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Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
The importance of good timing
As noted earlier here, the Shell Houston Open had its best field in decades earlier this month when it was played the week before the Masters. Based on the World Golf Rankings, 15 of the top 20 players, and...
Observations from the SHO
The following are a few observations from my annual trek to the Shell Houston Open at the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club: As I've noted on a number of occasions, the Tournament Course has a reasonable number of interesting...
It's 2009 Shell Houston Open Week
The Shell Houston Open has finally arrived as a big-time PGA Tour event. After an ugly divorce from The Woodlands, and a difficult transition period in which most of the best PGA Tour players avoided the event, the 2009...
What if they liked the course?
This year's Shell Houston Open during the first week of April is shaping up to have its best field in over 20 years. The Chron's Steve Campbell reports: Tournament director Steve Timms announced another flurry of player commitments Monday that...
What the Tour players really think
Golf Digest is running in this month's issue the results of an interesting survey that the magazine recently took of 25 of the top PGA Tour players. Clear Thinkers favorite and longtime Houstonian Steve Elkington scores highly in one...
Another one-planer wins The Masters
Last year it was Zach Johnson (see also here). This year, it's Trevor Immelman. What's the deal with all these one-plane swingers dominating the Masters Tournament? Could it have something to do with the fact that neither Johnson last...
America's slipping grip on golf
First, PGA Tour events had to worry about the Tiger Chasm. Now, this W$J article reports that they also need to worry about competition from tournaments in foreign venues: The U.S. has, for decades, held sway over the international...
A brief encounter at the SHO driving range
After spending a delightful Friday morning watching Phil Mickelson navigate the back nine during the second round of the Shell Houston Open, my entourage and I grabbed a quick lunch and then headed out to the Redstone Golf Club...
It's 2008 Shell Houston Open Week
Following on this post from a couple of weeks ago, this week's Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Club has its best field in years (previous posts here), which includes the following top 25 players in the World Golf...
Is this the key year for the SHO?
The Shell Houston Open has been a frequent topic on this blog, particularly the tournament's troubled recent history (see here, here and here). This year's tournament is coming up during the week of March 31-April 6 and, for the...
Review of The Player Course at The Woodlands
It's been awhile since I've posted a review of one of Houston's largely underappreciated large number of fine golf courses (previous ones are here, here and here). So, I'm going to pass along a couple more during this holiday season,...
Try to do this at the age of 71
Bob Charles of New Zealand was a very good PGA Tour golfer back in the 1960's and 70's when he won six PGA Tour events, including both the Houston Open and the British Open in 1963. Over his career, Charles...
The Tiger Chasm widens
Gee, I thought the fields for the Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament had slipped badly over the past several years. But those depleted fields are nothing compared to the experience of this week's Greater Greensboro Open (now called the "Wyndham"...
The PGA Tour's Texas Mess
The Tiger Chasm has had an extremely detrimental effect on the Texas PGA Tour events (see here and here). Texas golf writer Art Stricklin picks up on that theme in this Golf.com op-ed in which he points out that the...
More on the Tiger Chasm
In this column, the Chronicle's chief golf writer has seen the Tiger Chasm that is gobbling up Texas' PGA Tour events and he does not like what he sees: If the first half of the season is any indication, the...
The next troubled Texas PGA Tour event
The Shell Houston Open recently finished a rather uninspiring 2007 edition of the event. Now, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship in Dallas -- which has also had (earlier post problems brewing) over the past several years -- is looking as...
The Tiger chasm defined
The television numbers are in on the just-completed Masters Golf Tournament. CBS Sports’ coverage of the tournament on Easter Sunday earned an average overnight household rating/share of 9.1/21 (meaning that 9.1% of households on average were tuned in at any...
Visiting the SHO
The Shell Houston Open concluded on Sunday with the top-rated player -- Adam Scott (3rd in the World Rankings) -- winning the tournament (final leaderboard here) by making a par on the 72nd hole even after pulling his drive into...
