HOUSTON – When comparing Saturday’s third round to the first two days at the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open, it’s hard to find many similarities.
Except a big one: the name at the top of the leaderboard.
Memorial Park Golf Course played much more difficult on moving day, thanks in large part to cooler temperatures and gusty winds. Players were faced with a difficult task of trying to find ways to score when there weren’t many to begin with.
Meanwhile, everyone who made the cut remains in pursuit of Tony Finau, who is in search of his fifth PGA Tour title.
Here are some takeaways from the third round of the Houston Open.
Hideki Matsuyama has dealt with several injuries in 2022.
Hideki Matsuyama has dealt with several injuries in 2022.
He withdrew from the Players Championship before the first round citing a back injury. He withdrew from the Valero Texas Open a week before defending at the Masters. He withdrew from the 3M Open after the first round. And, finally, he withdrew from the FedEx St. Jude Championship playoff event due to a neck injury.
Add Houston to the list.
After opening his third round with a 4-over 39 front nine, Matsuyama withdrew from the Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course citing a neck injury.
He made the cut on the number Saturday morning (even par).
Hideki Matsuyama WD during round three of the Cadence Bank Houston Open (neck injury).
Here’s who missed the cut, including the 12th-ranked golfer in the world.
HOUSTON – It’s finally time for the weekend in Texas.
Friday afternoon storms suspended play for good at 3:26 p.m. local time, with no groups who teed off in the afternoon having completed play. That meant everyone had to come back Saturday morning to essentially a different golf course.
The temperature Friday afternoon was 86 degrees. Saturday morning? How about 43. The winds also shifted, blowing out of the north instead of the southeast. It made for a chilly start for those who had to come back and fight to improve their position on the leaderboard and it helped those who may have missed the cut if the conditions remained nice.
Tony Finau, at 13 under, maintains his four-shot advantage with 36 holes to play. Patrick Rodgers and Alex Noren are four shots behind.
Here’s who missed the cut at the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course. The cut was even par, and 70 players made it.
Last week, Tony Finau missed the cut. This week, everyone is chasing him.
HOUSTON – Last year, the winning score was 10 under. The year before, 13 under.
As of now, it looks like golfers at the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open will blast past those numbers.
The Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course continued Friday, the penultimate FedEx Cup event of the PGA Tour’s fall slate. The first round was halted by darkness, and a handful of players had to come back and finish their opening 18 holes before starting their second round.
And now, the second round won’t finish until Saturday.
However, a name at the top of the leaderboard hasn’t changed since Thursday night.
Here’s a look at some takeaways from the second round of the Cadence Bank Houston Open.
HOUSTON – Now, this is something you definitely don’t see every day.
Mark Hubbard was disqualified after finishing his second round of the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on Friday after violating Rule 4.1c.
What did Hubbard do, exactly?
“Hubbard knowingly added a 15th club at the turn and used the club several times without declaring it out of play,” per the PGA Tour.
The rules of golf state there can be only 14 clubs in a player’s bag during a round.
It is unclear what club Hubbard added to his bag. Hubbard, who shot 75-74 (9 over) in the first two rounds, was going to miss the cut, his third straight.
Mark Hubbard is a DQ after the second round of the Cadence Bank Houston Open due to a violation of Rule 4.1c.
Hubbard knowingly added a 15th club at the turn and used the club several times without declaring it out of play.
HOUSTON – Real estate is one of Shooter McGavin’s hobbies. So is golf.
That’s why it wasn’t a surprise to see Shooter at the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open on Thursday. And yes, we’re talking about that Shooter McGavin, the one from “Happy Gilmore.”
Actor Christopher McDonald, who portrays Shooter McGavin, was on hand Thursday at Memorial Park Golf Course during the first round of the Houston Open. McDonald signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans. He even got pranked by Tony Finau on the first tee, as Finau mimicked as if he was going to do the Happy Gilmore swing.
