Shell Houston Open

It's appropriate that Shell is the sponsor of a PGA event as trying to fin a winner in these things certainly seems like a bit of a shell game sometimes.  I did have Els on the list last week, and for those of you already prepping for Augusta, I think Els goes in there as the favorite.

This week, many of the world's best, including Ernie, will be teeing it up at Redstone, which has tried to set up the course to play as much like Augusta as possible to draw the top talent.  The course changed before the 2007 tourney to the Augusta wannabe, so I'm only looking back to those three years for our past results.  Paul Casey won here last year, and has a decent record at the Masters, so the changes may be working.  Then again, something called Johnson Wagner won the Shell the year before.  Anyway, both Casey and Els have played well all year, and are the two top choices this week.

Mickelson, Harrington, and Westwood are all in Hourston this week, but these three stars do not have as good of a record here as the next tier of guys.  Ogilvy and Mahan have each produced two top tens in the last three years here.  So has Fred Couples, and he is scorching hot on the Champions Tour right now....he's also a Houston guy who does pretty well at Augusta.  Vijay is back this week too, for now.  I'd really like his chances this week if I knew about the back issues, but I'll take a wait and see with Veej.  JB Holmes finished second a year ago and is playing well to start 2010.  Among the golfers with star power but have yet to find their games in 2010 we have Rory McIlroy, who finihsed 19th last year and Adam Scott, who won here in 2007 but hasn't been the same for a couple years.

Sleepers include Brian Davis, who is quietly playing some good golf, Kevin Streelman, who top 10'd at the Palmer and finished 14th here in his only start and Nick O'Hern, who finsihsed third a year ago and has also been above average in 2010.

Most Talent
Mickelson
Els
McIlroy
Vijay
Westwood

Course History
Ogilvy
Couples
Mahan
Casey
Appleby

Who's Hot
Els
Casey
Kuchar
Couples
Harrington

Who's Not
McIlroy
Glover
Scott
Leonard
Mickelson

My Picks
Els
Casey
Harrington
Couples
Kim

Cheers,
TFAM