Former Vol David Skinns’ first-round results at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
The Texas Children’s Houston Open is taking place Thursday-Sunday at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston, Texas.
Former Vol David Skinns is part of the field. He is tied for tenth place (-3) after the first-round. Taylor Moore and Wilson Furr (-6) are tied for first-place entering Friday.
Skinns played for the Vols from 2001-05, appearing in 46 tournaments. He came to Tennessee from Lincoln, England.
The former Vol has appeared in 34 PGA TOUR events during his career. He has made 14-of-33 cuts on the PGA TOUR. Skinns also has appeared in 151 events, including three wins, on the Korn Ferry Tour during his career.
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.
Not only is the PGA Tour’s 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open in town, the Astros have their Opening Day game Thursday afternoon against the New York Yankees, and the Houston Cougars men’s basketball team is in the Sweet 16 of March Madness.
Sports are awesome, aren’t they?
But the Houston Astros have their fingerprints all over the Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course, a municipal facility about 5 miles west of downtown. The Astros Golf Foundation runs the tournament, and the logo has the same colors as do the Major League Baseball team.
The merchandise tent also has a heavy Astros flair, with orange, blue and white shirts, hats, pullovers and plenty more.
Here’s a look at the best merchandise at the Texas Children’s Houston Open:
The Texas Children’s Houston Open is different this year. And that’s not a bad thing.
HOUSTON — Fans tuning in to the Houston Open this week are in for plenty of changes since the last time the tournament was held.
First, there’s a new title sponsor: Texas Children’s Hospital. Previous sponsors include Shell, Vivint, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cadence Bank, but this is the first of a five-year partnership for Texas Children’s and the Houston Open. There will also be increased purses for the duration of the contract.
Then, it’s being played at a new time of year for the first time at Memorial Park Golf Club, site of the tournament since 2020. For three years, it was part of the fall schedule. After having no tournament in 2023, it moved to the slot WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play used to occupy in the new PGA Tour schedule.
Although the venue is the same, the golf course is completely different.
“Back in the fall it was playing quite fast, the ball was running, the
greens were firm,” defending champion Tony Finau said. “I don’t think that’s going to be the case as much this week.”
In the past, the Houston Open at Memorial Park rewarded accuracy off the tee because of thick rough. This year, there’s not as big of a premium for finding the fairway because the course was overseeded with ryegrass. Then there are the greens, which as Finau alluded to, can be challenging if the course speeds up.
Signage near the 16th green during a practice round prior to the Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on March 27, 2024, in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Raj Mehta/Getty Images)
This week, however, someone who is strong with their iron game is likely to rise to the top.
“It used to be some holes where it was really, really important to hit
the fairway, especially with the Bermuda rough,” World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said. “Now there’s not as much of a premium placed on that. You’ll see a lot more drivers, people hitting it really far and it will be much
more of I’d say a second shot golf course this time around.”
In 2022, Finau set the tournament scoring record at Memorial Park, shooting 16-under 264 for the week. Players think there’s a good chance that is broken this week.
“I would say it’s going to play a little bit easier,” World No. 4 Wyndham Clark said. “In the fall it was very tough because you would hit it in the rough and it was so hard to judge lies. And then around the greens was, you would have into the grain, dormant Bermuda so you could get some squirrely shots. So I predict that scores will be lower than what they normally are in the fall.”
Numerous golfers in the field are using this week as final preparations for Augusta National and the Masters, which is in two weeks.
Scheffler, who donned the green jacket in 2022, said he was surprised with a lack of rough and said they’re probably trying to make it like Augusta National, which he doesn’t mind for his prep.
The 17th hole was also changed, and when the tee is moved up, it makes the green more enticing for players to go for it in two.
Last week’s champion, Peter Malnati, had high praise for the municipal course, saying it looks more like a high-end country club and not a course the public can play any day, any time.
“It’s a completely different course,” Malnati said of the fall-to-spring change. “I think I’d probably possibly be in the minority of Tour players who would say this, but I kind of love the fact that it did have a bit of a muni feel. It felt like a course that any Houstonian could just come out and play, and that’s not something we really get on Tour a lot. We tend to play perfectly manicured, you know, country club-type feeling courses that are just in immaculate condition.
“That’s not how this course has been when we played it in the fall. It’s been a little rough around the edges. This year it looks much more like what we’re used to on the PGA Tour. It’s immaculate, no blade of grass out of place and that’s obviously a really good thing. Huge compliment to the staff here for the job they’ve done to get this that way.”
The Texas Children’s Houston Open is different this year. And that’s not a bad thing.
“It’s aesthetically a lot prettier because normally it’s a little more dormant when we play it,” Clark said. “They’ve done an awesome job, the course is in amazing shape, it looks amazing.”
After a month in Florida, the PGA Tour is in Houston for the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course, a municipal layout nestled roughly five miles west of downtown. It’s the first playing of the tournament since November 2022, when Tony Finau set a tournament scoring record in his victory.
Finau is back to defend his title, but also in the field is Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 who has won his last two starts at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, and Wyndham Clark, who has finished runner-up at both events.
Here’s a look at the best photos from the Texas Children’s Houston Open:
“They want to see people who are the best in the world at what they do, do it at a high level and celebrate that.”
HOUSTON — From the moment his final putt dropped, tears were dancing down Peter Malnati’s face.
Last Sunday, he picked up his first PGA Tour win in nine years. He got to celebrate with his 4-year-old son, Hatcher, on the green.