Redstone is looking good
It may not be Augusta National or even one of America's top 100 golf courses, but the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club looked pretty darn good on television yesterday during the first round of the Shell Houston Open. In...
The folly of the "resemble Augusta" approach
In the Chronicle's seemingly never-ending campaign to give the Shell Houston Open relevance, this Steve Campbell/Sunday Chronicle article reports that SHO officials are planning on setting up the Tournament Course at Redstone in a manner similar to the way that...
One of those "unimportant" tournaments
With the following breathless description of the additional player commitments for next week's Shell Houston Open, the Chronicle continues to put the best face on an increasingly troubling situation for the local tournament: SHO update The Shell Houston Open fortified...
Is the Shell Houston Open entering the Tiger Chasm?
The Shell Houston Open begins playing an earlier time slot this year and, thus, is only three weeks away. In reviewing the tournament website for prospective participants, only one top 10 player in the World Rankings has committed to play...
The Tiger Chasm
The rumblings from the last week's decision to discontinue the popular International PGA Tour event at Castle Pines are still reverberating through the golf world, and Golf Digest's John Hawkins isn't pulling any punches: The death of the International last...
The International is kaput
The International -- the idiosyncratic PGA Tour event at Castle Pines GC in Colorado that used a modified Stableford scoring system rather than the traditional stoke play format -- will shut down for good after this year's tournament, another casualty...
And you think the Shell Houston Open has problems?
Heavy rains on the East Coast are making it difficult for the PGA Tour to complete this past weekend's Booz Allen Golf Tournament that is being played just outside Washington, D.C. on the Tournament Players Course at Avenel in Potomac,...
The latest troubled PGA Tour event in Texas
First, it was the Shell Houston Open reeling from the consequences of some dubious decisions. Then, a change of date and a mediocre golf course is generating concern over the future of Dallas' EDS Byron Nelson Open. Now, this Kevin...
The next troubled Texas PGA Tour event
This earlier post reviewed the problems that continue to plague the Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament on the PGA Tour schedule. However, to the north of Houston, the EDS Byron Nelson Open -- which begins Thursday in Dallas -- is...
Shell Houston Open -- we have a problem
As noted in this earlier post, the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club -- the new home course of the Shell Houston Open golf tournament -- received mixed reviews from the players who played in last week's tournament, a view...
Appleby wins SHO in a cakewalk
Stuart Appleby led from wire-to-wire in winning his second Shell Houston Open golf tournament Sunday at the new Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club. The final leaderboard is here, local golf writer Ed Fowler's report on the tournament is here,...
Lookin' good
As noted in this earlier post, the Shell Houston Open golf tournament is taking place this week at Redstone Golf Club. Yesterday afternoon, I was able to watch a few minutes of the USA Network telecast of the first round...
It's 2006 Shell Houston Open Week
This is Shell Houston Open week, and this year's tournament is a particularly interesting edition of the venerable local stop on the PGA Tour. As noted in this earlier post, the SHO is still recovering from a series of dubious...
Dick Harmon, R.I.P.
The Houston and U.S. golfing communities are in shock this morning with the news that Dick Harmon -- one of the four brothers who are among the best golf instructors in the United States -- died unexpectedly on Friday morning...
The Fazio Course of the Club at Carlton Woods
The day before the beginning of the Enron Task Force's legacy case, you probably figured that you would find an Enron-related post here today. But before turning to the long slog of that trial, a beautiful late-January Texas day has...
Spinning the new date for the Shell Houston Open
Last week, the PGA Tour announced its new schedule of Tour tournaments to begin during the 2007 season, and it remains to be seen how a new date for the increasingly-troubled Shell Houston Open ("the SHO") will play out. As...
Why John Lopez is wrong about the bowl system
As you sit back today to watch any number of the six college bowl games, you might come across Chronicle sportswriter John Lopez's column from yesterday in which he characterizes this past Saturday's EV1.net Houston Bowl as the "Apathy Bowl"...
