Stephan Jaeger earns First Career Victory at Houston Open

Stephan Jaeger, 34, won the Houston Open March 31, his first PGA Tour win in 135 attempts, avoiding a playoff with Scottie Scheffler who missed a 7-foot putt on the 72nd hole.

HOUSTON, Texas – After spending the last four weeks crisscrossing the The Sunshine State, the PGA TOUR packed its bags and headed west across the Gulf Coast straight to the Lone Star State, and the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open that kicked off a two-week Tour stint deep in the heart of Texas.

This was the first time the Houston Open returned to a spring date at the Memorial Park Golf Course since 2018. The Open was not held in 2023 due to the PGA TOURS changing back to a calendar year schedule in 2024.

“The Houston Open, a legacy PGA TOUR event dating back to 1946, has all the ingredients of a premier PGA TOUR event: a true competitive test in Memorial Park Golf Course, an engaged fan base, and a commitment to better the community, led by the Astros Golf Foundation,” said PGA TOUR Chief Competitions Officer Tyler Dennis. “We look forward to the Houston Open’s return to spring and the impact it will have on our 2024 FedExCup season.”

The total 2024 Houston Open purse was $9.1 million, the winner gets $1.638 million and 500 FedEx Cup points. They will also be invited to the Masters if they aren’t in the field yet.

History

The Houston Open was first played in 1946 and has been won by golf ’s greats including Texas-native Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Payne Stewart and Fred Couples. Memorial Park Golf Course hosted the Houston Open for the first time in 1947 and again from 1951-1963.  

 It was at Sharpstown Country Club in 1964 and 1965, moved to Champions Golf Club in 1966 for six years, and then to Westwood Country Club in 1972.

 The tournament ventured outside of the city limits in 1973 and 1974 at Quail Valley Country Club in Missouri City, a southwest suburb. It relocated north to The Woodlands in 1975, at Woodlands Country Club until 1984, then at the TPC at The Woodlands through 2002.

 It moved to near Humble in 2003, where it stayed for 17 years; initially played at the Members Course, it changed to the Tournament Course in 2006. The facility was known as Redstone Golf Club until December 2013, before returning to the Golf Club of Houston in 2020 after a major renovation led by the Astros Golf Foundation.

Course

Memorial Park, a municipal golf course near downtown Houston, was awarded the Houston Open starting in 2020. The golf course underwent a $15 million transformation that was completed in late-2019, in only one year. 

The Astros Golf Foundation raised the money for the project and commissioned architect Tom Doak and player consultant Brooks Koepka to totally redesign the entire 18 holes. 

The current layout features a par 70 7,292-yard design with five par 5s, including a risk-reward 16th hole with a large man-made collection pond guarding the entire front. This addition, added to the nearly impossible to hold mounded 15^th green, could make the home stretch a “fun to watch” finish to a tightly contested match.

 Round 1

Wilson Furr had a strong finish to shoot a 6-under 64 and tie Taylor Moore for the lead after the opening round of the Texas Children’s Houston Open on Thursday.

Furr, a Tour rookie, started out slowly on the back nine before finding his groove on the front. He birdied the 3^rd, he holed out from the 5^th fairway for an eagle 2 and finished his round birdie-birdie, with a long putt at the par-3 9^th.

“It’s a dream come true” to be on the PGA Tour, Furr said. “Just being surrounded by the best golfers in the world, it’s kind of inspiring day to day, can’t ask for a better job than that…”

Taylor Moore recovered from an opening bogey by chipping in for eagle at the par-5 3^rd hole. He added five birdies without a bogey to close out at 6-under 64 for a share of the lead. The winner of the 2023 Valspar Championship is looking for his second career win here this week.

Scottie Scheffler began his quest for three wins in three starts by shooting a 5-under 65. He is tied for third with Davis Riley and Joe Highsmith. Tony Finau, the 2022 Houston Open Champion, opened with a 1-under 69.

Round 1: Top 5 

Pos-Player-Score (Rd 1)
T1. Wilson Furr -6 (64)
T1. Taylor Moore -6 (64)
T3. Joe Highsmith -5 (65)
T3. Davis Riley -5 (65)
T3. Scottie Scheffler -5 (65)

Round 2

Defending champion Tony Finau 9-under, shifted gears towards the end of his first round and posted an 8 under 62 to grab the 36-hole lead at the Texas Open on Friday at Memorial Park golf course.

After starting his day with three birdies on the back nine and making the turn with bogey 5 at the 1^st, he proceeded to rolled in birdies on the 3^rd, 4^th, 6^th and 7^th before chipping in from just off the green for an eagle at the par 5,8^th to go out with a 5-under 30. 

The rookie, Alejandro Tosti, started his round with birdies on the 12^th, 16^th, and 1^st, before dropping back with consecutive bogeys on the 3^rd and 4^th holes. He birdied the 6^th hole to right the ship before draining his long putt on the 9^th for a closing birdie leaving him alone in 2^nd place at 7-under. 

