This can’t be what Jim Crane and the Astros Foundation imagined when they resurrected the Houston Open that returns to the PGA Tour schedule this week after an 18-month absence.
The field includes exactly one player – No. 37 Henrik Stenson – ranked among the top 40 in the world.
Otherwise, it looks like one of the opposite-field events typically played during a World Golf Championship week.
It’s reassuring that golf means enough in Houston that Crane, the businessman who owns baseball’s Houston Astros, and his group made sure the tournament would survive despite the loss of its longtime title sponsor (Shell) and its traditional pre-Masters springtime date.
The timing of its return to the PGA Tour schedule, however, has left Houston with virtually no star power, a disappointment that may be tempered this year by the Astros’ potential run to another World Series.
Whether it was Houston or some other event, this week is a bad date because it falls after a comfortable two-week run from Napa, Calif., to Las Vegas and immedia...
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