Texas Children's Houston Open & NCAA Sweet 16
Last week, we tipped 4 bracket busters (Oakland, Duquesne, Morehead State, and McNeese St) and 2 of them managed to pull massive upsets with Oakland conquering Kentucky and Duquesne sending BYU home early.
This week, we’ll have a PGA Tour cap for the Texas Children’s Houston Open and then offer up a few items for the Sweet 16 games slated for Thursday & Friday.
The Tour heads to Houston for the Texas Children’s Houston Open hosted by the Memorial Park GC. This tournament is now appropriately slotted in the spring after re-emerging from dormancy on the Tour schedule in the awkward spot of November when the Tour is out of sight and out of mind.
The Scorecard:
Course Details:
Memorial Park Golf Course
Par 70, 7,435 yards
Full field, 36-hole cut
Five par 3s, ten par-4s (5 at over 490 yards), three par 5s (the most difficult on Tour)
Memorial Park GC is the 4th longest course on Tour than isn’t a major
Course doesn’t have a lot of trouble with only 21 bunkers and 4 holes with water danger
6th most difficult course on Tour
Player profile that should perform well this week: Bombers off the tee, long iron ball strikers, creative scramblers who can save strokes around the green, lag putters/3 putt avoidance
Course correlation: Augusta National (Houston Open has historically set-up their course to give players a good prep for The Masters)
Greens: Poa trivialis overseed, 13 stimp, firm, undulating, elevated, difficult, tucked pin positions on approach so long iron players who can hit a higher apex can hold these greens
Rough: Non-penal Ryegrass overseed at only 1.25" (again, the Augusta National philosophy of less penal rough)
This week’s betting card:
**Pay attention to the house rules for each sports book on the dead heat finish for placement bets (top 10/20/40). BetMGM is one of the only books with wide availability that pays in full for a dead heat. For instance, 4 or 5 players could all be T20 and the bet payout gets cut down considerably.**
Alex Noren Top 10 +300 (BetMGM)
Jake Knapp Top 20 +200 (BetMGM)
Cameron Champ Top 20 +400 (BetMGM)
Joseph Bramlett Top 40 +130 (BetMGM)
Kevin Dougherty Top 40 +260 (BetMGM)
NCAA Sweet 16:
This year’s NCAA Tournament has played out perfectly. We got the sprinkle of upsets in Round 1, but now we have 16 big brands battling it out for the title. Here are a few bets for the Round of 16 games on Thursday & Friday.
UConn vs. San Diego State, Thursday March 28th 7:39pm EDT
San Diego State Team Total Under 62.5 points -115 (DraftKings & FanDuel)
Clemson vs Arizona, Thursday March 28th 7:09pm EDT
Clemson +7.5 -110 (FanDuel)
Enjoy the Sweet 16 games, best of luck on your bets, and we get closer to the Final Four in Phoenix!