Racing Post's Texas Children's Houston Open free golf match betting tips

Where to watch the Texas Children's Houston Open

Live on Sky Sports Golf, from 12.20pm Thursday

Best bets

Tom Hoge to beat Keith Mitchell
2pts 10-11 Betfair, Paddy Power

Billy Horschel to beat Beau Hossler
2pts Evs Coral, Ladbrokes

Texas Children's Houston Open preview

Keith Mitchell looked poised to take last week's Valspar Championship after three rounds but it will take huge self-belief if he can simply put it behind him and challenge at this week's Houston Open.

Generating such confidence looks unlikely and, consequently, it could be prudent to go against him in a Memorial Park 72-hole match bet with Tom Hoge.

Mitchell is the sort of tee-to-green performer who should go well in this Texas test and was ninth the last time the tournament was played in its former November slot in 2022.

However, there have to be doubts that he can knit it all together as he has claimed just four top-ten finishes in his last 28 outings and his Copperhead collapse came just a week after his Players Championship quest fell apart with a weekend pair of 76s.

That course finish 17 months ago is not enough to grab on to and Hoge, who possesses a similar skillset, could eclipse the Tennessean this week.

He also faded at Sawgrass with two final rounds of 75, but he had opened with an encouraging 67 and has finished sixth at Pebble Beach, eighth at the Genesis and 12th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, all of which are now classed as signature events that tend to attract strong fields.

Hoge is ranked second behind this week's hot favourite Scottie Scheffler in terms of strokes-gained on approach - eight of the top ten last time were in the top-20 of that metric in 2022 - so expect an improvement on the 46th he posted that year.

Billy Horschel makes his course debut this week but he finished strongly for a share of 12th at the Valspar and this looks a good opportunity for him to build on that.

He missed the Sawgrass cut by two shots but he was ninth at the Cognizant Classic before that so he is clearly capable of making his presence felt in the lesser tournaments.

With six top-20 finishes in his last 11 events, Horschel can be expected to get the better of Beau Hossler.

Hossler, who attended the University of Texas in Austin, was sixth at the Farmers Insurance Open in January but other than 14th at Pebble Beach has had precious little to crow about since the turn of the year.

He has missed his last two cuts and failed to make the weekend on both of his two previous visits to Memorial Park, and he still probably has nightmares about his 2021 effort in which he carded rounds of 75 and 82.

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