite at this course, ranking bottom-5 in average Par-3 length in each of the last two years. The par-3s are still not birdie opportunities by any means, so players will be content to finish the week at Even par across them.
In short, the course has been designed to reward skilled all-around players with distance, strong ball striking, and reliable short games in their arsenal.
COURSE HISTORY AND COURSE COMPS
Over the first five years of play at Memorial Park, Scottie Scheffler and Tony Finau are a cut above the rest in terms of Course History, each playing every year since the tournament moved to Memorial Park in 2021. Scheffler is still chasing his first victory at this home-state event, with finishes thus far T32, T2, T9, T2, and T2. Finau has posted finishes of T32, T2, 1st, MC, and T24 over the same stretch.
After Scheffler and Finau, the rest of the top 10 in Course History at Memorial Park include Alejandro Tosti, Stephan Jaeger, Min Woo Lee, Mackenzie Hughes, Gary Woodland, Billy Horschel, Aaron Wise, and Aaron Rai. It isn’t easy to draw overarching conclusions after just four years. Still, considering the additional top results from players like Jason Kokrak, Carlos Ortiz, and Dustin Johnson, who are all absent this week, a trend of Driving Distance, top-tier ball striking, and firm & fast putting begins to prevail.
The list of players who’ve avoided missing the cut at this event since its move to Memorial Park in 2020 (with a minimum of three appearances) includes Scottie Scheffler, Sahith Theegala, Ben Griffin, Harry Hall, Sam Stevens, Stephan Jaeger, Sungjae Im, Mackenzie Hughes, Denny McCarthy, Davis Riley, and Aaron Wise.
Seven players have posted multiple top-15 finishes at this event since 2020: Scottie Scheffler, Aaron Rai, Sam Burns, Stephan Jaeger, Tony Finau, Mackenzie Hughes, and Alejandro Tosti.
Course Comps
As a baseline for course comps this week, I’m looking at recent courses that have produced similar median scoring averages around Even Par to closely simulate the importance of Bogey Avoidance under challenging conditions, particularly with tight runoff areas around the green. Bay Hill, The Renaissance Club, Los Angeles Country Club, and Southern Hills are at the top of the list for those reasons, with a special nod to The Renaissance Club for sharing the Tom Doak connection.
St. George’s Golf & Country Club, the host of the 2022 RBC Canadian Open, is another Tom Doak design that featured challenging scoring conditions and produced a highly top-heavy leaderboard of complete all-around players like we’ve seen in Memorial Park’s first three years.
PGA National and Quail Hollow have rewarded a similar skillset of strong long-iron players on firm Bermuda greens and difficult scoring conditions. Colonial CC, TPC San Antonio, and GC of Houston have proven to simulate these intermittent Texas winds for the regional element. Colonial CC, in particular, has produced wins from Jason Kokrak and Sam Burns over the last two years, who each have a pristine track record at Memorial Park.
Combine performance across this list, and the top-10 players in Comp Course History here are Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Harris English, Shane Lowry, Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott, Aaron Rai, Ben Griffin, Jordan Smith, and Brooks Koepka.
KEY STATS TO CONSIDER BEFORE BETTING PGA TOUR ODDS
- SG: APP / SG: Ball Striking
- Driving Distance
- Bogey Avoidance
- Par-5 Scoring
- Prox: 200+
- SG: ARG / Scrambling Gained
- SG: P (Firm & Fast) / SG: P (L36)
- SG: TOT (Difficult Scoring Conditions)
- Course + Comp Course History
Looking at the best approach players heading into this week, the top 10 in terms of SG: APP includes Austin Smotherman, Ryan Gerard, Adam Scott, Chris Kirk, Nicolai Hojgaard, David Ford, Kurt Kitayama, Aaron Rai, Chris Gotterup, and Rasmus Neergaard Petersen. Over one-third of the approach shots are expected to come from over 200 yards between the three par-5s, two long par-3s, and five par-4s over 490 yards. The top 10 long iron players in this week’s field are Will Zalatoris, Neal Shipley, Rasmus Neergaard Petersen, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Haotong Li, Chandler Blanchet, Adam Scott, Pontus Nyholm, Thorbjorn Olesen, and Chris Kirk.
Birdie opportunities are few and far between at Memorial Park, so taking advantage of those elusive chances is crucial. The par-5s ranked inside the top-3 most difficult in scoring average each of the last two years, but even so, this is still where players can gain separation. The top 10 players in Par-5 Scoring are Rasmus Neergaard Petersen, Scottie Scheffler, Sungjae Im, Austin Smotherman, SH Kim, Rasmus Hojgaard, Matt Wallace, Tony Finau, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, and Jake Knapp.
