What’s up with the Shell Houston Open? Tom Kirkendall has the details and it’s all about location, location, location:
First, despite HGA protestations to the contrary, the Redstone Golf Course is not a PGA Tour-quality golf course. Redstone is the renovated result of the old El Dorado Country Club course and, although the redesign improved that old course significantly, it is still not close to as good a tournament venue as the TPC in The Woodlands.
Second, Redstone Golf Club is out in the middle of nowhere with no nearby quality hotels and other acccomodations to attract the Tour players or visitors to the golf tournament. Consequently, the Tour players must stay in either second rate Intercontinental Airport-area hotels or far away quality hotels in either the downtown or Galleria-areas of Houston.
In the meantime, The Woodlands has developed the Houston area’s best destination resort, along with a beautiful downtown riverwalk area dotted with quality restaurants, entertainment venues, shops, and hotels. As one anonymous Tour player commented to me after viewing the latest commercial developments in The Woodlands: “They [meaning the HGA] left this for that[meaning Redstone]?”
The short terms results tend to support that view. Not only are charitable donations generated by the tournament down for the first time in 12 years, this year’s Houston Open attracted only 3 of the top 20 money-winners on the PGA Tour. Prospects for next year’s tournament do not look much better.
The full post has lots more on what appears to be a decline. I hope it’s only temporary.
