With only two regular events left on the 2022 calendar, the PGA Tour heads north from Mexico to Memorial Park Golf Course and the Houston Open. One of the country’s best public, municipal courses, Memorial Park is a long par 70 that measures 7,412 yards and can trace its origins back to 1912.
It is a wall-to-wall bermudagrass track with five par 3s and three par 5s. Players can expect firm and fast conditions with unique green complexes that feature plenty of undulations and short-grass runoffs with false fronts. Playing almost an entire stroke over par after its first two editions here, Memorial Park emphasizes the importance of a well-rounded game. As Marc Leishman quipped last year, “I think what this whole golf course does is reward good shots and punish bad shots.”
f684b2f3d4218ee06dad551b3bb2074bComing off a 3rd place finish and Sunday round of 62 at Mayakoba, Scottie Scheffler headlines the field this week. Now ranked 2nd in the world behind Rory McIlroy, Scheffler can regain the world No. 1 position with a win in Houston where he finished 2nd last year. Other top-ranked players in the field include Hideki Matsuyama, Sam Burns, Tony Finau, and last week’s winner in Mayakoba, Russell Henley.
Course History
Memorial Park Golf Course had its official beginning in 1912 when a rudimentary 9-hole course with sand greens was laid out and intended for soldiers who were staying nearby at Camp Logan. In 1935, architect John Bredemus redesigned the course and added a second nine. The course hosted the Houston Open 14 times from 1947-1965 before the event moved to different state courses in both Humble and The Woodlands.
In 2017, after Shell did not renew its deal after 25 years of sponsoring the Houston Open, Astros owner Jim Crane began planning to have the event return to the city of Houston. While Memorial Park underwent a complete restoration in 1994, it was still not suitable enough for PGA Tour standards. So fast forward to 2019 when Crane hired famed course designer Tom Doak to dramatically change the course with the goal of keeping it playable for the average golfer, and yet making it a more demanding challenge for Tour professionals.
Though the routing remained unchanged, the course was transformed in numerous ways. The course has a much more wide-open look thanks to the elimination of underbrush and many of the overhanging trees in certain areas. The ravine that runs through the front nine was incorporated into more holes. Eight of the original greens were moved and certain other holes were altered in different ways. Tour player, Brooks Koepka was brought on as a consultant to Doak’s team. His contributions included getting rid of half of the bunkers, incorporating more short grass around the greens, and creating additional water hazards on the closing stretch of holes.
The Course
Memorial Park Golf Course is a long Par 70 that sits at 7,412 yards. Not only is it the fifth-longest course in the annual Tour rotation, but it also played as the fourth-toughest regular course with golfers averaging 0.92 strokes over par over the past two years. It initially appears like a bomber’s paradise, but the past two years has shown that it is a course that demands accuracy, touch around the greens and patience.
The course features wall-to-wall Bermudagrass with penal 2.5″ rough and “bouncy” greens that typically run at fast speeds between 12-13 on the stimp meter. With only 17 bunkers and four holes with direct water danger, the rough and heavily contoured greens complexes are among the course’s most prominent defense.
Overall, it is a flat parkland course, but Doak did a great job of creating the potential for uneven lies in the fairways and in the short-grass areas around the greens. The exposed ravine that cuts across the front nine also adds a degree of scenery that is unexpected until you witness it first-hand.
As is typical for courses in Texas, the weather often becomes a factor. Especially in November, the weather can be very unpredictable. Frost, rain, and gusty winds are all possible this time of year. Rain the first two years of this event has led to preferred lies for some rounds along with plenty of mudballs in the rough and runoff areas around the greens.
Considering its length, the unpredictable Bermuda rough, the firm and fast November conditions, the undulating green complexes surrounded by short grass, and the swirling Texas winds, it’s no surprise that Memorial Park plays so difficult.
“It’s really a course of misses,” said Kramer Hickok. “It’s not a course of how well you’re hitting it. You could hit it great and have a couple misses in the wrong spots and make easy doubles.” Scottie Scheffler chimed in on the course’s difficulty by saying, “It’s a place where you can score, it’s just really difficult to. It’s a challenging golf course. I really appreciate that. I feel I get a little tired of playing the golf courses where you’ve got to shoot 20-something under to win.”
