Who has time to digest all of the online betting content before the start of the Texas Children’s Houston Open? The answer is simple; nobody!
I spend seven days a week traveling and covering the tour, and I cannot consume all of the offerings. In an effort to help all of you, Read The Line and Golf Digest are going to use our “inside the ropes” access and audience reach to make your weekend wagers more profitable … AND less time consuming.
Welcome to betting Wednesdays at The Loop.
Here are 10 quick points you can READ, THINK, and LEARN about prior to betting the Houston Open brought to you by the PGA mind behind Read The Line.
1: Scottie Scheffler’s odds to win opened on Monday at +300 and have since dropped as low as +260. The books are getting tons of action on Scheffler to win. The last time a player won three starts in a row was Dustin Johnson in 2017. Before DJ, it was Rory McIlroy in 2014.
2: Memorial Park has only hosted the last three Houston Opens. Prior to 2020, the event was played at the Golf Club of Houston. Make sure you study the results from the proper venue.
3: The tournament has also changed seasons a couple of times. From 2007-2018 it was played in March leading up to the Masters. The first three MPGC editions were played in the late fall. The agronomy is completely different, and I covered the betting implications on Tuesday.
4: MPGC is a par 70 scorecard covering 7,435 yards. The 10 best par-70 players in the field in order are: Scheffler, Tony Finau, Wyndham Clark, Will Zalatoris, Si Woo Kim, Billy Horschel, Mackenzie Hughes, Chez Reavie, Keith Mitchell and Sahith Theegala.
5: Beware of the injured golfer. Wyndham Clark has been complaining of back spasms. I still love his chances to contend and win, but just for the record Clark mentioned it to the media.
6: In three Memorial Park Houston Opens, only two players have finished inside the top 10 more than once: Scottie Scheffler and Joel Dahmen. Only one player has managed to finish inside that top 30 for all three trips to MPGC and he is Mackenzie Hughes.
7: You are going to see and hear a number of schemes on how to bet Scottie to win with increased odds. Multisport parlays, props + Scottie, just remember every time you increase the odds, you decrease your chances of it happening. This is betting, there are no easy roads.
8: I looked through all three top 10 leaderboards at Memorial Park for the Houston Open. The most valuable strokes gained category was putting with average gain of 4.5 strokes. The lowest differentiating skill of the major categories was off the tee (average 1.7).
9: That same group of 2020-2022 top 10 leaderboards gained an equal number of strokes on the par 3s as the par 5s. Five par 3s make up 28 percent of the holes you will play over 72 holes, don’t forget them when you determine your betting card.
10: Scottie is not the only player going for three wins this week. Nelly Korda just won in Los Angeles and is the +900 favorite to win the Ford Championship out in Arizona.
For fun, if you parlay Korda and Scheffler to win the ticket pays +3500! I’m not going there, but at Read The Line, I offer free picks every week through my newsletter. Here are this week’s winners …
PGA TOUR
Wyndham Clark +1400Sahith Theegala +2000
LPGA
Sei Young Kim +3500Yuka Saso +4500
Keith Stewart is a five-time award-winning PGA professional, a betting contributor and content partner with Golf Digest and founder of Read The Line, the premier on-site live golf betting insights service covering the LPGA and PGA TOUR. Subscribe to Read The Line’s weekly newsletter here and raise your golf betting acumen. Keith’s winning content can also be found on Sports Grid, Bleacher Report and The Sporting News. Follow him on Twitter @readtheline_.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
