Shell Houston Open, Humble, TX (March 30-April 2)

This week on the tour marks the final week until The Masters! Since 2007, the Shell Houston Open has been the last opportunity for players to qualify for the first major of the year as well as served as a final tune-up for the pros. Through the years, this has made for some great fields and great storylines going to Augusta National. This year, some of the biggest names in golf are here to compete and golf,  maybe more than ever, golf fans are ready to get past this week to The Masters.

Picture of Phil Mickelson after his victory in 2009.

The Houston Open has been a tournament in the greater Houston area since 1922, originally just a thirty-six hole event for local professionals. The tournament became an official PGA tour event in 1946 moving around to different courses throughout this history with the current course at the Golf Club of Houston since 2003. The title sponsor has been the Shell Oil Company since 1992, but that sponsorship will expire after this year. Since 1992, the Huston Golf Association has been able to raise $60 million dollars for local charities through the tournament.

Big name players in the field this week include Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, and Matt Kucher, all of these players being in the top twenty in the world. Phil, Jordan, and Rickie have all had pretty great starts to the season. Phil, with the least exciting performance, has not yet missed a cut this year (10 consecutive) and placing in the top twenty most of those tournaments. Jordan won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year and hasn’t missed a cut in 18 consecutive events. Rickie, being the streaky player that he is, hasn’t played that great this year but won a very difficult tournament, the Honda Classic. My guess is that each of these players will play well this week with the Masters on their mind.

Since this is my last post, I will leave you with this: golf is a great outdoor game of skill and strategy that can be enjoyed at almost any stage in life. It has changed my life for the better and continue to love the game, though I don’t play competitively anymore. I encourage you to tune into the Masters next week at enjoy the great display of power, skill, and sportsmanship that is associated with this game. Who knows, you might love it just as much as me one day.

 

One thought on “Shell Houston Open, Humble, TX (March 30-April 2)

  1. I have never really been into golf. The extent of my golfing days were going to the driving range with my grandpa and dad when I was little, but even that was extremely rare. I also don’t really know any pro-golfers, besides Tiger Woods. (And Happy Gilmore if you count that haha) Despite not knowing too much about golf, I do know that it takes a lot of skill and precision to truly master it. I really enjoyed reading your post, especially because it informed me on a topic that I have little to no knowledge of.

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