Had Finau gone through with it, Shooter may have tried to get him kicked off the Tour.
“(Tony) just killed the ball when I was out there,” McDonald told Golfweek. “He’s a big favorite of mine, a great guy.”
No matter where McDonald goes, Shooter McGavin’s persona follows him. He has become the friendly villain in the golf community since the movie debuted in 1996, and portraying the Shooter role is something that changed McDonald’s life.
“I love being an ambassador for this movie because it has been 26 years, and so it’s multi-generational,” McDonald said. “And I had people tell me when they watch it, they watch it with their grandkids, and whenever it pops up on television, they just kind of have to sit down and watch and have a good laugh. It’s the gift that keeps on giving for me because I get invited to places like the Houston Open.”
The first 5,000 fans at Thursday’s first round got a Shooter McGavin bobble head, and many of those bobble heads ended up signed by Shooter himself. And no one had to go to the ninth green at 9 o’clock to make it happen.
Although Shooter’s last Tour Championship appearance was in 1996 when he blew a big lead to Happy Gilmore, he remains a big fan of golf. McDonald said he has become an even bigger fan in the past 10 years, and it’s in big part to how much it has grown on television. That is, as long as TV towers aren’t collapsing on the green.
McDonald and Adam Sandler, who played Happy Gilmore, remain in touch, even seeing each other a couple weeks before the Houston Open. On the 25th anniversary of the movie last year, Sandler posted a video on Twitter of him recreating the swing.
Shortly after, McDonald’s publicist contacted McDonald and told him about Sandler’s video. He responded quickly.
On Thursday, the impact and fandom McDonald has sprouted in golf fans over the past quarter century were apparent. Those young and old were lined up to meet him, many times saying catch phrases from the movie when they finally got to meet him.
It remains apparent that even after all these years. It’s still Shooter’s tour.
“I have nothing but respect for his great game of golf, and these guys are phenomenally talented,” McDonald said. “So it’s a treat for me to be right up close and personal.”
Both Noren and Wise have plenty they want to improve on after the first round.
HOUSTON – Based off Aaron Wise’s attitude following his opening 18 holes, one would’ve thought he performed poorly during the first round of the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open.
He was less than enthralled after his round at Memorial Park Golf Course on Thursday, which was a brilliant bogey-free 5-under 65 to take the lead following the morning wave. Wise, whose lone PGA Tour win came in the state of Texas at the AT&T Byron Nelson in 2017, is tied with Alex Noren, Tony Finau and Tyson Alexander at the top.
“I’ve just been in a weird place with my game where I’m obviously playing well enough to shoot good scores, but there’s just a couple shots a round that are frustrating me,” Wise said. “Maybe it’s also just because it’s late in the season and I played too much golf, and that’s just kind of how golf gets.
“I have time to go clean some stuff up before the round tomorrow and hopefully play a little more solid, even though I would take the score again if you would give it to me.”
The first round was suspended because of darkness at 5:36 p.m. local time. The groups who didn’t finish will complete their rounds early Friday morning.
The highlight for Wise came on holes No. 3-6, when he recorded four straight birdies to move to 5 under. He started on No. 10, making seven pars before a birdie on the par-3 17th.
“I had a couple great saves to shoot bogey-free,” Wise said. “Sometimes you shoot bogey-free and you hit 18 greens, and it was just an easy round. Today, it was bogey-free on the card, but it didn’t feel stress-free.”
For Noren, his round started and ended the same way: with a birdie. He also started on the 10th hole, where he stuffed his approach shot inside six feet for a circle on the scorecard. He then had four birdies in five holes to begin his second nine after a bogey on the first, and Noren capitalized his day with a great tee shot on the par-3 ninth, drilling an eight-foot birdie to get to 5 under.
Alex Noren lines up a putt on the 13th green during the first round of the Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on November 10, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)
Noren, who has 11 international victories but none on the PGA Tour, also wasn’t feeling his best coming into the week.
