Houston Open Recap: Lanto Wins by One Shot

We all like to say we saw things coming in golf. In all sports, really. Trends, patterns, you know. But just when you think you see something coming, sports has a funny way of ruining the lovely narrative. Kinda like "objects in the mirror are closer than they appear." Or maybe not like that at all.

That's all a round-about way of getting to Lanto Griffin, who won the Houston Open by one shot on Sunday for his first career PGA Tour win.

The 31-year-old California native had been getting more attention week after week as he finished top-20 in each of the first four events of the new PGA Tour season. So when we say we saw it was coming, that's what we mean. But it usually doesn't happen that way, because just when you think something will happen, something else does. Especially when before those four weeks, nobody saw anything from Griffin coming.

He managed to play two events on the PGA Tour way back in 2011 and missed the cut in both. From there, he didn't go to the Korn Ferry Tour or even the Latinoamerica Tour -- he went to the mini-tours. For years. Griffin finally got to the Korn Ferry in 2017, did well and earned his PGA Tour card for 2017-18. But he missed half his 26 cuts, had only one top-25 (T12 at Torrey Pines) and went back to the Korn Ferry.

Now he's a winner on the PGA Tour after only 33 career events – though of course  it took eight years to play those 33.

Griffin was battling with Mark Hubbard and Scott Harrington on the back nine at the Golf Club of Houston, and if you ask who those guys are, this would be a good time to say that this was the weakest field in a non-opposite-field event on the PGA Tour in about five years, according to the Official World Golf Rankings, which measures the strength of field each week. Houston's SOF was 73. By comparison, last week's Sanderson Farms was 398 and a major is in the 800s.

So even after Griffin ran off four straight top-20s, then banged home a 33-footer for birdie on No. 16 to take the lead and a knee-knocking six-footer for par to close out the win, we need to keep in mind the competition when gauging his game.
 

It would not be unprecedented for a golfer to appear out of virtually nowhere at age 31, though it is not common. The fields in the past two weeks were pretty strong for fall events, far stronger than the first two events of the season, and Griffin held his own in all of them.

But now he has a life-altering moment to navigate, including more money than he had earned in his entire career combined. Griffin is not in the field as the Tour begins its three-week Asian Swing this week at the CJ Cup in South Korea. After that comes the new event in Japan and the WGC-HSBC Champions.

Now 108th in the world, Griffin has not qualified for the WGC, even with the win. He's not listed in the early field in Japan. It might be best for Griffin to take the three weeks off, settle down, exhale, return those umpteen text messages from people he knew in high school and get back into action when the Tour returns to North America at Mayakoba in mid-November.

An even then we'd be hesitant to jump back on board for Griffin. Until we see how he reacts to his new-found fame, stature and wealth.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Scott Harrington
Harrington tied for second, a stroke behind Griffin, thanks to a dreaded three-putt on the 71st hole. Winning would've been quite a story. He's still quite a story. Harrington is 38, this was only his eighth career PGA Tour event and he had taken a leave from the Korn Ferry Tour last year as his wife battled cancer. Jennifer Harrington is now in remission, and Scott is on the PGA Tour for the entire season. But with his finish, he's already about two-thirds of the way toward locking up his card for next season. Harrington has shown a solid game in the early going, ranking in the top-10 in greens in regulation entering the week and the top-30 in strokes gained: putting. 

Mark Hubbard
Hubbard began the year in the 1,000s OWGR. He's now inside the top-200 after a career-best tie for second. The 30-year-old Korn Ferry grad had had only one top-10 in 88 previous PGA Tour starts – and that was just a few weeks back at the Greenbrier. Hubbard finished 115th in the FedEx Cup points standings in 2016. He's not far from matching that point total already this season. Hubbard entered the week in the top-25 in both scrambling and strokes gained: putting, so he's definitely a guy to keep an eye on.

Harris English
English had been an afterthought on Tour for quite a few years. So it was surprising to see him open the season with top-sixes at both the Greenbrier the Sanderson Farms. And now he has another, with a tie for fourth at Houston. English is only 30 years old, so who knows?