Houston takes in New Orleans' weary
As the effects of the worst natural disaster of our time continued to become more apparent with each passing hour, Houston opened its arms to tens of thousands of New Orleans citizens who lost virtually everything but their lives. Houston's...
Review of the Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club
As noted in this previous post, the Rees Jones-designed Tournament Course at Houston's Redstone Golf Club opened for play earlier this month to generally positive reviews. The Tournament Course -- the new specially-designed home of the Shell Houston Open PGA...
Redstone's Tournament Course opens
Houston-based Redstone Companies' Tournament Golf Course -- the new home course for the PGA Tour's Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament -- opened for play this week, and the Chronicle's Doug Pike gives the 7,500 yard Rees Jones tract a stellar...
Is Tom Fazio good for golf?
One of the highlights in the development of the blogosphere over the past several years has been the emergence of specialized blogs. As an inveterate golfer, an interesting part of the blogosphere for me has been the golf blogs, a...
More favorable date for the Shell Houston Open?
As noted in this previous post, the Shell Houston Open has suffered for years because it is played two weeks after The Masters Tournament when most of the best players are taking a break before gearing up for the U.S....
Singh wins his second straight Shell Houston Open
Vijay Singh took advantage of long John Daly's hooked drive into the water on the first playoff hole to win his second straight Shell Houston Open golf tournament on Sunday afternoon. Singh and Daly tied at 13 under par after...
The amazing Dan Jenkins
Given that it is Shell Houston Open week, it seem appropriate to note that Ft. Worth's Dan Jenkins -- whose writings were previously featured in posts here and here -- is the best golf writer of our times. An outstanding...
It's 2005 Shell Houston Open week
The 2005 Shell Houston Open is this week at Redstone Golf Club as the no. 2 ranked player in the world -- Vijay Singh -- returns to defend his 2004 title. Shreveport native David Toms, the ninth-ranked player in the...
Update on what's going on in Wayne's World
After previous posts here and here regarding local investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino's recent squabble with his long-time employer, KTRK-TV, this Chronicle article confirms that the conflict arose from the station quashing Dolcefino's story on the non-profit Houston Livestock Show &...
Golf Digest's Greatest 100 American golf courses
Golf Digest's annual survey of America's Greatest 100 Golf Courses is always an interesting and controversial article, and this year's edition is no exception. The following is Golf Digest's Top 10 courses in the United States or, as one friend...
The Houston Open - consequences of bad decisions
This Chronicle article about the downturn in the Houston Golf Association's charitable donations after a less than stellar Shell Houston Open this past spring brings to mind how even well-intentioned people can bungle a good thing through a series of...
More on Houston's light rail boondoggle
Following this earlier post on the economic absurdity of light rail systems, Randal O'Toole, one of the economists over at The Commons, cites the Houston light rail system as one example why cities such as Denver and Austin should reject...
Vijay wins Shell Houston Open
Vijay Singh -- the second-ranked golfer in the World Rankings -- won the rain-delayed Shell Houston Open today by two strokes with a 72 hole total of 277, 11 under par. Singh shot a 69 in the final round to...
No joy in Mudville
Houston was Mudville on Sunday. First, incessant rains since Friday afternoon in Houston have played havoc with the Shell Houston Open. Third round play in the golf tournament was suspended late Sunday morning, and the third and fourth rounds will...
We officially have a controversy on the Tour
As noted here earlier, it appeared that Tour pro Stewart Cink improved his lie on the shot that set up his winning birdie putt to beat Ted Purdy on the fifth playoff hole of the MCI Heritage Class Golf Tournament...
WSJ Golf section
It's Shell Houston Open week in Houston, and the Wall Street Journal ($) has a timely section in today's edition that focuses on the troubled golf business. Although professional golf tournaments continue to do well as a television product, the...
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