As World’s No. 1 Scottie Scheffler Commits and Big Name Fever Builds, Houston Open Changes Revealed With Jim Crane Thinking Big

Jim Crane is certain that the big names playing in the Houston Open when it returns for the first time 16 months this March at Memorial Park will go far beyond World’s No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, 2023 US Open winner Wyndham Clark and defending champion Tony Finau. In fact, the Houston Astros owner turned PGA Tour event savior for the Bayou City expects one of the best fields a Houston PGA Tour event’s ever had.

“We’ve got some big names coming in,” Crane tells PaperCity. “. . . I think the fact that it’s two weeks before The Masters and we’ll have the course setup similar to The Masters where it’s long and fast. The greens will be fast. We’ve over seeded it, so the conditions will be great.

“And we’ve gotten some big names signed. And we hope to get a few more. I didn’t think the draw is going to be off. Because I think the guys like to take a week off before they go into The Masters and get tuned up (the prior week). And we’ve got a lot of interest from a lot of the top players.”

With Scheffler (everyone’s favorite putting analysis subject these days) and World’s No. 7 Clark committing Friday to join Finau, the Houston Open now has three of the Top 24 players in the world in its field, weeks before players typical officially sign on for these tournaments.

It look plenty of lobbying and politicking to secure the Houston Open this new coveted spring date, one that is locked in for the next five years with a contract with the PGA Tour. Now, a little more than a month away from the opening tee shot on March 28th, this newly-branded Texas Children’s Houston Open is in for some changes as it settles into its date two weeks after the Players Championship and two weeks before The Masters.

For one, the 17th hole at Memorial Park has been lengthened by 40 yards by moving the green back, which will actually make it more driveable par 4 by eliminating some of the first shot danger. This should make for a more dramatic Houston Open finishing stretch.

With Texas Children’s also locked in as the new lead sponsor for the next five years (at $13 million per year as part of the world class hospital’s push to become more recognized around the world), it is all about taking a now secure Houston PGA Tour tournament to new heights.

“It was always our goal to get back to the prime season, to get back to the spring and be one of the best top events on the PGA Tour,” Astros Golf Foundation president Giles Kibbe tells PaperCity. “We’re not there. We’re still trying to get there. We’ve done a lot of great things. We’ve had a very successful buildup.

“And we’re going to continue to improve things and work our way back to being one of the top tournaments on Tour.”

The first round of this year’s Houston Open will take place on the same day as the Astros’ MLB season opener with the New York Yankees at Minute Maid Park, at the same time that the University of Houston’s No. 2 ranked basketball team could be in Dallas preparing for a South Regional, creating the ultimate supersized spring sports week.

The Houston Open returns to a different PGA Tour world, one with a new for-profit focus, signature events and if anything more and more uncertainty swirling about the proposed merger with LIV Golf. Still Crane, who recently got honored by the Houston’s First Tee at its annual luncheon for his years of support including a $500,000 donation from the Houston Golf Foundation last year, remains confident that H-Town’s PGA Tour event will continue to do good for the city.

“We fortunate to get Texas Children’s come in with a big sponsorship. So that’s really helped us financially,” Crane says. “But it’s expensive to put the tournament on. We cover the purse, the costs and then whatever’s left over — a considerable amount of money, millions — is going to be sorted out and put back in the community.

“. . . A lot of positive things with the tournament. All of it’s done for charity. There’s nobody making any money here. We put it all back into the community one way or another.”

“It was always our goal to get back to the prime season, to get back to the spring and be one of the best top events on the PGA Tour.” – Astros Golf Foundation president Giles Kibbe

For Crane, this is a very personal mission in some ways. He’s been open about his belief that this reimagined Memorial Park is poised to host a Major someday in the not so distant future. Bringing a U.S. Open or PGA Championship to Houston would be the golf equivalent of the Astros winning the World Series. Without having first saved professional golf in Houston and kept this tournament around, none of that would have been possible though.

“Jim’s primary goal for doing this was to raise monies for charities,” Kibbe says. “To help groups like the First Tee. So he’s really proud of that. He’s proud of the excitement that the city of Houston has for this event. And he’s also a really good golfer that didn’t want to lose the tournament.

“So it’s something that’s very important to him.”

“There’s nobody making any money here. We put it all back into the community one way or another.” — Jim Crane

One that is playing out in golf world that sometimes feels like a sailboat bopping up and down in the massive waves of an ocean storm. Golf is in time of great transition, one that puts more pressure on tournaments like the Houston Open in many ways.

“It’s becoming more and more difficult to make these events successful because of the competition from LIV, and the increased purses and signature events,” Kibbe tells PaperCity. “The landscape is changing. It’s going to continue to change over the next couple of years.”

Still, the Houston Open is on as solid ground as you’ll find in golf. Back in the spring, big game landing, pushing for more. Much more.

For more information on the Houston Open, go here.