Xinjun Zhang
The 32-year-old Korn Ferry grad had been trending upward the past couple of weeks, tying for seventh at the Safeway and for 16th last week at the Shriners. That was a result of a stellar short game, as Zhang was ranked in the top-16 in both strokes gained: around the green and putting. He continued his strong play, and short game, tying for fourth at Houston. He finished three shots back – and that was with bogeys on 17 and 18 on Sunday.

Brandon Wu
We last saw the former Stanford star over the summer as an amateur playing the U.S. Open and Open Championship. He's now turned pro and tied for 17th at Houston. But don't expect to see to much of the recent college grad; he's chosen to play in Europe. He was in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championships a few weeks back and was paired in the pro-am with, of all people, Astros owner Jim Crane. The Astros Golf Foundation now runs the Houston Open. So that's how Wu ended up with a sponsor invite, and he showed it was warranted.

Russell Henley
Henley had finished top-10 in the five previous Houston Opens, including a win in 2017. He was on a lot of people's lists this week, horse for the course, blah, blah, blah. The thing was, since tying for eighth at the previous Houston Open, a long 18 months ago, Henley had been awful. He's had one top-10 in the past year. He hadn't had a top-25 in a strong event since the Honda in February. His world ranking has plummeted into the 160s. Henley shot 66 on Thursday and everyone was cashing their winnings. But then he shot twin 77s and wound up tied for 61st. We use course history religiously. Recent form counts more. And with Henley's recent form so horrible, we didn't touch him.

Brandon Hagy, Grayson Murray
These two golfers missed much of last year injured, got themselves healthy and fought their way back to the PGA Tour. They both had been struggling, missing a combined 7-of-8 cuts in this new season (Murray tied for 36th at the Greenbrier). Both players withdrew at Houston, Hagy citing a recurrence of his back injury, and Murray not disclosing a reason.

Henrik Stenson
The big news surrounding Stenson was that his beloved Callaway 3-wood, the one he had used for years to reside inside the top-10 OWGR and climb as high as No. 2, was retired, broken beyond repair. He was using a new Callaway 3-wood at Houston, and he missed the cut. Maybe there's a connection, maybe not. But we do know that no golfer had been more associated with one club than Stenson and his "old trusty" 3-wood. Stenson's game had been in a bit of decline even before the club broke for the final time – he was ranked 37th entering the week -- but this bears watching.

Rich Beem
Beem has no fantasy value. He plays only one tournament every year – the PGA Championship, which he won way back in 2002. Beem for some reason decided to play Houston, and he impressively tied for 55th. Now primarily a broadcaster for Sky Sports in Britain, Beem is about 10 months shy of turning 50 and qualifying for the Champions Tour. So maybe that's what this was about, wanting to tune up the game a bit, or at least gauge it. In which case we might see a bit more of Beem over the coming months.

Bernd Wiesberger
Very few players have been as hot as the veteran Austrian over the past five months. Wiesberger won the Italian Open on Sunday, vaulting to the top of the Race to Dubai standings and to a career-best No. 22 in the world. It was his third win since the end of May, a run that also included a runner-up and two other top-10s. Now 34, Wiesberger has found a career renaissance after missing half of 2018 with a wrist injury.

Matthew Fitzpatrick
The Englishman entered the final round in Rome with the lead but was no match for Wiesberger's hot putter, falling by one. It was his fourth runner-up of 2019, including at Bay Hill. Impressive, of course. On one hand, Fitzpatrick is still young at 25. On the other hand, he's been around for six years and, while he does have five career wins, he's never cracked the top-25 in the world. This latest runner-up will move him to No. 26. We'll see a lot more of Fitzpatrick on the PGA Tour in 2020, and we'll learn whether he's finally able to elevate his game to elite level.

Sungjae Im
If you were wondering where the guy who hardly ever takes any time off has been for the past two weeks, he was back home in South Korea. And winning. Im won the Genesis Open on the Korean Tour, coming from seven shots back for this third career title. His first two were on the Korn Ferry Tour. Im now moves to No. 44 in the OWGR and will be in the field this week at the CJ Cup in his homeland.