“A little bit nervous coming into today,” Noren said. “Didn’t feel great in practice but found something and got the irons a lot better. So yeah, good.”
Finau teed off in the afternoon wave, and he did most of his damage on his final nine holes. He had five birdies on the front nine, but the exclamation point came on the par-3 ninth, when he sank a 35-foot, 5-inch putt for birdie to tie Noren and Wise.
Coming off a missed cut in his first event of the fall slate last week, the closing birdie was a great finish to Finau’s first round.
“I know I played well just to put myself near the top of the leaderboard. and it’s kind of just icing on the cake on a day that’s hard fought and well played,” Finau said.
Tony Finau plays his shot from the ninth tee during the first round of the Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on November 10, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Alexander is a part of the group tied for the lead, though he hasn’t finished his first round. He will start from the rough left of the 18th fairway with a 197-yard shot left for his second on the par-4 closing hole.
The group on top has a one-shot lead over David Lipsky and seven others, including Mackenzie Hughes, who won earlier this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Lipsky had five birdies and no bogeys to go out in 30, but he proceeded to bogey the 10th hole before making eight straight pars to finish his round. He also hasn’t won on Tour.
“Took advantage of the birdie holes on the front nine and hung in there pretty well on the back nine,” Lipsky said. “I think there was a stretch where I missed like three greens in a row, got them all up and down.”
There’s a large group at 3 under, including Justin Rose and Zecheng Dou, who finished on top of the Korn Ferry Tour standings to earn his PGA Tour card this summer.
Scottie Scheffler, the No. 2 golfer in the world and favorite coming in, birdied three of his final eight holes to finish at even-par 70. Amateur Travis Vick, a senior at Texas who missed the cut last week in Mexico, shot 2-under 68 and is T-21.
However, the packed leaderboard is chasing Finau, Noren and Wise. And on a course where the winning 72-hole scores have been 13 under and 10 under since returning to Memorial Park, getting off to a fast start is pivotal for success come the weekend.
“I’m anxious to get that next win,” Wise said. “I got one, but it feels like forever ago now. It’s one of those things where you’ve just got to stay patient. Like, I can’t control if I’m going to go out and win this tournament, right? I can only control how good a shot I’m going to hit, how good a putt I’m going to hit. So I’m just going to focus on that and then at the end of the week just tally them up and see where it ends up.”
Here are some of the best photos from the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open.
The PGA Tour’s 2022-23 fall slate is quickly coming to its conclusion, and this week in Houston is the penultimate event where players can earn FedEx Cup points.
Memorial Park Golf Course is the host for the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open. It’s playing as a par-70 layout measuring at 7,412 yards. The winner will earn $1.512 million.
Last year, Scottie Scheffler finished tied for second, and he’s the highest-ranked player in the field. Fellow United States Presidents Cuppers Sam Burns and Tony Finau are also playing, along with Hideki Matsuyama, Sepp Straka, last week’s winner Russell Henley and more.
“There’s never going to be a lack of superstar power on the Tour.”
HOUSTON – Sahith Theegala isn’t afraid to be honest.
Ahead of the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course, Theegala, who lives in The Woodlands, Texas, was asked about whether the upstart LIV Golf affected him.
“I think no matter what everyone feels about either tour, whatever opinions they have or thoughts they have, I think it affects everyone, whether they want to admit it or not,” Theegala said.
As the PGA Tour’s fall season begins to wind down (there’s only two events left offering FedEx Cup points until 2023), talk hasn’t subsided about the LIV Golf Series, as its season ended two weeks ago in Miami. Next year, LIV will return and be more prominent, moving to 14 events from eight, and rumors swirl about the next players from the Tour who may make the jump.
Theegala has long pledged his allegiance to the PGA Tour, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had conversations with those who now play for LIV. The Houston Open’s defending champion, Jason Kokrak, plays for the Greg Norman-led circuit.