Along with a good mix of doglegs and straight holes, Memorial Park features a variety of holes with varying distances. Lengthy holes, however, are a common theme. Three of the five par 3s are over 200 yards with eight par 4s playing over 440 yards. The course really shows its teeth with five of those playing over 490 yards and average a bogey or worse rate of 28.9%. Even the par 5s are challenging which includes the 576-yard 16th hole which only has a Birdie or Better rate of 22%.
The best holes at Memorial Park are definitely the closing stretch of #15-18 which are full of risk and reward. Known as the loudest hole in Texas, the 15th is a short par 3 that plays anywhere from 115-155 yards. It has a difficult green to land on with not much area for a safe miss. With a false front on the right side, a creek short and left, and a very narrow green, bogey or worse is very possible.
The aforementioned par 5 16th hole has plenty of risk if choosing to go for the green in two shots. The green is protected by water on three sides and there is very little room behind for a bailout. The 17th is a short par 4 that requires two precise shots to hit the green which sits behind another water hazard. Finally, the closing 18th is a monster 488-yard par 4 that is a a slight dogleg right with plenty of strategic options off the tee. The green slopes from left to back right creating a difficult approach from a longer distance.
Strokes Gained Analysis
Off the Tee
As one of the longest courses on Tour along with a lack of hazards and bunkers off the tee, golfers are able to use driver without hesitation on almost every par 4 and par 5 hole. Distance is definitely an advantage and ranks as the 10th highest on Tour at 291 yards. Longer drives means players have less lengthy approach shots into firm greens.
Accuracy matters here as well because golfers who miss fairways will have to deal with the unpredictable bermuda rough. As Adam Scott said, “The course is relentless. It’s just demanding off the tee. It requires something long and straight.”
Last year, off the tee only accounted for 10% of the total strokes gained which is one of the lowest allotments on Tour. And that makes sense with both approach and around the green play being the great separators of talent as Memorial Park is one of the most difficult courses on Tour in those areas.
Approach
The data chart above shows every single approach stat at Memorial Park in the red, which means tougher than Tour average. It’s the 8th toughest GIR course from both the fairway and the rough. It’s the 6th toughest in Proximity to the Hole at 39.6 feet and the toughest course on Tour in Proximity from the Rough at over 53 feet. Regarding the challenge these greens present, 2020 winner Carlos Ortiz said, “Once you push it with these greens, they’re pretty undulated and they all fall off, so if you start pushing it, it’s easy to hit it to the side and you’re going to have a hard time putting it again on the green.”
Even though the rough is only 2.5″, at that length it is very unpredictable and volatile. Plus, the combination of bermudagrass rough and firm bermuda greens makes it tough to land greens in regulation no matter where you are hitting from.
The biggest challenge is getting your second shot to settle on the correct quadrant of these large greens. The firm undulations that slope off near the edges make it very difficult to get makeable birdie putts if you hit the wrong sector of the green. In some cases, missing the green on the correct side might be better than hitting the green but having to putt from 40 feet across multiple breaks and slopes. Last year’s winner, Jason Kokrak emphasized this by saying, “There are some pins out here that are pretty nasty if you do miss, so I’ve been playing away from the pin on occasion, which I don’t normally do.”
With an average approach shot distance of 189 yards, around 68% of approaches have come from farther than 150 yards. With so many long holes, 26% of approach shots have come from 200+ yards. Joel Dahmen spoke to this difficult combination of hitting tough greens from distance, “With the way the greens are, you have to be so precise on the greens, and it’s tough to be precise from 200 yards.”
Around the Green and Putting
Last year, 27% of strokes gained at Memorial Park came from around the greens. This is the highest rate on Tour and speaks to the importance of having a quality short game in order to contend here. Last year each of the top-five finishers gained over 1.8 strokes around the greens. Most of the greens fall off around the edges to short-grass runoff areas which can make life quite difficult for even the best players when missing the putting surface.
Not only that but the greens are also sloped and very fast. Instead of the deeper rough that most courses have, Doak and Koepka wanted tight, sloping uphill lies that would test players’ ability to demonstrate touch with their chipping. And with so many players missing greens, a poor short game will be very difficult to hide.
As Scottie Scheffler said about the difficulty in saving par, “Around the greens out here is very, very difficult to get up and down, and you can get into some spots where you start playing ping pong across these greens, it’s brutal.”
In typical Doak fashion, the greens are filled with sloping contours and roll firm and fast. Once on the greens, the data shows putting averages are very close to the Tour average. Because they do run a bit faster than normal, and if they are firm, they will really test a player’s ability to avoid three-putts and bogeys.