“Maybe I could have hit it with some more speed, I felt like I hit a nice putt kind of how I wanted to, just didn’t go.”
Down a shot to Stephan Jaeger on the 72nd hole of the tournament, Scottie Scheffler hit a dart into the 18th green at Memorial Park Golf Course to set up a 5-foot birdie putt that would have forced a playoff at the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open.
Given the world No. 1’s recent form and putting prowess after his move to a mallet putter, it seemed as if the tournament was destined for extra golf. Except Scheffler’s putt broke left at the last second and missed the edge, which opened the door for Jaeger to make par and earn his first PGA Tour win in his 135th start.
“I didn’t think it was going to move very much and I tried to hit it straight and I feel like I started right in the middle and looked like it broke off pretty hard, so just a misread,” Scheffler said of his missed birdie putt.
Scheffler, who had won his last two starts on Tour at the Players Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational, felt like he hit a lot of good putts down the end, they just didn’t fall.
To force a playoff …
A narrow miss by Scottie Scheffler whose bid to win three straight falls one shot short pic.twitter.com/RMgjfQB7u3
“Obviously I’m a bit disappointed right now. At the end of the day it would be one thing if I pulled it or something like that. I just misread it,” he added. “I don’t know why I misread it, it’s part of the game. Maybe I could have hit it with some more speed, I felt like I hit a nice putt kind of how I wanted to, just didn’t go.”
The 27-year-old is off this week and will head to Augusta National on Sunday to begin his preparation for the 2024 Masters, where he’ll enter as a massive favorite.
“To kind of slay the dragon a little bit this week was amazing.”
Stephan Jaeger spoke for nearly a minute about how impressive Scottie Scheffler’s recent run of play has been.
The 34-year-old German finished his play Friday during the second round of the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open, and while speaking with the media, he had plenty of positive things to say about the world No. 1.
Little did he know at the time, he would spend the next two days going toe-to-toe against him. It’s exactly what he wanted.
“Honestly, it’s fun to watch, right,” Jaeger said of Scheffler’s play. “It’s unorthodox in a sense and it’s … ball-striking-wise it’s really, really, really impressive what he’s doing week in, week out. To be that on, and your bad stuff be that good, is pretty impressive. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, he’s awesome, so I’m happy for him obviously.
“I’m going to try to beat his brains out this weekend.”
Jaeger could only sit and watch as Scheffler had a 5-foot putt to tie Jaeger on the 72nd hole Sunday. Scheffler missed, his first blemish from inside 7 feet on the greens all weekend.
Jaeger called his shot. He held off the world No. 1, carding nine straight pars on the back nine at Memorial Park Golf Course to capture his first PGA Tour title in his 135th start. Jaeger shot 12-under 268, finishing a shot ahead of Scheffler and defending champion Tony Finau, amongst others.
“It feels amazing,” Jaeger said. “I couldn’t have thought … dreamed up a better week to do it. Obviously playing Scottie last couple days, he’s been on a tear, so to kind of slay the dragon a little bit this week was amazing. He’s such a good dude, such a good player, I was just happy to play with him a couple days.”
On top of the victory, the win gives Jaeger a huge advantage to earning his spot in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. He will also take home $1,638,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points, but perhaps bigger than both of those is his invitation to compete in the Masters in two weeks.
For Scheffler, his putting performance on the 18th green this week was arguably the difference in him winning his third straight start. On Friday, Scheffler three-putted from 7 feet, where on the second putt he tried to quickly tap in from a couple of feet and the putt slipped past the hole, resulting in a double bogey.
Then on Sunday, he missed the birdie attempt that would’ve forced a playoff.
“I didn’t think it was going to move very much and I tried to hit it straight and I feel like I started right in the middle and looked like it broke off pretty hard, so just a misread,” Scheffler said. “I put up a good fight, felt like I had some weird breaks this week. That’s kind of the thing, like it’s tough to describe, but obviously I’m a bit disappointed. I hit two or three really good shots into 18 to give myself a chance and I feel like I made the putt and I looked up and it was breaking off. So a bit disappointing, but Stephan played great this week, and he’s a deserving champion.”
Added Jaeger on Scheffler’s put: “Yeah, 100 percent. I expected him to make it, and I’m not mad at him for missing it.”
Scheffler’s next start will be at Augusta National, where he donned the green jacket in 2022.
