LIV Golf Houston
After a month off LIV Golf begins its second half of its season schedule in Houston. Jon Rahm (7/1) is once again the tournament favorite as he has been for every event on the LIV schedule this season. However, he does have more company now near the top of the odds board with two-time (Mayakoba, Jeddah) 2024 LIV winner Joaquin Niemann and PGA Championship runner-up Bryson DeChambeau both priced at 8/1.
The second group in the market consists of Tyrrell Hatton (12/1), LIV Hong Kong winner Abraham Ancer (16/1), LIV Singapore winner Brooks Koepka (16/1), LIV Miami winner Dean Burmester (16/1), Cameron Smith (16/1), and Talor Gooch (16/1).
The Golf Club of Houston is the host course for this week’s event and five players in this field have won on this course when the PGA TOUR hosted the Houston Open: 2009: Paul Casey (40/1 this week’s price), 2010: Anthony Kim (1000/1), 2011: Phil Mickelson (200/1), 2014: Matt Jones (130/1), 2018: Ian Poulter (150/1).
Carlos Ortiz (30/1) and Jason Kokrak (80/1) also won the Houston Open when it was held at Memorial Park in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
The Event
LIV Golf is making its debut in Houston this week. As always, there are three rounds and 54 holes of play in a shotgun start format, and the 54 players are playing for a $20 million individual purse with $4 million going to the individual winner.
The Course
The Golf Club of Houston is located in Humble, Texas, just northeast of the city. The course plays as a Par 72 of 7,425 yards. Designed by famed architect Rees Jones and major champion David Toms, the Tournament Course at the Golf Club of Houston opened in 2005. Golf Digest ranks the course as one of the top 50 in Texas and one of the best public courses in the Lone Star State.
Hole highlights include the 315-yard Par 4 12th should be drivable for most of the field and the 485-yard Par 4 18th is guarded by a lake down the left side of the fairway and bordering the entire left side of the green.
The course uses Mini Verde Bermudagrass on the greens and Tif Sport Bermudagrass in all other spots. At 12 on the stimpmeter, the greens will be average speed.
LIV Golf Houston Best Bets
Abraham Ancer 22/1 BetMGM
Ancer was the winner earlier this year at LIV Hong Kong and has three Top 10 finishes since that victory. He placed 8th on this course in 2018 at the Houston Open. Ancer currently leads LIV in Driving Accuracy.
Paul Casey 50/1 BetRivers
Casey is a former winner on this course having won the Houston Open in 2009. He was runner-up earlier this year to Ancer in Hong Kong and was also in contention at the Singapore Classic before finishing 6th. Casey currently leads LIV for Greens In Regulation and is 3rd in Scrambling.
Thomas Pieters 50/1 DraftKings
Pieters returned home to Belgium two weeks ago and finished runner-up in the DP World Tour’s Soudal Open. This was after finishing Top 5 in Singapore at the beginning of May. The cheers and well wishes from the Belgian faithful may be what is needed to spur Pieters on to continued recent good play. He has also finished in the Top 15 in his last three LIV events.
Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra 150/1 DraftKings
The former World No. 2 Amateur won in Thailand back in 2022 in his professional rookie season. He also won last year at St. Andrews Bay in an Asian Tour event. The Spaniard just posted his first Top 10 of the season in Singapore. He also qualified for the U.S. Open two weeks ago in Dallas finishing T-2 in the qualifier.
