This year’s event will be played from March 27-30. This will be the fifth straight year the Houston Open will be played at Memorial Park Golf Course. The PGA Tour event previously was played at Golf Club of Houston in Humble.
“This is not just a golf tournament — it’s an experience,” Mayor John Whitmire said Thursday. “As a Houstonian, and observing the Houston Open for years, I didn’t think it could be brought back to Memorial Park. I thought traffic. Jim Crane is a fix-it guy.”
Memorial Park Golf Course is rounding into shape. Grandstands are currently going up and infrastructure is visible.
The tournament hosted its media day Thursday at the golf course. In addition to Whitmire, others in attendance included Astros owner Crane, Texas Children’s president and CEO Dr. Debra Sukin, and Giles Kibbe, president of the Astros Golf Foundation, which runs the event.
“You can mimic some of the other tournaments, but we try to do it first-class,” Crane said. “We want the fans to be comfortable, we want them to come back and enjoy it. We’ll try to get the best field we can possibly get.
“One key thing last year, is we got the course overseeded (spreading grass seed over existing grass), so the course was in perfect position. The pros like to play in perfect positions, and that word spread.”
Crane said he would like to get about half of the top 20 money leaders on the PGA Tour for the Houston event.
As expected, Jaeger is set to defend his championship.
“Houston is a special place for me and my family,” Jaeger said in a prerecorded message. “I’m excited to play against the best players in the world. It’s going to be a fun event. I know defending my title will be a difficult task.”
Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 ranked player, Finau and Wyndham Clark are early commitments as well.
The Astros Golf Foundation’s staff work year around to make the Houston Open one of the better tournaments on tour.
“Everyday we’ve been asking ourselves, what can we do to improve on what we did last year and how can we make this a better experience for our fans? We focused on that and I’m certain we’ve done that,” Kibbe said.
Fan experience should be enhanced for this year’s PGA Tour event. Designated as the so-called party hole, No. 15 will have a seating increase of 20 percent. A new venue (The Dugout) behind that hole’s green is an area more intimately connected to the players. A new double-decker hospitality area was announced for hole 16. Holes 13 and 18 also have expanded grandstands.
The ride share drop-off and pick-up has been moved to a location on Memorial Drive. That area is close by the No. 7 hole, where there is an entrance to the course.
There will be an expansion of three merchandise tents. In addition to the large tent near the 10th green, there will be an added tent at the ride share entrance and a new No. 15 hole location.
Following the trophy presentation of Sunday’s final round, there will be live entertainment from Adrian Michael and the Greenway Band.
It was announced that Aramark will be the tournament’s new food and beverage concessionaire, with food trucks available throughout the golf course.
The Houston Open is in its second year of a five-year contract for a spring date. The PGA Tour is in flux given its pending merger with LIV Golf, but Crane believes Houston is not going anywhere on the schedule
“I think we’ll continue to play here (in the spring),” Crane said. “I doubt they (PGA Tour) would want to move it after how well we’ve done here.”
Crane’s vision of returning the Houston Open to the city’s center is paying off. He also wants the tournament to have a charitable impact. The Astros Golf Foundation has distributed $16.4 million throughout the Houston area to local non-profit organizations.
“We’re a great city. Just the quality of life,” Whitmire said. “We have so many options across Houston, a first-class (Memorial Park). We couldn’t have done it without all the parties and Texas Children’s. It’s really how we get things done in