Also finishing a shot back, Finau was the best in the field around the greens this week but one of the worst on them. Outside of his round Friday where he tied the tournament scoring record, he lost nearly 7.5 strokes on the greens the other three rounds but still managed a strong finish.
“Didn’t make a crucial putt when I really needed it,” Finau said. “That’s the game we play. But I was happy to finish with really solid shots down the last couple holes and just to birdie the last couple.”
Also finishing runner-up were Alejandro Tosti, Taylor Moore and Thomas Detry. Tosti was tied for the lead on the 18th hole, but a poor tee shot resulted in a bogey.
“I’m super happy. I dream about this, having this opportunity like today,” Tosti said. “It was of course the first one and I know that I’m going to have revenge and I’m going to be in this position many times.”
Everything you need to know for the final round in Houston.
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Scottie Scheffler is in the lead after 54 holes of the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course. Scheffler, after a 4-under 66, is tied for the lead at 9 under with Davis Skinns, Stephan Jaeger, Thomas Detry and Alejandro Tosti.
If Scheffler goes on to win Sunday, he’ll be the first player since Dustin Johnson to win three straight PGA Tour events.
Tony Finau, the 36-hole leader, shot a third-round 2-over 72 and sits at 7 under, two back of the lead.
The winner of the Houston Open gets $1.638 million and 500 FedEx Cup points. They will also be invited to the Masters if they aren’t in the field yet.
Everything you need to know for the third round in Houston.
This looks familiar.
For the second straight Texas Children’s Houston Open, Tony Finau fired a second-round 8-under 62, which tied the tournament record, en route to taking the 36-hole lead at Memorial Park Golf Course. Finau leads by two shots over Alejandro Tosti, who buried a birdie putt on his final hole to get to 7 under.
Scottie Scheffler made double bogey on his final hole to end his streak of under-par rounds, but he sits 5 under and T-4 heading to the weekend.
The winner of the Houston Open gets $1.638 million and 500 FedEx Cup points. They will also be invited to the Masters if they aren’t in the field yet.
HOUSTON — Chan Kim will never forget his round Friday at the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open.
Thursday night, Kim learned one of his longtime friends from high school died.
“We were on the same golf team,” Kim said. “Both him and his brother I’ve known for a while. We actually just played some golf when I was home before Mexico. And we normally game a lot, so I’m a big Call of Duty fan, so we literally played the week of the Players.
“Yeah, it was just kind of sudden, didn’t really get any notice of it until last night. Yeah, like I said, today was kind of a special round. Regardless of how it went, it was nice to play for something a little bit more than just myself.”
Kim got off to an excellent start. He was 2 under thru 8 holes Friday morning when he stepped to the tee of the par-3 ninth at Memorial Park Golf Course and pulled a wedge from 157 yards. One hop later, the ball disappeared. It was Kim’s first ace on Tour.
“I just would have thought that maybe he was looking down, you know, just trying to give me a miracle,” Kim said. “Yeah, definitely needed all of it. I’m happy of the result today, for sure.”
The hole-in-one helped Kim turn in a 4-under 31. He shot 3 under on Friday and will make the weekend, sitting at 2 under for the tournament.
The ace was also special because of one Kim, a Tour rookie, nearly had earlier this season.
“I feel like obviously getting a hole-in-one is very, very lucky, but I feel like the Tour kind of owed me one because I flew one in on 11 at Sony and it popped out 60 feet and ended up three-putting for bogey,” Kim said. “I felt like I was owed one, for sure.”
In the last edition of the Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park, Tony Finau tied a tournament record with an 8-under 62 in the second round en route to victory.
Well, he did the first part again.
On Friday, Finau shot 8-under 62, again tying the tournament record to move to 9 under overall and three clear of the field before the afternoon wave teed off. Finau got hot on his final nine holes, the front nine, which included a stretch of playing Nos. 3-8 in 6 under. The highlight was a chip-in eagle on the par-5 eighth.
“I think my 62 in the fall was actually better,” Finau said. “The golf course can yield some birdies here from the rough because the rough’s so much shorter. Yeah, I think my 62 in the fall was a little more impressive just in that you had to hit the fairway. When you’re playing bermudagrass, hitting out of bermuda rough is just ridiculous. I think when I shot 62, I hit 14 out of 14 fairways and that was quite impressive.
“But 62 is good anytime of the year and I’ll take the one today.”
