GOLF: Chris Gotterup, with 2 wins already this year, one to watch at Houston Open

The PGA Tour heads to Texas for two weeks ahead of the Masters, but Scottie Scheffler will be absent from the Texas Children’s Houston Open, which tees off Thursday.

Scheffler withdrew earlier this week for family reasons. He and his wife, Meredith, are expecting their second child.

His absence leaves a gap in the field at Houston’s Memorial Park Golf Course, where the top player in both FedEx Cup points and world ranking is Chris Gotterup—a name few casual fans knew a year ago.

Gotterup is emerging as one of the tour’s breakout stars. He defeated Rory McIlroy at the Scottish Open last summer and has already won two of the first four tournaments this season: the Sony Open in Hawaii and the WM Phoenix Open.

The 26-year-old’s rapid rise also earned him a spot in the majors, including his first Masters appearance.

“It’s strange because, especially at The Players last year, I felt completely lost with my game—no consistency whatsoever,” Gotterup said Wednesday. “Then to come back a year later and be ranked inside the top 10 with three wins during that stretch—it’s cool because I feel like I haven’t changed much. I just put my nose down and worked hard.”

Only three top-25 players in the world rankings are in this field, but several other familiar names are competing.

Ireland’s Shane Lowry is playing for the sixth time in seven weeks, a month after losing a Sunday lead at the Cognizant Classic and missing the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players.

Sam Burns of Louisiana is three years removed from his last tour win, the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in nearby Austin.

The defending champion, Australia’s Min Woo Lee, earned his first PGA Tour victory last year by fending off both Scheffler and Gary Woodland for a one-shot win. Lee survived a tricky water ball on the 16th hole as time ran out on his pursuers.

“I made a decent bogey … Scottie made birdie too, so it became one shot,” Lee recalled. “It was nice to have a bit of a cushion on the last two holes. And then, I nearly holed a really long putt on 18. It felt like I holed it. It was a nice sigh of relief to have a tap-in.”

Lee’s 20-under-par 260 set a new tournament record.

Since moving to Memorial Park, six rounds of 8-under-par 62 have been recorded, including performances by Scheffler, Woodland, and Finland’s Sami Valimaki last year.

The par-70, 7,475-yard course is a municipal track that underwent renovation in 2019, with consulting from Brooks Koepka—years before the PGA Tour added it to its rotation and before Koepka’s stint with LIV Golf. Now, Koepka will compete on the course he helped update.

“This is the first time I’ve seen it after the overseed, and the course is more mature now,” Koepka said Wednesday. “It’s fun to see how much it’s developed. This is how I envisioned the course being played back when we were walking it. With the overseed, it will be a fun test this week.”

—Field Level Media/Reuters