This week's tournament: Shell Houston Open.
Horse for the Course
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Farrell Evans, ESPN.com senior golf writer: Phil Mickelson. Last year at the Shell Houston Open, Mickelson had rounds of 63 and 65 on the weekend at the Redstone GC Tournament Course on his way to a three-shot win.
Bob Harig, ESPN.com senior golf writer: Johnson Wagner. One of his two PGA Tour victories came at the Shell Houston Open, and Wagner is coming off a nice tournament at Bay Hill in which he was among the leaders.
Kevin Maguire, ESPN.com senior golf editor: Steve Stricker. Who needs to play often to stay in competitive form? Stricker has teed it up only four times so far this year on the PGA Tour yet owns three top-10s, including a win. Four of his last five starts at the Shell Houston Open provided finishes of T-11 or better.
Birdie Buster
Michael Collins: Padraig Harrington. OK, he's had enough time to lick his wounds after dropping a bomb in the first round of Transitions, a 10-under 61, where said bomb exploded on the rest of his game for the week after finishing tied for 20th. He's had a week off and comes back to a place he finished eighth last year.
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Farrell Evans: Johnson Wagner. Since getting his maiden PGA Tour win in 2008 at the Shell Houston Open, the 32-year-old former Virginia Tech star has added two more wins, including the Sony Open in January. At Bay Hill, he earned his fourth top-10 of the year with a tie for fourth. Wagner is ranked first in the FedEx Cup standings.
Bob Harig: Graeme McDowell. His second-place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, in which he shot 63 on Friday but couldn't quite hang with Tiger Woods on Sunday, came amid some difficult conditions.
Kevin Maguire: Justin Rose. The Englishman found a nice bit of form of late, including a victory at Doral a couple of weeks ago. Expect him to be on many short lists for contenders at Augusta in a week's time.
Super Sleeper
Michael Collins: Brian Harman. He told me on the practice green on Saturday after his round that the only way the tour is going get rid of him is with a gun, and even then. ... He then proceeded to tie for the low round on Sunday (68) in conditions he's going to see this week in Houston. Don't worry, Brian, the tour ain't getting rid of you anytime soon.
Farrell Evans: Bud Cauley. At Bay Hill, the 22-year-old rookie had his first top-10 of the year with a tie for fourth. That good showing came a week after the former Alabama star had a T-16 at the Transitions Championship.
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Bob Harig: Fred Couples. Houston is his adopted hometown, and his last PGA Tour victory came at this event nine years ago. It's a lot to ask for a Champions Tour player to win, but Couples is playing well, having just captured the senior event in Mississippi.
Kevin Maguire: Anthony Kim. He's a previous champion at this event not so long ago (2010) and did start well at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week with a 69. We'll pass over how he played the rest of the week (74-72-83) at Bay Hill and just focus on the positives of his second made cut of the year.
Winner
Michael Collins: Lee Westwood. So many close calls at Augusta, and now he's going to a course that is set up to mimic it. Last year he finished tied for 30th in Houston. This year he does his impression of Phil Mickelson & win the Shell Houston Open and then not win at Augusta.
Farrell Evans: Hunter Mahan. The 29-year-old former Oklahoma State star beat Rory McIlroy 2 and 1 in February at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Last year he tied for eighth in Houston. In 2009, he had a tie for sixth at the tournament, one week before he earned his first top-10 at the Masters.
Bob Harig: Ernie Els. This is undoubtedly a sentimental pick. With a Masters exemption apparently not forthcoming, Els' only way into next week's tournament is to win in Houston. He has not played particularly well in the event, but he's had a nice run of recent success. It would be the feel-good story of Masters week if he pulled it off.
Kevin Maguire: Ben Crane.
Keeping with the theme of no repeat winners so far this year on the PGA Tour, look for Crane to pick up the win in Humble, Texas, as he's playing with house money. Why? He snuck into next week's Masters field after being No. 49 in the world rankings after Bay Hill.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Michael Collins has been writing for ESPN.com since yesterday. He started out as a stand up comedian and fell into PGA Tour golf and caddying completely by accident in 1998.
He started looping for fun in 1999 but by 2003 had decided to make it a full time gig. He won the Nationwide Tour Championship with Chris Couch in 2003 and was on the bag for Kevin Streelman when they captured the inaugural Kodak Challenge in 2009.
Michael has never won an award for his writing, probably because he failed high school English and still types with his index fingers. But he's smart, funny, and most importantly knows the game/players/caddies and what they go through on a week-to-week basis and brings a caddie perspective that's different than anything you've ever seen when it comes to golf coverage.
Farrell Evans grew up in Forsyth, Ga., 60 miles south of Atlanta, where he learned the game at the Forsyth Golf Club, an 18-hole public course. After high school, he played on the golf team at Florida A&M University and interned with the PGA Tour at the TPC at Sawgrass.
Before joining ESPN.com in August 2011, he was a golf writer for nine years at Sports Illustrated. He currently lives in Harlem and can be contacted at evans.espn@gmail.com.
Bob Harig is a golf writer for ESPN.com and has been covering the game for more than 20 years, first at the St. Petersburg Times and for the last four years at ESPN.com. He began contributing to ESPN.com in 1997.
Harig is a native of Barrington, Ill., where he got his first exposure to golf as a caddie at Inverness Golf Club, where he earned an Evans Scholarship to attend Indiana University. He graduated with degrees in journalism and history.
Harig lives in Florida and can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com
Kevin Maguire is the senior golf editor for ESPN.com and covered his first PGA Tour event in 1994 while at American University in Washington, D.C. He played collegiately for the Eagles and graduated with a degree in print journalism.
Maguire grew up in the Philadelphia, Pa. area and now resides outside of Hartford, Conn. He has been with ESPN since February, 2007 and can be reached at Kevin.Maguire@espn.com.
Justin Ray is a senior researcher with ESPN Stats and Information. He has contributed to ESPN's golf coverage since joining the network out of college in 2008. He is based in Austin, Texas with the new Longhorn Network.
He can be contacted at Justin.Ray@espn.com.
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