Shell Houston Open Preview – No Tigers on the Prowl

A week before the season’s first major most of the best golfers in the world will be getting a Masters tune-up in the Shell Houston Open. Luckily for the rest of the field, and possibly the golf betting world, Tiger Woods is taking the week off after his return to the top of the leaderboard at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Woods won last week in true Tiger fashion, storming back from five strokes down on the final day and cementing his first win of the season with a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. Tiger’s triumph was at least partly due to Sean O’Hair’s final round choking, as he blew the five-shot lead by shooting three-over par, his worst round of the tournament. Woods will be taking a breather to get ready to challenge for his fifth green jacket in two weeks, while O’Hair will also have a week off to think over his stumble at Bay Hill. That means the top finishers from the Arnold Palmer Invitational teeing it up again this week will be John Senden and Scott Verplank, who tied for fourth at one-under.

At last year’s Shell Houston Open little-known Johnson Wagner claimed his first career PGA Tour win after shooting 16-under par. That gave Wagner a two-stroke win over both Geoff Ogilvy and Chad Campbell, who tied for second at 14-under. Wagner will be in tough if he hopes to repeat, with eight of the top 10 golfers in the world rankings in this week’s field (No. 1 Woods and No. 9 Kenny Perry are both out).

The favorite on the golf odds will undoubtedly be Phil Mickelson. Lefty will be returning to the course for the first time since wining the WGC-CA Championship in mid-March, and another win this weekend would put him in a great position heading into next weekend’s Masters.

One other golfer currently ranked in the Top 10 that bettors may want to get a piece of on the golf odds this weekend is No. 6 Vijay Singh. Singh has had a poor season by his standards so far, with his best finish being 27th in the Mercedes-Benz Championship, but he’s had tremendous success at Redstone GC, the site of the Shell Houston Open. Singh has won the Shell three times, including back-to-back titles in 2004-05 and another in 2002. If Singh is going to make a charge before the Masters, Redstone would be the place to do it.