Thomas Detry 6-under of Belgium shot a 64 leaving him alone in 3^rd place. A double Bogey on the par 4 18^th hole left Scottie Scheffler in 4^th place at 5-under with an even-par 70. Tied with Scheffler are Taylor Moore, Chad Ramey, Akshay Bhatia, Joe Highsmith and Stephan Jaeger.

With only 10 players in the Top 50 OWGR participating in the 2024 Houston Open, notable names to miss the cut at 1 over were Jason Day (+2) and Padraig Harrington (+4). 

Round 2: Top 5 

Pos-Player-Score (Rd 2)
 1.  Tony Finau -9 (-8)
 2.  Alejandro Tosti -7 (-3)
 3.  Thomas Detry -6 (-6)
T4. There were 6 players tied at -5.

Round 3

Scottie Scheffler has a chance at history Sunday. The other four players tied for the lead could earn their first PGA Tour win. The players tore up the front nine early on a cloudy Saturday, the back nine fought back, including the shortest hole (par 3 15^th) on the course proving the toughest.

Five players were tied for the lead with eighteen holes remaining.  

David Skinns 9-under fired a 65 to move up 9 spots. 

Steven Jaeger 9-under, carded 6 birdies and 2 bogeys for a 66. 

Scottie Scheffler 9-under, had a roller coaster ride through the back nine with 4 birdies, 1 bogey, and a double bogey on the par 3 15^th. He managed to end up carding a 66 with 4 birdies and 1 bogey on the front 9. 

Alejandro Tosti 9-under, added a flare for the dramatics, with a left shoulder that appeared to be dislocating with every bad swing. Plus, a toxic personality that seemed to alienate him from his playing partners. He carded 5 birdies, a double bogey and and a bogey for a 68. 

Thomas Detry 9-under, had a quiet 67 round included 4 birdies and 1 bogey. 

Round 3: Top 5 

Pos-Player-Score (Rd 3)
T1. Thomas Detry -9 (-3)
T1. Stephan Jaeger -9 (-4)
T1. David Skinns -9 (-5)
T1. Alejandro Tosti -9 (-2)
T1. Scottie Scheffler -9 (-4)

Final Round

The way the Leaderboard was acting, during the entire final round, you might had thought it had an electrical problem. Player’s names kept changing places just about every minute and no one was able to stay at the top. 

Peter Malnati (last week’s Valspar Champion) did manage to grab himself the spotlight for a very brief moment when he floated his tee shot, on the par 3, 223-yard 7^th, about 30’ short of the hole that just kept rolling until it found the bottom of the cup. 

As the last threesome headed to the 16^th green, Stephan Jaeger 12-under and Alejandro Tosti 12-under were at the top of the leaderboard with 5 players at 11-under. Toney Finau was the Leader in the clubhouse at 11-under.

It looked like the winner would be determined on the 18^th hole as both Tosti and Jaeger were both tied at 12-under. Tosti 11-under bogeyed the 18^th while Jaeger’s tee shot was sitting in the middle of the 18^th fairway.

Stephan Jaeger 12-under had the first putt for birdie on the 18^th hole. He missed his 20’ putt just to the right. Scheffler 11-under had a 7’ putt to send the match into extra holes. He missed!

Final Round: Top 5 

Pos-Player-Score (Rd 4)

  1. Stephan Jaeger -12 (67)
T2. Tony Finau -11 (66)
T2. Alejandro Tosti -11 (68)
T2. Scottie Scheffler -11 (68)

T2. Thomas Detry -11 (68)

T2.  Taylor Moore -11 (67)

 The Wrap Up 

Stephan Jaeger and Scottie Scheffler shake hands after finishing the final round of the Houston Open March 31.

The winner of the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open was Stephan Jaeger with 12-under-par. Stephan received the Texas Children’s Houston Open Trophy, a check for $1.638 million, and 500 FedEx Cup points.

He is now fully exempt thru the 2026 PGA TOUR season and exempt into signature Events, The Masters, The PGA Championship and the 2025 Sentry Open.

Jaeger is 34 and was born in Munich, Germany. He joined the PGA TOUR in 2014 and this was 1st Career Win. His current OWGR is 71st and his Career Earnings (including today) is $7,698,512.

NBC reporter Don Hack caught up with Stephan Jaeger as he was walking off the green. He asked him, “Your first win on the PGA Tour, you’re 34 years of age and you just held off the best player in the world. What did it take for you to scale this mountain today?”

Stephan replied, “Yeah, you know, he’s been playing some unbelievable golf. I played the Arnold Palmer and The Players, obviously with him, and he’s such a great dude as well. So, it was such a blast the last couple days to kind of fight, and you just know, that he’s going to have some good stuff. I just kind of try to stay within myself and try to make some putts and make some birdies.  Birdies kind of alluded me on the back nine there but this golf course, you know, plays a little difficult, especially if you’re running around the lead. There’s just so much trouble and I’m super happy obviously with the day.”

There was a 5-way tie for 2^nd place with Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau, Alejandro Tosti, Thomas Detry, and Taylor Moore all finishing at 11-under. They will all receive a check for $553,735.00.

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