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Tournament Stats:
April 3 - 6, 2008
Redstone GC Tournament Course
Humble, Texas
Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,457 yards
Purse: $5.6 million with $1,008,000 going to the winner
Defending Champion: Adam Scott
Results & Scores 2007 Shell Houston
Box Score of 2007 Shell Houston Open
Tournament facts:
Tournament Record:266 (Vijay Singh in 2002 - at TPC Woodlands, Curtis Strange and Lee Trevino in1980 - at Woodlands)
54-Hole Record:
195 (Curtis Strange in 1980 - at Woodlands)
36-Hole Record:
129 (Curtis Strange in 1980 - at Woodlands, Blaine McCallister - TPC Woodlands)
Low round of tournament:
62 (Ron Streck, 3rd round in 1981 - Woodlands & Fred Funk, 3rd round, 1992 - TPC Woodlands)
Best score at Tournament Course at Redstone - 64 by Bubba Watson & Johnson Wagner in 2nd round, 2007
Tournament information:
This will be the 61st edition of the Shell Houston Open, which was formerly called the Houston Open. This is the third year of the event being played at its permanent home, the Tournament Course at Redstone. This course was made especially with the Shell Houston Open in mind. The previous years the tournament was held across the street at the Members Course at Redstone. Before that the TPC at the Woodlands had been the site between 1985 and 2002. The West course at the Woodlands was the site from 1975 to 1985. Before that River Oaks C.C., Memorial Park G.C., Pine Forest C.C., Brae Burn C.C., Sharpstown C.C Champions G.C., Westwood G.C. and Quail Valley G.C. have also hosted the event. The first Shell Houston Open was played in 1946 and was called the Tournament of Champions. It was played at River Oaks with Byron Nelson beating Ben Hogan by two strokes.
Course information:
Redstone Golf Club is a relatively new course with a history, located on the site of the former El Dorado Country Club. Designed by Jay Riviere, El Dorado Country Club opened in the 1960s, but was closed in the early 1990s as a victim of a suffering Houston economy following the oil bust.Redstone Golf Club's Tournament Course is one of only 11 courses in the country open to the public that hosts a PGA Tour event. The course features Mini Verdie greens and Tif Sport fairways and tees. It was designed by Rees Jones with PGA Tour Professional David Toms serving as course design consultant.
The course has a variation of different holes, but something that sticks out is the short par 4s. Four of them are under 400 yards, but that doesn't mean there won't be any long holes, because there are four holes over 460 yards. It also has a killer finish with the par 3, 16th hole playing at 204 yards and the final two holes playing at 489 and 488 yards. The last hole was the most difficult hole on the course last year playing to a 4.367 average
The average green size at Redstone is 6,500 square feet, which is a little over the average on the PGA Tour. Course has 50 bunkers and water comes into play on ten of the 18 holes.
For a more comprehensive look at the course, look at this Course Overview done by PGA Tour.Com
The Buzz:
More players are finding out about Houston and its quest to try and give the players a perfect place to prep for the Masters. Last year they set up the course to mimic Augusta National as close as possible. They got the greens to role to a 12 on the Stimpmeter and shaved the banks alongside the greens and water hazards, just like at Augusta. The rough and fairways will be cut in the same manner as Augusta. It doesn't have the same advantage that TPC at Sugarload had with the same grass as Augusta but it was enough to make an impact as more players like Phil Mickelson are here this week. This year will have the best field that this place has seen in years.
| Players who have won the week before the Masters, then won again at Augusta that same year: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | Year/Tournament | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phil Mickelson | 2006 BellSouth Classic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sandy Lyle | 1988 Greensboro Open | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Art Wall | 1959 Azalea Open | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sam Snead | 1949 Greensboro Open | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ralph Guldahl | 1939 Greenboro Open | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Speaking of Mickelson, you can see the chart that shows that he is not afraid of winning the week before a major. But for others like Davis Love III, this week is very important. Love hasn't missed a major since the 1990 U.S. Open, a run of 70 in a row. That streak is in jeopardy because if Love doesn't win this week in Houston he will miss the Masters. The odds of a Love victory are not very good if you look at his recent form. He has played seven events and his best finish was a T-24th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Still, Love would "love" nothing more than to earn a spot at Augusta by winning this week. He was in this same position in 1995 when he won in New Orleans and then finished second to Ben Crenshaw at the Masters.
Here are some things to look for this week:
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It's so hard after just two years of play at this course to determine what it takes to win here. Because of conditions and the time of year things could be drastically different from last year. Last year was very wet because of the rain while this week should be dry with the exception of the scattered thunderstorms that have been forecast for Friday. As for the course, it's pretty much the same. It's a lot greener and firm than last year, but still the characteristics should be the same.
Here are some of the secrets that will help the players score well this week at the Shell Houston Open:
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Key stat for the winner:
Important to read into the fact that the 2006 winner, Stuart Appleby, hit 56 of the 72 greens and that was the second best. Last year's winner Adam Scott hit 57 of 72 greens, which ranked T-8th. Runner-up Stuart Appleby was 4th in that stat and Bubba Watson was 12th. Fourth-place finisher Tommy Armour III led the stat so we can see that hitting lots of greens is always good and unless you are really poor with the putter you should be near the top of the leaderboard. - Unimportant stat: Hitting lots of fairways. Only one player in the top-10 was in the top-10 in fairways hit last year, so hitting it straight is not a premium here. The same goes for hitting it long. Only two of the top-10 were in the top-10 of driving distance, which means that medium length drivers can win.
- Playing well on the par 4s is a key. Scott was 7-under on them while Appleby was 13-under in 2006. It's rare to see players score lower on par 4s than par 5s, but that was the case. You can't overpower the par 5s here because the shortest is 557. On the back nine they are 590 and 608 yards, so getting it home in two is near impossible on two of the four par 5s.
- All the par 5s are within reach of the average player and even though the course is more than 7,200 yards this won't present much of a problem. Look for lots of greens to be hit.
- Since the tournament started in 1946, 13 of the winners have been first-time winners at the Shell Houston Open. In the 1990s this was the hot spot for those looking for their first win as between 1990 and 1994 all the winners were first-timers. With a limited amount of marquee names and a lot of Europeans this week, look for a possible first-timer this week.
- Again, with a new course coming into play nobody has the advantage of knowing the course, with the exception of David Toms, who was the player consulted on the project.
