Paulie’s Picks: 2021 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open

After stops in Cancún and the Bahamas, the PGA Tour returns stateside this week for the newly sponsored Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open. This will be the second edition of the tournament held at the Tom Doak-redesigned Memorial Park.

The course will play quite long. Most of the par 4s are 440 yards or longer, which means players will have a lot of mid- and long irons into the greens. Unlike many tour stops, Memorial Park has relatively few bunkers but an abundance of shaved runoff areas around the greens. As a result, short game prowess is a must.

Here are a few players to target in your fantasy leagues this week:

Talor Gooch $9,300

Gooch has been on a roll lately, finishing T-11, T-5, T-11, and T-4 in his past four starts. In the Houston Open field, he ranks second around the green and third on approach, a great combination for Memorial Park. Can Gooch improve on his fourth-place finish in 2020?

Seamus Power $8,400

Power is the top overall player in my course-fit data model this week, as he is the only member of the field to rank top 20 in approach, around the green, putting, and birdies. He has finished 21st or better in 10 of his past 14 events and recorded a T-11 in Mexico last week. At last year’s Houston Open, Power placed 29th, and he has a good chance to improve on that this week.

Harold Varner III $7,700

Varner ranks top 40 in a bunch of relevant categories: approach, around the green, putting, mid-iron and long-iron proximity, birdies, and driving distance. He has finished 16th or better in six of his past 10 events, and he took 15th at Memorial Park in 2020.