“That’s something that I’ve seen other families have and that has been my dream,” Malnati said through his tears Sunday. “If I had never had the moment I had today, I would have been completely fine. But, man, was that special.”
In professional golf, one week can alter someone’s life drastically. That happened last week for Malnati, 36, and one of the Tour’s player directors. And the emotional celebration enthralled fans.
Instead of taking a week off, Malnati is in the field this week at the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course. During his pre-tournament press conference Wednesday, he was asked about whether he was aware why his win resonated.
His response was thorough and from the heart.
“I think at the end of the day — do you remember like we can all probably remember when we were kids, and we were all kids at different times, but the things that moved us that we watched,” Malnati said. “I remember watching Jordan and the ’97 Bulls, I remember watching Tiger in the 2000 Masters. I didn’t care one iota what Jordan’s contract was. I didn’t care one iota what the winner’s check at that U.S. Open was.
“And I think people are sick of that. I think people are just sick of the narrative in golf being about, you know, contracts on LIV, purses on the Tour, guaranteed comp on the Tour. I think people are so sick of that. They want to see sport, they want to see — they want to see people who are the best in the world at what they do do it at a high level and celebrate that, celebrate the athleticism, celebrate the achievement. Obviously this is a business and to the top players who drive a lot of the value in this business, we’ve got to compensate them fairly, we’ve got to make that happen.”
Peter Malnati accepts the Valspar Championship Trophy after the final round of the Valspar Championship at Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club on March 24, 2024 in Palm Harbor, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
“But I think we’re doing that above and beyond, and the narrative, the storylines, the conversation needs to come back to the product on the course and what we do. I think for me that was like I just, I just feel like no kid dreamed when they were watching Jordan dreamed of having his salary, they didn’t care about that. They dreamed of being in that moment, hitting that shot. I think that’s what our fans care about, too, and that’s what they want to see. I hope those tears that I was crying on that 18th green had nothing to do with my share of that, what was it, an $8.4 million purse last week. My tears had nothing to do with my share of that. I’m going to enjoy it and we’re going to use it to do a lot of good in this world, but it had nothing to do with that. And I don’t think our fans care about that either.
“I hope that connected with some people and I hope that that can be — I do think everyone out here who plays and competes would agree with me on that. I just hope that can be the story that we tell can come back to the best athletes in the world competing on the biggest stage in the world and doing it to show off this amazing skill that we have that can be so entertaining for people. I want that to be our story.”
“I don’t really think much about that kind of stuff.”
HOUSTON — Scottie Scheffler can add his name to the PGA Tour record books in yet another way this week.
If Scheffler were to win the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course, he would become the first player in seven years to win in three straight starts, and he would be the first in a decade to win three straight stroke-play events.
Dustin Johnson won three straight tournaments in 2017 during a stretch that included the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event. In 2014, Rory McIlroy won three straight stroke-play events, starting with the Open Championship and closing with the PGA Championship.
Scheffler can join that duo after consecutive wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, the latter becoming the first player ever to win back-to-back tournaments at TPC Sawgrass. But that’s not on the forefront of his mind.
Scottie Scheffler celebrates with the trophy after winning during the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass on March 17, 2024 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
“I don’t really think much about that kind of stuff,” Scheffler said. “I had a good rest week at home last week. I was pretty worn out after Bay Hill and Players, so it was nice to get home and just relax. I didn’t do nearly as much practice as I typically would have in the last week, so coming in shaking off a little bit of rust the last couple days. But game feels like it’s in a good spot, so I feel rested and ready to go this week.”
Scheffler and rust don’t belong in the same sentence, but if the world No. 1 is indeed trying to find his groove two weeks before the Masters, Memorial Park is a good place to do it.
The municipal course in Houston has been a part of the PGA Tour’s fall schedule in previous years, but the course is plenty different being played in the spring. Players have commented on how the rough is lighter, and the premium for hitting the fairway isn’t as high as it used to be. Scores could be lower than in past tournaments.
Scheffler finished T-9 in Houston in the fall of 2022. The year before, he tied for second and fired a course-record 8-under 62 in the second round (Tony Finau tied the record last year in his winning effort).
Scottie Scheffler takes a tee shot on the first hole during the third round of the Cadence Bank Houston Open golf tournament. (Photo: Erik Williams/USA TODAY Sports)
Don’t expect the challenge to go away with the move to the spring, Scheffler warned.
“With the way the greens are elevated and with the runoffs and with the way the rough was, you had to hit fairways (in the past),” Scheffler said. “Now there’s not as much of a premium on that. I think we’re supposed to get some pretty good winds over the weekend. The golf course is still really, really challenging. I think it’s just going to be challenging in a different way this year.”
The Texas Children’s Houston Open is the first of four events in the state of Texas in the next couple months. Scheffler, who went to school at the University of Texas and lives in Dallas, enjoys playing in events close to home.
His schedule is fluid the next couple months because he and his wife, Meredith, are expecting their first child in April. But even after a couple exhausting weeks in Florida, he didn’t want to pass up playing in the Lone Star State before the first major championship of the year.
“I like trying to support as many events as I can in my home state,” Scheffler said. “I definitely am a proud Texas, and so I like to do what I can to support the events here at home. Yeah, it’s good to be back. I don’t know what my schedule will be like going forward, but I definitely like to try and support the events here in Texas as much as I can.”