However, Theegala doesn’t have an issue with players who have left the Tour, but he understands it has taken away all of the world’s best players playing at once.
“Like, we all want to play with Cam (Smith) and DJ and those guys that are some of the best players in the world and there’s no denying that,” Theegala said. “It’s unfortunate that the talent pool’s split a little bit.”
However, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world for the PGA Tour. Even if the Houston Open is missing some names who would have likely been here this week if they were eligible to play, like Houston resident Patrick Reed among others, Theegala said it gives someone else a tee time who is ready for the spotlight.
“There’s more opportunity than ever,” Theegala said. “There’s just too many good golfers, especially in this day and age, that the next guy up is going to go ahead and fill that spot. And a guy that maybe hasn’t had a chance to be that superstar is going to step up into that role.
“There’s just too many golfers, too many good golfers. There’s never going to be a lack of superstar power on the Tour.”
“Maybe it was because of football season, who knows.”
HOUSTON – Scottie Scheffler acknowledged last season was the first time he had ever really played well in the fall. Even going back to his college days at Texas, he had never been able to find comfort when playing in the early part of the season.
“Maybe it was because of football season, who knows,” Scheffler said.
Nevertheless, that all changed for the second-ranked golfer in the world at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba last year, when he placed fourth. The following week at the Houston Open, he tied for second, with the round of the week coming on Friday when he fired an 8-under 62.
He held the lead heading to Sunday, but Jason Kokrak shot 5 under in the final round to beat Scheffler by two. However, five starts later, Scheffler won for the first time in his career, and the rest is history.
He won the PGA Tour’s Jack Nicklaus Award as Player of the Year. He won four times, including the Masters, and finished runner-up at the 2022 Tour Championship to Rory McIlroy.
Now, Scheffler returns to Houston for the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course, where he tees off at 8:13 a.m. ET Thursday, with an entirely different perspective than from a year ago.
“Last year was really the first time where I did (play well), and it was nice going into the offseason feeling very comfortable where my game was at,” Scheffler said. “I was able to just fine-tune things instead of really feeling like I had to work on a ton of stuff. I just played really well.”
Scheffler comes into the 2022 Houston Open as the favorite, and for good reason. Although he has gone through struggles recently, especially with his putting, Scheffler fired a final-round 9-under 62 in Mayakoba last week to finish T-3. Those struggles, which included losing a lead in the final round of the Tour Championship and going 0-3-1 in the Presidents Cup, culminated in him tinkering with his equipment.
Before the CJ Cup in South Carolina, he switched putters. He finished at 1 under for the week in a tie for 45th, but he lost his top spot in the world rankings to McIlroy.
After the first two rounds last week in Mexico, Scheffler again decided to make a putting change back to his old flat stick.
“I’m always working and trying things,” Scheffler said. “I’ve always been a guy that makes little changes at a time. I switched putters at the CJ Cup. I was hitting a lot of good putts, the ball just wasn’t going in the hole, and it was more of the same at the beginning of the week last week. So after Friday’s round, I was like, ‘Well, let me see if it’s me or it’s the putter.’
“I went back to my old putter, something I’m comfortable with, and I putted pretty good over the weekend, so using it again this week. Seemed like the little bit of an experiment failed.”
Scheffler ranks second on Tour this season in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee but is 190th (of 206) in putting. If he indeed found his stroke last week in Mexico, the Houston Open could be a springboard to another great year.
It’s safe to say Scheffler likes playing in Texas. A Dallas native, he finished tied for second (Houston Open), first (WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play) and lost in a playoff (Charles Schwab Challenge) in three starts in the state last season.
There has been plenty of change in Scheffler’s life since this time last year, but he remains a golfer in pursuit of perfection.
“Last week was really solid golf, and it definitely gives me a good bit of confidence,” Scheffler said. “I’m working on a lot of the same stuff I was last year about this time, and so hopefully it will continue to pay off.”
