Shell Houston Open

Defending Champion Anthony Kim

Venue: Redstone Golf Club, Humble,Texas

So the venue is called Humble can anything that is generally as big and brash as anything Texan really be called humble. Anthony Kim defending his title once one of the greatest prospects on the tour and again another labelled the next big thing. Kim is still struggling from his early return from thumb surgery last year in his attempt to get onto the RC team and how they could have done with him. Kim still has it in abundance and is just one good round away from pieicing his game back together, well those are the exact words Hank Haney was using today on twitter. Its upto us as fans to decide whether we believe this or not, Personally I do believe that statement to be true. For a long time Kim has had the game to not only to compete with butbeat the best and having watched him this year he is not far from form, a few bad rounds yes but nothing disasterous and worrying, one good round and looks like he will click so don't write A Kim of defending this week or posting a T10 at Augusta.

Most of the focus at this weeks event will be on 2 things (well 3 if you count the tiger lovefest the sky guys have even though he isn't playing) but they will be the featured group of the opening rounds which consists of L Westwood, Big Phil and A kim. The other focus being who is coming into form for nexts weeks opening season major at augusta and there are some names to watch out for this week, probably too many to list so lets look at just a few.

Steve Stricker - Mr T10 himself, accurate, great wedge player and good putter, he is not the longest but his all around game holds up well and he selects the courses and events he plays well to suits his lack of length so a good bet for this week and probably not for the Masters but a good E/W for this years US Open

Kyle Stanley - Most of you will say Kyle who? but this is a young rookie who has length off the tee in abundance, a solid technique that can standup under pressure, look at his short career record and recently contended at riviera, this course sets up well for stanley and has a bright future ahead of him.

Retief Goosen - Has had a short break recently and according to PGATOUR.COM reports he has changed his putter and putter grip how accurate that account is we will see for ourselves this week, but the Goose is hitting the ball really well and if he finds his touch on the greens is a serious contender for any event look out for a T10 this week and with his high draw another T10 next week.

Hunter Mahan - Great start at Doral, another good start at Bay Hill but the H Bomb appears to be lacking something this season when it comes to finishing off, his game tee to green is as good as ever his putting stats read pretty good too, but his issues come to the same thing that let him down at the RC chipping in this include bunker play too, simply does not get the ball into the right places when he misses a green and until he gets this done he isn't going to back a big one, it;s not far away though he is probably the most likely next major winner out of the Foley camp.

Ross Fisher - We all know his roots and the route he took to get to where he is in the game but the thing with Fisher is he does seem to peak at the right times for the bigger events, even winning the majors cup in 2009 which is awarded to the player with the lowest combined score for all 4 majors at the end of the year. He is like stricker in the sense his all round game is solid if not standout but should be a good each way for the next 2 weeks.

Whatever happens were in for a feast of golf stateside as this event will help to raise ever more speculation around who is doing it at the right time for the Masters

(MODS A Sticky if you please)

Harrington with a beard bogying the last 3. A pitty as I would like to see him win again. Will he do like Jacquelin, ie. not shaving till he wins?