The 2005 Shell Houston Open is this week at Redstone Golf Club as the no. 2 ranked player in the world — Vijay Singh — returns to defend his 2004 title. Shreveport native David Toms, the ninth-ranked player in the World Golf Rankings, is also in the field, but he is the only other player in the tournament who is in the Top 10 of the World Rankings. Although the tournament’s awkward date two weeks after The Masters — among other problems — continues to hurt the quality of the field, crowd favorites such as John Daly, Steve Elkington, Chad Campbell, Darren Clarke, Charles Howell III, Mark Calcavecchia, and Jose Maria Olazabal make the field good enough to justify making the trek to Redstone for a day or two of the tournament. Here is the Chronicle’s special section on the tournment.
This is the final Shell Houston Open tournament that will be played on the Redstone Golf Club’s Peter Jacobsen-Jim Hardy designed course. Next year, the tournament will move across the steet to the new Rees Jones course that the Houston Golf Association and Redstone have developed specifically to host the golf tournament. The HGA is hoping that the top PGA Tour players will take a liking to the new course and again make an effort to fit the Shell Houston Open into their schedules.
Although I have my doubts that this strategy will prove successful, I hope I’m wrong. The Shell Houston Open is good for Houston, but it is definitely a golf tournament that needs a shot in the arm.