With scoring conditions continuing to remain challenging in this stretch of the schedule, it’s a crucial week to reference a combination of Bogey Avoidance and SG: TOT (Difficult Scoring Conditions). There are just nine players who rank in the top-25 in both categories: Scottie Scheffler, Harry Hall, Jason Day, Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Rickie Fowler, Ben Griffin, Bud Cauley, and Harris English.
The ideal player for this week should rank above-average in Driving Distance, Recent T2G Form, SG: ARG + Scrambling, Comp Course History, and SG: TOT (Difficult Scoring Conditions) + Bogey Avoidance. There are just seven players who fit that criteria: Scottie Scheffler, Rasmus Hojgaard, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Sam Burns, Chris Gotterup, Taylor Pendrith, and Thorbjorn Olesen.
Correlations
This week, although there are only five years of sample size, it’s still worth examining how players have gained their strokes at Memorial Park compared to the tour average.
So far, the data shows a significant advantage for players who have been able to capitalize on Par-5 Scoring, particularly from longer ranges. Conversely, Par-4: 400-450 and Par-4: 450-500 are severely deprioritized at Memorial Park, with sparse birdie opportunities to separate from the field.
Only six players in the field rank above average in each of the above 10 key stat categories: Scottie Scheffler, Rasmus Neergaard Petersen, Chris Gotterup, Brooks Koepka, Taylor Pendrith, and Davis Thompson.
PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: WYNDHAM CLARK
Over time, we seem to have lost the plot when it comes to Memorial Park. While many are quick to point out that bombers have had their way here, this golf course has actually proven to be an “everything but driver”, second-shot golf course. As a year-round public course, the grounds crew maintains a very short and playable rough less than 2 inches deep. That makes the difference in missing and hitting the fairways almost entirely negligible. It’s those who can separate on long iron approaches and scrambling who have thrived. Even in Min Woo Lee’s victory last year, he did so despite losing strokes to the field off the tee.
Looking at Wyndham Clark’s 2026 season, the approach play and short game remain up to par with his peak 2023 form. It’s an erratic driver and inconsistency on the greens that have kept him from posting better results, but those are two areas in which Clark has flourished at Memorial Park. He’s posted finishes of T5, T31, and T16 over his last three appearances here, gaining 2+ strokes in terms of both putting and off the tee in each instance.
Of course, a setup with negligible rough and forgiveness to bail out with mis-hits off the tee lends itself to Los Angeles Country Club comparisons. Clark, Scheffler, McIlroy, Min Woo Lee, and Dustin Johnson each finished top-10 at the 2023 U.S. Open and have a top-5 finish at Memorial Park as well.
Ranking No. 2 in Comp Course History and coming off of an understandable missed cut at the hyper-positional Copperhead Course, this looks to be an ideal buy-low spot for the major champion.
2026 TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOUSTON OPEN ODDS: DFS PLAYER POOL
With all the course-fit profiles in mind, I’m leaning early toward the below player pool. Naturally, I’m also looking their way in the 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open odds. I’ve broken the list by projected pricing/odds tier for DraftKings, with odds and pricing expected to release later this week.
TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOUSTON OPEN MODEL RESULTS & BREAKDOWN
For my model this week, I’m emphasizing SG: APP, Comp Course History, Bogey Avoidance, and SG: TOT (Difficult Scoring Conditions), followed by a more balanced mix of Scrambling Gained + SG: ARG, Prox: 200+, Par-5 Scoring, Driving Distance, and SG: P (L36 + Fast).
Model Favorites
To little surprise, it’s world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler who sits atop my model in this Texas homecoming. Scheffler’s game travels to any PGA Tour course, but Memorial Park should accentuate his most excellent skills of elite ball striking and Scrambling on tight lies around the green.
After Scheffler, the rest of my model’s top 10 features Nicolai Hojgaard, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Sahith Theegala, Chris Gotterup, Ben Griffin, Brooks Koepka, and Keith Mitchell.
When Houston Open odds release on Monday, I will likely take my chances against Scottie Scheffler and capitalize on the inflated odds that produce for the rest of this field. Depending on where the odds ultimately fall, I have my eyes on Brooks Koepka, Chris Gotterup, Min Woo Lee, and Wyndham Clark. Check back in later this week for more updates.
Thanks for reading, and good luck with your 2026 Texas Children’s Houston Open bets!
COMPARE PGA TOUR ODDS: 2026 TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOUSTON OPEN
Photo Credit: AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez
