2020 Houston Open: Top 10 power rankings at Memorial Park

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Memorial Park Golf Course will look significantly different than when it hosts the Houston Open for the first time since 1963.

The Houston Open preceding the Masters is common on the PGA Tour schedule. Just not in November.

Nonetheless, the juices are flowing for everyone in the golf world as Augusta National awaits just a week away. There will be no patrons allowed inside those hallowed grounds this year.

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There will be some on site this week.

The PGA Tour admitted 500 fans per day into last week’s Bermuda Championship and are allowing 2,000 a pop into Memorial Park Golf Course.

Could some fans on the property provide the jolt of energy that some struggling big names need? Will it spook some of the younger players?

I’m not sure either way, but hopefully it all goes off without a hitch.

To the golf, there’s a strong contingent of players looking for pre-major reps. That includes world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka in just his second event since summer, and a slew of others I’ve got in my top 10.

There are 132 layers in the field. There is a traditional 36-hole cut.

We’ve got no course history to work with as the Houston Open moved from the Golf Club of Houston to Memorial Park Golf Course in 2020. MPGC hosted the Houston Open from 1951-1963, but to state the obvious, no one in those fields are playing this week. Not even Phil.

It’s a cool move by the tournament to come back to MPGC. It’s a municipal course right in the heart of the city. Tee times are hard to get, but they’re very affordable at as low as $30 for an adult to walk on weekdays.

It opened in 1912 as a nine-hole course before evolving to 18 holes in the 1930s. It hosts a whopping 60,000 rounds per year. In January 2019, Tom Doak and player consultant Brooks Koepka plowed through a 10-month and $15 million renovation project to make MPGC PGA Tour caliber once again.

It measures 7,021 yards for a par 71. The course was previously very flat, but the renovation has added some land movement. It’s not a bunker-laden course with just 19 scattered throughout.

The parkland style course is tree lined, though it does not appear too overly dense. The rough doesn’t look too thick, either, which players will appreciate in advance of Augusta.

Like most Texas courses, the best defense is wind. The weather forecast predicts breezes into the low double digits, but not quite what we saw last week in blustery Bermuda. There’s little chance for rain and temperatures will be in the upper 50s to upper 70s. Except scores to be low.

I could see a wide variety of playing styles having success at a short course like this. Here are the 10 I’ve got for the Houston Open:

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