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Published January 08, 2015
Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - PGA TOUR - SHELL HOUSTON OPEN, Golf Club of Houston, Humble, Texas - The final tune up for the season's first major is this week with the Houston Open.
Last year, D.A. Points waited out a long weather delay before picking up his second PGA Tour title. Points closed with a 6-under 66 to beat Henrik Stenson and Billy Horschel.
Stenson and Horschel also closed with 66s. Stewart Cink and Bill Haas shared the lead entering the round, but shot 70 and 72 to end three and five strokes off the pace, respectively.
Points parred the 14th before play was halted by weather. After a 2 1/2 hour delay, Stenson birdied four of the last five to get into the clubhouse at 15- under. Points still led by one, and that's how things finished as he parred the final four holes.
The victory landed Points his second invitation to the Masters, where he tied for 38th.
This week's host course is the same as last year, but has a different name. Redstone Golf Club changed owners over the winter and was renamed Golf Club of Houston.
Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson, four of the top-10 players in the world, are all in the field this week.
World No. 5 Phil Mickelson is questionable to play this week after injuring an oblique muscle in the third round of the Texas Open. The field will also include Jimmy Walker, Matteo Manassero and Steve Stricker, who is making his third start of the season.
Golf Channel will have television coverage of the first two days and early on the weekend before handing off to NBC for the remainder of the action.
The PGA Tour heads to Augusta next week for the year's first major, the Masters. Adam Scott broke through and won his first major there last year when he birdied the second playoff hole to beat Angel Cabrera.
LPGA TOUR
KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP, Mission Hills Country Club (Dinah Shore Tournament Course), Rancho Mirage, California - The LPGA starts its major championship season this week at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Inbee Park cruised to a 4-stroke win last year to pick up her second major championship title. Her first came in her first tour victory at the 2008 U.S. Women's Open.
The win was Park's second of the 2013 season and the first of three straight major championship victories for the South Korean.
This event has a history of crazy finishes. I.K. Kim missed a tap-in putt in 2012 that would have given her the title. She then lost a playoff to Sun Young Yoo.
Brittany Lincicome eagled the 18th to come from behind for the win in 2009. two years before that, Suzann Pettersen played the Nos. 15 through 17 in 4- over par to lose her lead, while in 2006 before Karrie Webb holed out for eagle from the fairway on the 72nd hole then beat Lorena Ochoa in a playoff.
Golf Channel has coverage of all four rounds.
In two weeks, the LPGA Tour heads to Hawaii for the LPGA LOTTE Championship, where Pettersen beat Lizette Salas in a playoff last year. That event runs Wednesday to Saturday.
EUROPEAN TOUR
NH COLLECTION OPEN, La Reserva de Sotogrande Club de Golf, Cadiz, Spain - The European Tour touches down in Europe for the first time all season with a new event, the NH Collection Open.
With many of the big names in the United States preparing for next week's Masters Tournament, the field this week does boast 44 former European Tour winners.
Thomas Levet, Shane Lowry and Richie Ramsay are among the former winners in the field this week. Alejandro Canizares, Santiago Luna and Eduardo de la Riva headline the Spanish contingent.
There is no television coverage this week.
After the Masters next week, the tour heads back to Asia the following week for the Maybank Malaysian Open, where Kiradech Aphibarnrat won by one over Edoardo Molinari last year.
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