Unkind Tour Stroke
Houston's courtship of Tiger Woods heats up: Unwelcome date change gives ShellOpen a chance
The Shell Houston Open hopes that it's date change gives it a shot at luringTiger Woods.
The Shell Houston Open turned a bad date into a star-studded field (includingthis year's champ Hunter Mahan). Now another Texas tournament is being giventhat date.Photo by © Michelle Watson/CatchLightGroup.com
The Shell Houston Open turned a bad date into a desirable one — and now the PGA Tour is taking it back.
As cold-blooded sports moves go, it doesn't get much more chilly than what PGA officials are doing to Houston's Tour stop. Having seen the Houston Open transform the week before the Masters from the date that no one wanted into one that draws top players like Phil Mickelson and Hunter Mahan, the Tour is turning around and giving that date to San Antonio in 2013.
Timms has already reached out to Woods' agent Mark Steinberg, one of the most powerful men in sports thanks to his confidant connection to Tiger.
Next year, the Shell Houston Open will be played two weeks before the Masters instead, with its final round falling on Easter Sunday (March 31). San Antonio's Valero Texas Open will get the pre-Masters week spot.
In many ways, it's a slap in the face of Houston and a tournament that's always done things the right way. But rather than scream out in rightful outrage, Houston Open tournament director Steve Timms, his staff and Shell are already plotting to try and turn it into a positive.
By going Tiger hunting.
Tiger Woods may no longer have his green jacket game, but he remains the unquestioned No. 1 draw in golf, the one man who changes everything for any tournament. And Tiger traditionally plays two weeks before the Masters. It's part of his routine — and few golfers are as wedded to their routine as the man who wears red on Sundays.
Timms has already reached out to Woods' agent Mark Steinberg, one of the most powerful men in sports thanks to his confidant connection to Tiger.
Steinberg was noncommittal, but he didn't dismiss the idea of Tiger coming to Houston outright. Woods hasn't played in a Houston event since 2003, and that was for the Tour Championship. He's not exactly Phil Mickelson when it comes to H-Town love.
The tournament Woods usually plays two weeks before the Masters is Bay Hill, which will be played three weeks before the Masters next year due to how late the second Sunday in April (the Masters' traditional date) falls in 2013. It's almost impossible to imagine Tiger missing Bay Hill for a non-injury reason (he just won it this March to end his PGA Tour-victory drought and it's one of his favorite tournaments). So to lure Tiger to Houston, Timms must convince him to play two weeks in a row before he takes his traditional week off of competition for Masters prep.
It still might be a long shot, but this is the Houston Open's best chance to land Tiger. It's very likely a one-year window, something that might not come around again.
The Shell Houston Open could move back to the week right before the Masters in 2014. Though the Masters will be played later in April that year too (with an April 13 finish). The later date of the Masters in 2013 opened up this window that the PGA Tour grabbed for San Antonio.
There are no guarantees in the fickle world of professional golf, but there's a good chance the Tour will also find out that giving Houston's date to San Antonio doesn't give the Texas Open the aura that H-Town's built over this pre-Masters week.
"I'd try to play Houston whenever it was," Mahan said when he was in town for the tournament. "Everything about the week is run first class and course is always in incredible shape.
"It makes you want to come back."
Now, the Shell Houston Open just needs to get Tiger Woods here to turn a PGA Tour snub into a positive. The courtship's already begun. And they'll be the ones calling him.
