Whoop!!

https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2023/02/02/world-golf-championships-dell-match-play-austin-pga-tour/

very bittersweet. As a houston guy i love it. As a golf fan I hate because the match play in austin was AWESOME. Perfect match play course and its my favorite format in golf

I assume with the talk of the top 20 players committing to playing in the same events (approx 12 plus majors), was a factor. Many tour events not in that group will suffer as a result. Some sponsors will rethink things if the big names stay away from their events.

Mr.Bond said:

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very bittersweet. As a houston guy i love it. As a golf fan I hate because the match play in austin was AWESOME. Perfect match play course and its my favorite format in golf

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I love the match play and hate to see it go, I think they should have made that an elevated event!

I always enjoyed the match play tournament at Austin Country Club. Fun Pete Dye course that was perfect for match play.

It's such a boring course for the pros though

terradactylexpress said:

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It's such a boring course for the pros though

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Where has this been said

Boring for me to watch*


Golf digest ranked all of the courses for this season and Houston was dead last, I'll see if I can find it

https://www.golfdigest.com/places-to-play/collections/pga-tour-courses-ranking

Mr.Bond said:

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Project Gemini said:

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The constantly circling rumor at Memorial is that Houston Open is going to Champions at some point. Not sure if that is anything more than banter by the regulars out there. I like it at Memorial personally.

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I'd say almost no chance they dumped the amount of cash they did into MP just for the tournament to leave

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Byron Nelson says hi.

I think this comes down to Austin Country club getting tired of having its course trashed each year for minimal pay and McClain threatening to move to LIV.

Match play in Austin was pretty cool on that course but all good things.

Mr.Bond said:

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Project Gemini said:

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The constantly circling rumor at Memorial is that Houston Open is going to Champions at some point. Not sure if that is anything more than banter by the regulars out there. I like it at Memorial personally.

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I'd say almost no chance they dumped the amount of cash they did into MP just for the tournament to leave

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See Trinity Forest in Dallas. Has happened before recently. $60 million investment which they managed to get the city of Dallas to fund $12mill of playing on the "Byron Nelson moves to Dallas" angle. Lasted 2 years at TF and then moved to McKinney. The latest PGA player ranking from a few weeks ago of non-major tour stops had MP as dead last.

Crane is heavily invested in Champions and it is one of the best courses in the State so I can easily see that happening.

I've never gone to the LPGA events hosted out there but the logistics of trying to hold a pga event at champions seems mind boggling

Maybe boring isn't the right word but it doesn't seem like there are a bunch of big name guys coming out to play, seems like most of the big names that played in it at least 2 years ago are all on LIV now

DannyDuberstein said:

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Mr.Bond said:

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Project Gemini said:

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The constantly circling rumor at Memorial is that Houston Open is going to Champions at some point. Not sure if that is anything more than banter by the regulars out there. I like it at Memorial personally.

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I'd say almost no chance they dumped the amount of cash they did into MP just for the tournament to leave

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See Trinity Forest in Dallas. Has happened before recently. $60 million investment which they managed to get the city of Dallas to fund $12mill of playing on the "Byron Nelson moves to Dallas" angle. Lasted 2 years at TF and then moved to McKinney. The latest PGA player ranking from a few weeks ago of non-major tour stops had MP as dead last.

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Biggest difference is that Trinity Forest did not receive that support. From the players, to the spectators, it was a bad event from the beginning sadly. Poor parking, hot as hell because there is no shade at Trinity Forest, and spectators could go the following week to Colonial which has always been a better atmosphere and pulled a better field. I think MP is a solid venue and giving it a spring date now will now really help make it a true event.

Wasn't the LPGA event a major? And Champions has had PGA Tour events out there in years past.

Hell it can't be any worse than the logistics for having it at Memorial.

With all that said I hope it stays at Memorial. There's a certain draw to having PGA events at public courses that we can all play. The course at Memorial seems to hold up really well from a challenge aspect for a PGA event and I think they do a great job putting it on there.

The LPGA US open was at champions in the last couple of years, I'd be interested to hear how it went.

MP is way easier from a logistics standpoint imo, centralized location right with a few access points. Easy to bus people in and out etc and lots of room for tents on site. Granted I only volunteered during the 1st year where they didn't have as many people on site

That was during the Covid hoax and it was sleeting so there weren't any people to speak of to get parked, transported, etc.

Yeah, so it hasn't been played at champions since the 60s?

I just can't imagine how you fit the equipment/people in there

I went to the 1999 Tour Championship there and it worked. Or at least it did for me.

There's a lot of parking at SHRP that's a fairly short bus ride. Probably some other places I'm not thinking of as well. I don't go to MP so I have no idea what the logistics for getting a lot of people in and out there are.

Pretty sure they bussed from Delmar/ NW mall

I would love for the match play tournament to come to Houston. But the move back to Memorial, in my opinion, was a mistake. The former TPC in The Woodlands, Redstone, and Champions would all be better venues.

Not sure if the move to Houston is set in concrete. A couple of articles I've read, (including the one linked above) only hint at Houston getting the spring spot.

From Golf Digest article:

One upshot of the tour's decision to leave Austin C.C. is the potential change of dates for the revived Houston Open. Jim Crane, a businessman and owner of the Houston Astros who operates the tour stop, has been vocal in wanting his event moved from the fall, where it's been played since 2019, to the spring. According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Crane has expressed a possible partnership with LIV Golf should his wishes not be met. The open spot on the PGA Tour spring calender created by the move out of Austin could go to Houston. It is unclear if a spring move would in turn result in Houston becoming a "designated" event or a possible match-play host.

Take this with a grain of salt but whispers of rumors saying that Barton Creek wants the Match Play and have pumped a good chunk of change into it to lengthen both Canyons and Foothills.

Would be a hellacious walk as a spectator though.

I think that the club members have been tired of the WGC match play for some time.

Buford T. Justice said:

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I think that the club members have been tired of the WGC match play for some time.

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No doubt. They started over seeding for this tournament which takes up a few weeks in the fall and a few weeks in the spring. Then they can't play on it for three weeks for the tournament. So essentially they lose 2 months of play for this tournament.