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Shell Houston Open a Dress Rehearsal for Augusta National

By Elizabeth Bethel

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Apr 2, 2015; Humble, TX, USA; Scott Piercy hits a tee shot during the first round of the Shell Houston Open at Golf Club of Houston – The Tournament Course. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

If the Shell Houston Open is a dress rehearsal for The Masters, Scott Piercy may be the man to watch this week.  Piercy has made a very good start in Houston with his first round 63 on the Golf Club of Houston track. Going into cut day Piercy is two shots clear of JB Holmes and Alex Cejka and three ahead of an interesting quartet that includes Phil Mickelson, Shawn Stefani, Luke Gutherie and Charles Howell III.

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Piercy was the man to watch on Thursday.  He wasn’t playing like world-ranked number 97.  More like number 1 with a round that tied the course record set by Mickelson in 2011 and Johnson Wagner in 2008.  Notably, both went on to win the Houston Open.  Is that where Piercy’s headed?

In the 13th hour, something kind of clicked and I kind of figured it out. On Wednesday, I kind of engrained it, kept working and got pretty good. Today was awesome. It really was. – Scott Piercy

It must have been a welcome turnaround for Piercy who’s still recovering from elbow surgery and on Monday wasn’t feeling very good about his game.  Hitting balls on the range Piercy was thinking that he should “go home and not waste my time.”

There’s a lesson here.  He stayed on the range and kept grinding.  Clearly, his work paid good dividends.  In his opening round Piercy missed only one green in regulation, got around the course with an economical 26 putts, and fired off a heart-stopping birdie streak in the middle of the round.

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Still, there’s a lot of golf to be played in Houston and Piercy isn’t going into the 2nd round with a comfortable edge.  Mickelson is lurking along right behind him.

Even though Mickelson hasn’t been having what I’d describe as an impressive season he was playing on Thursday like the 3-time Masters champion that he is, starting his round with a chip-in for birdie on the first hole and then turning on his short game.  At one point he had the lead but couldn’t keep pace with Piercy’s birdie binge.  Still, it’s that short game that makes Lefty fun to watch.

. . . a good round, a good start to the tournament. . . – Phil Mickelson

Mickelson is among the

36 players in the Houston field who are headed to Magnolia Lane

Sunday afternoon and he seems to be playing with that destination in mind.

With the course in fine condition, I’m looking for both Piercy and Mickelson to come off the tee aggressively on Friday and play hard to establish a comfortable edge over the field going into the weekend.  Piercy will be the underdog in this fight — just about everybody would be the underdog in a shootout with Mickelson, including Tiger Woods at this point in his career.  Even with that Valero Texas Open final round 76, Phil Mickelson has the uncanny ability when all appears to be lost to pull a comeback out of his bag.

If you want to catch some of the round like tune into Golf Channel Friday afternoon, 3-5pm ET.  Neither Piercy nor Mickelson made it into Danny Norris’s fantasy picks for the Houston Open, so by the time the sun sets on Friday there may be some other surprises on the leaderboard.  Those surprises could come bundled into a package that contains the Ryder Cup Young Guns.  Patrick Reed’s starting Friday at 4-under and Jordan Spieth at 3-under par.  With Magnolia Lane beckoning I’m not taking my eyes off that pair.

Next: Shell Houston Open Fantasy Picks

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