Betting tips: Who to back at the Houston Open
Our resident betting expert reveals who he will be backing this week as players get their final warm-up in for the Masters…
The one to be on: Phil Mickelson
Given he hasn’t won since the Open at Muirfield – back in 2013 – you can imagine I’ve handed over quite a lot of money in losing bets on Phil over the past three and a half years.
But there was a lot to like about the way he performed last week in Austin until he came up against a roadblock in Bill Haas.
If he can just remember that golf doesn’t always have to be about hitting the ball off the property, he’s certainly still got the game to win a lot more on the PGA Tour.
Winner of the Houston Open in 2011, he hasn’t finished out of the top 20 since – 13th, 17th, 12th, 16th and fourth – and he’s playing well enough too.
Take the Match Play out of the equation and a tied-seventh in Mexico suggests a player peaking just in time for Augusta. I’ll be taking a piece of the 22/1 available.
If big Phil is too short, 2015 winner JB Holmes at 35/1 might be more palatable. He’s got two further top 15s in Humble but will need to step up on recent efforts.
The each-way back: Russell Henley
These are Russell’s form figures at the Houston Open over the past three years: fifth, fourth and seventh. And yet I’ve seen prices up to 35/1.
Top 20s at the Valspar, Phoenix, Sony Open, the RSM Classic and the Sanderson Farms, going all the way back to last October, indicate a really solid season.
When you combine that with a track he clearly likes, he has to be worth an investment.
Charles Howell III will also be in my plans. He had a pretty decent week at the WGC-Match Play and has been in solid form all season. Having finished seventh and fifth at the Houston Open over the past two years, he’s hard to ignore at 50/1.
The dark horse: Cameron Tringale
I’m not just putting up Cameron because he started following me on Twitter. (He follows a lot of people, I’m nothing special.)
I like to place significant emphasis on course form in my punting and Tringale has put up some decent numbers at Houston in the past – good enough to make his odds of 125/1 look a bit too big for me.
Take away his 57th-place finish last year and Tringale has picked up three top 10s in the previous four (fifth, fourth and eighth) with the other a top 20.
It’s been a slow start to the PGA Tour season for the Californian but a top 10 at the Genesis Open shows that, in the right circumstances, he will contend.
At the price, I’m ready to back he could threaten the Houston Open frame this week.
Steve Carroll
A journalist for 25 years, Steve has been immersed in club golf for almost as long. A former club captain, he has passed the Level 3 Rules of Golf exam with distinction having attended the R&A's prestigious Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar.
Steve has officiated at a host of high-profile tournaments, including Open Regional Qualifying, PGA Fourball Championship, English Men's Senior Amateur, and the North of England Amateur Championship. In 2023, he made his international debut as part of the team that refereed England vs Switzerland U16 girls.
A part of NCG's Top 100s panel, Steve has a particular love of links golf and is frantically trying to restore his single-figure handicap. He currently floats at around 11.
Steve plays at Close House, in Newcastle, and York GC, where he is a member of the club's matches and competitions committee and referees the annual 36-hole scratch York Rose Bowl.
Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NTCJ exams at Darlington College of Technology.
What's in Steve's bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; TaylorMade Stealth 2 irons; TaylorMade Hi-Toe, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.
