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It's the week before The Masters, so it must be our first trip to Texas. The Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Club is the traditional Augusta 'warm up' event, and many of the players like it because it's the only course that has an Augusta-type set up. Set in a natural woodland terrain, the course plays home to the PGA Tour for the fourth time in 2009.
Redstone: The perfect course set up for Augusta next week.
The Inside Track - The key feature of Redstone are the greens. Nobody could ever re-create Augusta, but the fairways and greens at the Shell Houston Open are as close as you'll get on the PGA Tour. Greens feature deep sand traps and in many cases are defended by water at close proximity. Hollows abound, with green contours, ridges and multi-layers on almost every putting surface. Its not an overly difficulty course, but to succeed like Augusta you need to be accurate off the tee, have a precision long iron game and have an excellent short game. Looking at the long range forecast, wind may well be a factor again this week!
We cover this in our Marking Your Card feature, but over the past three years since Redstone became a PGA Tour course, the tournament has been dominated by Texas and Arizona domiciles. This course also feels like home to those who grew up on Australian courses.
Course Essentials - Par 72 - 7,457 yds - Grass - Bermudagrass overseeded with perennial ryegrass (tees, fairways, rough); Bentgrass; bermudagrass; perennial ryegrass all overseeded w/ Poa trivialis; ryegrass (greens). Par 3s = 4 Par 4s = 10 Par 5s = 4
Course Difficulty - Ranked 30 (out of 54) in difficulty on the PGA Tour in 2008. It's a scorers course, but the 18th closing hole, is a beast of a Par 4.
Course Set Up - The whole feature of this week will be The Masters next week. Players will talk about Redstone being the 'ideal' preparation for Augusta and the fact that this course makes you use every shot that you'll need at Augusta. Funny how Trevor Immelman played here in 2008 and Missed the Cut! We'll leave it to Lefty and The Pod to describe the Redstone set up.
"It's ideal, it really is. It may not be exact, but all the shots that you have to hit next week, you have the same conditions here. You have the same shots out of the first cut, same shots around the greens, tight lies, grain into you. It's very similar. It was just a tremendous job.'' Phil Mickelson - 2008
"I like the setup. I prefer a golf course that limits the rough and makes you hit the shots.'' Padraig Harrington - 2008
Winning Score - The tournament winner will need to shoot close to 270 18 under par. If wind is a serious factor expect 272 - 274.
Player Attributes- Look again for accurate bombers off the tee. +285yds helps here especially with the long 18th Par 4. Those that contend will have to 'murder' the reachable Par 4s and Par 5. This course can't be over powered though. Redstone rewards correct fairway positioning. The winner here unlike the past two weeks (Copperhead and Bay Hill) will have +70% GIR. Don't hit the green and a superb short game will be required to make pars. +20 birdies and -8 bogeys will be required to win, so naturally the putter will win the tournament. However don't necessarily expect the top boys to win here. Remember the focus is The Masters; not winning here.
Past Winners - 2008 Johnson Wagner, 2007 Adam Scott, 2006 Stuart Appleby.
Apr 2nd - Apr 5th 2009
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