The latest leg of the PGA Tour season moves to Texas for the 2022 Houston Open at Memorial Park, where the local crowd will be cheering on World No.2 Scottie Scheffler.
The American, who attended the University of Texas after growing up in the state, recently lost the World No.1 position to Rory McIlroy following the Northern Irishman’s win in last month’s CJ Cup.
Even though Scheffler has failed to win a tournament since claiming his first Major in April’s Masters at Augusta National, he has still shown plenty of encouraging form, including finishing tied for third at last week’s World Wide Technology Championship at El Camaleon Golf Club. That included a final round of 62, and if he takes similar form into this week, he could regain the World No.1 position with a win.
There are some other standout names in the field including World No.12 Sam Burns and World No.15 Tony Finau. The latter, in particular, has been in excellent form in recent months. As well as winning back-to-back tournaments in the summer’s 3M Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic, he also performed admirably in the season-closing FedEx Cup playoffs, with top-10 finishes in two of the three tournaments. However, Finau missed the cut in Mexico last week, but he will be keen to prove it was a blip in an otherwise solid run of results.
Former World No.1 Jason Day also appears along with US Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson. World No.19 Hideki Matsuyama is also in the field. He finished tied for second behind Carlos Ortiz in the 2020 tournament and will be hopeful of going one better this year. Meanwhile, Russell Henley, who won in Mexico last week, also participates as he aims to replicate his 2017 triumph. One player who misses out is 2021 winner Jason Kokrak. Nowadays, the American plays for LIV Golf so is currently ineligible for PGA Tour events.
There is an increased purse for this season’s event. Last year, players battled for a $7.5m purse. However, for 2022 it has increased by $900,000 to $8.4m. The winner will claim $1.512m, but to do so, he’ll need to get to grips with…
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