There were many options on the sports calendar this weekend, with the NBA, the Men's and Women's NCAA basketball Elite Eight, and, of course, baseball in full tilt, having started the domestic part of the season earlier in the week.
If you wanted to, you could catch some college softball, but down in H Town, the PGA Tour was visiting Texas for the first time in 2025.
Usually, if golf is on the television, it's in the background. Still, Sunday at Memorial Park was one of the most entertaining 18 holes on the PGA Tour this season and was elevated to actively watching versus a usual dull hum.
It didn't seem like it would be very compelling with Min Woo Lee holding a four-shot lead and five over world no.1 Scottie Scheffler, but as soon as the bell rang, it was a track meet that saw the cream immediately rising to the top, with major winners Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, Gary Woodland, and Scheffler making moves quickly.
The design at Memorial Park is not the typical municipal golf course. It has solid length and enough treachery, meaning water hazards down the stretch, to make the end of the round interesting.
With rye overseed and a little rough, the course was very scoreable and kept your attention since birdies were the norm, and bogeys were hard to find.
Adding the prestige of the guys chasing Lee just made it more interesting.
"I like the golf course; I wish there was a little more of a penalty, if you miss off the tee," McIlroy said after shooting a 66-65-64 in the last three rounds. "I feel like you can sort of stand up at every tee box and just hit it everywhere and be okay. If there was a little more penalty off the tee, it's a very good golf course, but I feel that would make it a little bit better."
Come on, Rory, most of the PGA Tour's courses are difficult enough, so once in a while, having a course that lends itself to scoring makes it worth watching.
And it was worth watching.
Scheffler 62, Woodland 63, Finland's Sami Valimaki 62, Clark 64 and of course McIlroy 64.
Yet, Lee deserves a lot of the credit, having all that firepower behind him and except for a horrible tee shot on the 16th hole, he played flawlessly, posting a 3-under 67 and his notching first win on the PGA Tour.
Scottie Scheffler chips onto the green on the 18th hole during the final round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament. Erik Williams-Imagn Images Erik Williams-Imagn Images
"I think you always want to be aware of what's going on, just trying to put as much pressure on Min Woo as I could have," Scheffler said of the last round. "I was hoping to be able to do that on the front nine, I wasn't able to get off to a good enough start. And he played some really good golf. I think he made one mistake on 16, but I think he did some really good stuff out there and he just went out and beat us this week."
With the first major of the season in two weeks, the Houston Open was a great prelude for what should be an entertaining Masters.
Related: Scottie Scheffler Unveils His Menu as 2024 Masters Champion
Related: Rory McIlroy Dominates in Playoff at 2025 Players Championship
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This story was originally published March 30, 2025 at 6:22 PM.
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