The big change Friday for Finau was his putting. In his opening 69, Finau beat only five golfers in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting, losing three shots. In the second round, he gained nearly four shots on the greens and was first in the field after the morning wave.
“It’s nice to have my coach out here, Boyd Summerhays,” Finau said. “He noticed a little setup change that he mentioned might help. I’d say it definitely helped today.”
The Houston Open is one of four tournaments Finau has defended his title at in the past year, and he said that pressure to perform is always a bit elevated.
Rounds like he had Friday help make that go away.
“It’s a place that you’ve played well, obviously a course that I really like, so there’s that added pressure on both fronts,” Finau said. “Overall, it’s a place that I have great memories coming back to. I get great support here from the fans. It is pressure, but I look forward to coming back and defending any title that I win.”
Everything you need to know for Friday’s second round from Memorial Park.
With the Florida Swing in the rearview mirror, the PGA Tour has left the Sunshine State and arrived deep in the heart of Texas for the first of two events in the Longhorn State.
Defending champion Tony Finau and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler highlight the field for this week’s 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston. The event returns to the PGA Tour schedule after a hiatus in 2023 with a new title sponsor and $9.1 million up for grabs (with $1,638,000 going to the winner).
HOUSTON — Padraig Harrington won last week’s Champions Tour event at the Hoag Classic in California. This week, the 52-year-old came to Memorial Park Golf Course to play on the PGA Tour at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
He’s already hit his best shot of the week, coming in the first round.
After his tee shot went miles left on the par-5 16th hole, Harrington had no choice but to get on his knees to attempt his second shot. And he did so successfully, hitting it back into the fairway.
He then found the fringe right of the green and was able to get up and in for par.
HOUSTON — The seriousness of the encounter depends on who tells the story.
Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler almost came to blows on the golf course when they were teammates in college. On a podcast appearance a couple months ago, Longhorns’ coach John Fields said it would’ve been a “battle of the titans.”
Following their rounds, they both recalled the events of that day, and Hossler said his former coach may have deflated the situation.
In the spring of 2015, Texas was playing at a one-day event in Lubbock, with then-junior Hossler and freshman Scheffler paired together for the morning and afternoon sessions.
“We were playing this mess-around tournament before the regional,” Hossler said. “Basically, we were both playing a match. I wasn’t playing him, I was playing a New Mexico kid and he was playing a New Mexico kid. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Lubbock, but it’s very, very, very windy.
“I hit one on the water on 18, which was the ninth hole. You couldn’t even — it was so windy you couldn’t hear each other from however far apart, so I didn’t even like announce what ball I was playing but I just hit. Two holes later, No. 2 is kind of this blind par-5 I think. We both hit it down the middle and whatever. I walked past the first ball, I walked to the second ball, it’s 10 yards in front. He hits the ball in the back and then I realized that that was not my ball that I was standing next to. We had different markings, but we both were playing a Titleist whatever, 3 with a Longhorn on it. One had a marking, and mine didn’t.”
Added Fields on the podcast: “You would’ve thought Mount Vesuvius just went off, like we had a volcano 15 yards below us. Scheffler got so mad when he figured out that he’d hit the wrong ball, he ran up to the green, 260 yards on a dead sprint, picked up the ball, ran back, and threw it at Beau’s feet. Beau goes ahead and hits the right shot, and Scottie has lost the hole now. He’d just lost a hole, but it’s killing him. And now, they’re jawing against each other on the way up (to the green), and finally on the next hole, on the par-3, I told Beau, ‘We are not going another step farther until you apologize to Scottie for that.'”
Hossler told his coach he didn’t think he needed to apologize.
“He wasn’t happy,” Hossler said of Scheffler. “I was like, ‘Well, listen, you’re the one who hit the wrong ball.’ I understand like it’s not a — but like you hit it, I didn’t. And it was a bad deal. It didn’t mean anything, but it was just — we’re really competitive, both of us. That was the really cool part about our golf team at Texas, it was like every player on the team was like either a very good player or a pretty good player that was very competitive. We wanted to kick each other’s ass all the time.”
“I don’t blame him for not being happy about it. I still think it was his fault, he’s the only one who hit the wrong ball. I agree I should have checked closer that it was — that that was actually my ball, but one way or the other it’s a good story. The good part about friends usually is that lasted — he was pissed off and I was pissed off for about two hours and once we got on the plane home, it was OK.”
