The LIV Golf League heads from Singapore to Houston for LIV Golf Houston. Bryson DeChambeau leads the markets this week, with the likes of Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann also near the top of the betting boards.
2024 LIV Golf League
LIV Golf Houston
The Golf Club of Houston
7 – 9 June
The LIV Tour returns from its midseason hiatus for the inaugural staging of the LIV Golf Houston event. I was actually slightly surprised to learn that this will be the first LIV event staged in the Lone Star State.
The last time that many of these guys were in action was at Valhalla, with Bryson DeChambeau flying the LIV flag high with an agonisingly close runner-up finish to Schauffele (who has recently admitted that he did have talks with LIV at an earlier stage).
Many of the leading pros will be using this as the final tune-up for next week’s US Open held at Pinehurst No.2. Only ten LIV practitioners will be teeing it up next week, with David Puig and Dean Burmester earning their place in the line-up through US Open qualifying.
LIV individual leader Joaquin Niemann sadly missed out, causing many spectators to wonder why the Chilean has proven to be such a dominant force in LIV Golf this season.
I do think that some people jumped the gun in proclaiming him among the world’s best.
The Golf Club of Houston
The Golf Club of Houston was designed by Rees Jones and David Toms and opened for business in 2005. The track looks like a behemoth at either a little above or below 7,500 yards (depending on which source you use).
But that doesn’t mean that driving distance is of paramount importance here. Ian Poulter won on this course back in 2018 (which tells you that premium iron play is critical here).
The fairways are littered with bunkers and hazards and players will need to avoid these if they want to take advantage of pretty scorable conditions. The Mini Verde Bermudagrass greens are going to play ultra-quick due to the summer sunshine.
Look for players who have excellent distance control with their irons who can make plenty of putts. This course doesn’t really come close to competing with Muirfield – this week’s US PGA Tour host course – in terms of preparing your game for the rigours of Pinehurst No.2
The Contenders
Bryson DeChambeau has looked relentless in the majors but his form has plateaued in recent LIV events. Being the perfectionist that he is, I’m sure that the cocky American will want to set matters straight this week.
Brooks Koepka won when the tour was in Singapore last time out and he will have both eyes firmly fixed on Pinehurst next week. Joaquin Niemann will look for a statement win this week that could necessitate a late US Open invite (who knows).
Elsewhere, the South African pair of Dean Burmester and Louis Oosthuizen have been in excellent form and will be looking for another strong showing in Texas.
DJ has gone off the boil somewhat since winning in Vegas and he will be hoping to find his groove ahead of Pinehurst No.2
Past Winners
Inaugural edition
To Win Outright:
Bryson DeChambeau 8/1 | Jon Rahm 8/1 | Joaquin Niemann 10/1 | Brooks Koepka 11/1, Cameron Smith 12/1
Value Bet
Thomas Pieters – To Win 40/1 | To place 17/2
Thomas Pieters seems to be returning to the form that once had him marked as a future Major contender. He took the world by storm with his heroics in a losing Ryder Cup cause at Hazeltine back in 2016.
But injury and loss of form have seen him drift into the golfing doldrums. But his last three LIV appearances have registered results of 9-14-5. He also finished second last time out at the Soudal Open, taking advantage of a national spot to compete in the DP World Tour event.
His game seems to be trending nicely and I could also see him taking advantage of some of the longer holes.
The Man to Beat – Bryson DeChambeau – To Win 8/1 | To place 7/4
I hate backing market favourites but this one just makes all the sense in the world. The burly 30-year-old American seems to be back to his best of late, competing at Augusta before narrowly missing out by a shot at Valhalla.
He went to college in Dallas and he still lives there. Texas is very much his adopted home state and I think he will revel in these conditions. This setup has some similarities with LIV Greenbrier, where he absolutely romped home to victory last year with a closing 58.
There are four gettable par 5s out there and a 335-yard par 4 (the 12th). He should be having plenty of looks at eagle out there as he builds towards next week’s more daunting test at Pinehurst No.2.
