Junior Masters Tournament on Hold in Houston

In case you didn’t notice, they are playing a Masters-like tournament in Texas this week. The Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Course resembles the intricacies of Augusta National Golf Club and is set up to duplicate the conditions to be found there next week.

Are Bobby Jones, Clifford Roberts, and Alistair MacKenzie turning over in their graves? Is there an impending lawsuit on the Masters brand infringement?

Golf is big business and getting on the tournament schedule the week before the Masters and setting up the course to play similarly to attract a good field is a brilliant idea.

It all started to materialize three years ago with the move to the Tournament Course from the Member Course at Redstone Golf Course, designed by golf course architect Rees Jones with help from David Toms.

“The Tour granted us that (the week before the Masters)," Jones is quoted as saying. "Once that occurred, we both decided along with all the Redstone executives to set it up for Augusta. The word has gotten around the Tour that this is a great prep for the Masters as well as a wonderful golf course set up the way the pros like it, and that's what David Toms and I really wanted when we designed the course.”

Was Redstone designed to be an Augusta National knockoff like some of the holes at Tour 18?

“Actually we didn't have Augusta National in mind," Jones said. "Although to some degree my training from my father, Robert Trent Jones, he always had Augusta National in mind, and I think I learned a lot about green contours and Bobby Jones’ philosophy. I was fortunate enough to meet with Bobby Jones several times when my dad took me down to Augusta. My dad did the 16th hole and the 11th hole and 13th green at Augusta. Then he built Peachtree with Bobby Jones, which is much like Redstone. So to some degree, it was good fortune maybe that they hired me because I sort of had that philosophy, the strategic layout of Augusta National.”

Rees Jones is proud of the difficult finishing hole at Redstone. The 18th, which has a difficult bunker right and water left is one of the most difficult holes played on the PGA Tour. Something like 154 balls have gone into the water on No. 18 in the first three years.

“I think most finishing holes are tough if it comes down the stretch," Jones said.  "I guess last week at Bay Hill, that's a tough finishing hole. Doral's 18th is a tough finishing hole. I think this is very much similar to both of those because there is the factor of the ultimate penalty—water. So I think the tougher finishing holes are the ones that have water.”

Augusta National’s No. 18 is waterless. No knockoff here but it feels like it to the players.

The Shell Houston Open has drawn a world-class field. Eight of the top ten golfers in the world are here. The only exceptions are Tiger Woods (No. 1) and Kenny Perry (No. 9).

The recent Shell Houston Open champions are here with the exception of Adam Scott (2007). Three-time winner Vijay Singh, who won it three out of four years ending in 2005, is here and trying to get his game in shape for the first major of the year.

How about duplicating the weather at Redstone for the Junior Masters? Rain delayed and wind suspended play in the first round on Thursday. High winds and rain are in the forecast for Augusta next week.

There is an interesting side story with the presence of U.S. President’s Cup captain Fred Couples, whose last win came at the Shell Houston Open in 2003, along with International captain Greg Norman, who was a runner-up in 1988. Maybe they are trying to re-enact Masters lore here too?

Couples has 15 PGA Tour wins, including the 1992 Masters, and is a two-time Players champion (1984 and 1996). The President’s Cup will be contested at Harding Park in San Francisco in early October.

Norman last played here in 2002 and his last PGA Tour victory came in 1997 at the NEC World Series of Golf. The winner of 20 PGA Tour events, a two-time British Open champion, the 1994 Players champion, and winner of 70 international events qualified for the Masters after finishing tied for third at the British Open last year at Royal Birkdale in England.

The “other guy,” as Padraig Harrington has been ignored by the media, won that Open that Greg lost and the one before it and the last Major played—the PGA Championship last August at Oakland Hills outside Detroit.  Harrington has a chance to win his third major in a row and possibly complete the “Paddy Slam” and the “Real Slam” this year. He finished tied for fifth last year at Augusta and tied for seventh the year before.

“I'm obviously working on trying to peak for next week," Harrington is quoted as saying. "I generally realize if I'm going to peak next week, I've got to show some signs of it this week. I'm hoping that the form will be good enough this week that will get me into contention, and, you know, you never know what can happen when you're in contention. I'll try and peak for two weeks in a row, but the idea is when you're building your schedule I go to peak for the major, but you're never going to complain if it happens to be this week as well.”

He is eyeing his competition for next week.

“Tiger and Phil are playing very, very well,” Harrington said. "Phil is playing great golf at the moment. I don't look at leaderboards or get into all that, but for some reason when it comes to Tiger, you kind of always know what score he shot. He has a presence and he's created himself. That's his advantage.”

The golfing day was short on Thursday in Houston. Only half the field of 144 golfers teed off and no one completed more than 12 holes. Lee Westwood was leading at 4-under par through nine holes. Play will resume at 8 a.m. local time and hopefully the full 72-hole tournament will be concluded on Sunday afternoon.

Then it is on to Augusta, Ga., and the real Masters tournament.

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer. He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering for the tournaments and working part time for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and The Golf Channel. He resides in Jacksonville Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to [e-mail]