Scottie Scheffler chips on the first green in the first round of the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open golf tournament. (Photo: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
Although he didn’t get as descriptive, Scheffler said he recalls the day and how Fields’ story was true.
“I’d love to hear Beau’s side because we do like talking about it,” Scheffler said. “It was just one of those moments where we had been around each other I think for so long and you’re in the heat of the moment, you’re out there competing and something happens. Yeah, it’s pretty funny to look back on though, we get a good kick out of it.
“At the time we both played Titleist balls, and I had been playing the same number the whole day and he had a different number and switched unknown to me. Just one of those deals. When you’re around each other that much, stuff like that, mistakes happen.”
Texas made match play at the NCAA Championship that season, and the next year Hossler went on to win the Haskins Award. However, as Fields and Hossler. mentioned, it was two competitors going at it in the heat of the moment.
Beau Hossler of the United States hits a tee shot on the 12th hole during the first round of the Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on March 28, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)
“Scottie’s one of my really good friends,” Hossler said. “We’ve had so many … we’ve grown up literally since we were probably 10 and 9 years old together, he’s only a year behind me. We played a couple years at Texas, but we grew up playing the same tournaments and now we’ve been out here on Tour together. He’s the best. He’s obviously having tremendous success, I’m happy for him. It’s a good story.
HOUSTON — Coming into the week at Memorial Park Golf Course, Scottie Scheffler said he was rusty.
Sure, rust is a bit different when you’re the No. 1 player in the world against an average Joe on the local muni. But this week, the local muni is hosting the best players in the world at the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open. And Scheffler, coming off consecutive victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, certainly didn’t show any rust Thursday.
He opened with a bogey-free 5-under 65 and trails Taylor Moore by one shot after the morning wave in Houston. If there were any signs of rust, Scheffler missed 11 of 18 greens, including his first three, but he gained nearly 2.5 strokes putting on the day.
“Yeah, I would say some key up-and-downs,” Scheffler said. “I made a nice putt there at the first to kind of get the round going and made some really nice up and downs after that.”
This season, 43 percent of Scheffler’s rounds have been 66 or better (12).
Scheffler held the lead for most of the back nine during his opening round. That was until Moore, who was defending his title last week at the Valspar Championship, made a birdie on the par-5 16th to sign for 6-under 64.
Starting on the back nine, Scheffler birdied Nos. 13 and 17 to turn in 2-under 33. Then on the back, consecutive circles on Nos. 2 and 3 propelled him into a share for the lead. Then he drained another putt on the fifth to take the solo lead for a bit.
If Scheffler were to win this week, he would be the first player to win three straight PGA Tour starts since Dustin Johnson in 2017. He would be the first to capture three consecutive stroke-play events since Rory McIlroy in 2014.
“I had a solid round,” Scheffler added. “Kept the card clean. Bogey free is always nice, especially around a golf course like this. It’s nice to be able to keep the card clean, like I said.”
Taylor Moore (USA) looks at the 18th green during the first round of the Texas Children’s Houston Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports
For Moore, he began his round Thursday with a bogey, but a chip-in eagle on the par-5 third hole sparked his game. He turned in 31 and added birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 coming home to take the clubhouse lead after the morning wave.
As good as Scheffler was on the tricky greens at Memorial Park, Moore was better, gaining nearly three shots and more than 2.5 in Strokes Gained: Around the Greens.
“Hit a lot of greens,” Moore said. “After the first hole, just tried to see how many greens I could hit. Got off to a little bit of a jump start there on 3, chipped in for eagle on 3 and birdied 4. Yeah, just got into the round.”
Moore said he perhaps felt a bit more relaxed this week than he did as defending champion last week but added he doesn’t get too caught up in the pressure of a single event.
Joe Highsmith matched Scheffler with a 5-under 65 on Thursday. The PGA Tour rookie has missed the cut in four of his seven starts this season but did finish T-6 at the Puerto Rico Open.
“I putted really well. I’ll be curious to see what the stats show, but it just was very solid kind of all around,” Highsmith said. “I only made maybe one or two mistakes out there. It felt great, like everything was just right on. I was hitting it where I was looking, I feel like I was in a good frame of mind all day.”
Beau Hossler, Aaron Rai and Adam Svensson each shot 4-under 66 Thursday morning and shared fourth behind Moore and Scheffler.
Playing with the world No. 1, last week’s victor Peter Malnati shot 2-under 68 while Will Zalatoris struggled in his 4-over effort.
