Shell Houston Open Preview

With one week to the year's first Major, the PGA Tour heads for Texas and the Shell Houston Open. A world-class field will tee it up at Redstone Golf Club as the players complete their final preparations for The Masters.

Paul Casey defends
Fergus Bisset
By Fergus Bisset
published

Lowdown: With one week to the year's first Major, the PGA Tour heads for Texas and the Shell Houston Open. A world-class field will tee it up at Redstone Golf Club as the players complete their final preparations for The Masters. The Houston Open began life in 1924 and over the years it's seen some notable winners including Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer and Roberto DeVicenzo. Last year Paul Casey secured his first PGA Tour victory after seeing off long-hitting J.B Holmes at the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. Casey will be back to defend his title this week and he's one of eight Englishmen in the field. There's a strong European contingent in general - Padraig Harrington, Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy and Soren Kjeldsen are all set to start. The tournament course at Redstone Golf Club was specifically designed to host a PGA Tour event by Rees Jones and David Toms. It opened for play in 2005. There's a chance of thunderstorms over Friday and Saturday so don't be surprised to see some weather delays. The players will be keen the tournament does not spill over into Masters week.

Venue: Redstone Golf Club Tournament Course, Texas Date: Apr 1 - 4 Course stats: par 72, 7,457 yards Purse: $5,800,000 Winner: $1,044,000 Defending Champion: Paul Casey (-11)

TV Coverage: Thursday 1 - Live on Sky Sports 3 from 9pm Friday 2 - Live on Sky Sports 2 from 9pm Saturday 3 - Live on Sky Sports 2 from 6pm Sunday 4 - Live on Sky Sports 2 from 8pm

Player Watch: Ernie Els - The big South African has already won twice in March and has climbed to 7th on the Official World Golf Ranking. He's the hottest player in world golf at the moment. Paul Casey - He's on extremely consistent form in 2010 and was the winner here in 2009. Fred Couples - The 50-year-old may seem an unlikely pick but he has two wins on the Champions Tour so far this season and has an excellent record at Redstone including a tied third place finish last season.

Key hole: 18th. A monster par-4 of 488 yards, a lake borders the entire left hand side of the hole. From the tee the golfer must attempt to carry as much water as possible to reduce the length of the second shot. The approach is equally challenging, as anything straying to the left side will find a watery grave.

Skills required: Finding greens. At almost 7,500 yards this is another monster course where having the ability to "send it out there" affords a massive advantage. But, the real key is to get it on the putting surfaces. 10 greens have water in play so missing those targets could be costly.

Fergus Bisset
Fergus Bisset
Contributing Editor

Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly. 

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

Latest