The Texas Children’s Houston Open features the top two players in the world, and oddsmakers are creating some serious separation between Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy and the rest of the 156-man field in the Lone Star State.

World No. 1 Scheffler (+330) is a clear betting favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook looking for his first victory of 2025 and his first victory at Memorial Park Golf Course. The road to recovery after hand surgery late in 2024 featured five T25 or better returns, featuring T9 at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and T3 at The Genesis Invitational. Never missing a start since the event moved to the municipal track located in downtown Houston, the Dallas resident cashed T2-T9-T2 over his last three visits after T32 at the return event in November of 2020. Sitting second in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and third SG: Total, the rust should be gone as he ramps up to defending his title in three weeks at Augusta National Golf Club.

After two victories in four events, world No. 2 McIlroy (+700) is gaining on the Texan for the top spot. Victorious for the second time this season and the second time in his career at THE PLAYERS Championship in his last outing, the Northern Irishman is easily the hottest player on TOUR. Making his return to Houston for the first time since 2014, he will use his first visit to the 7,475-yard (par 70) Memorial Park as his final tune-up before attempting to complete the career grand slam at the Masters Tournament.

From there, there’s a considerable gap in the odds – the next-closest player behind McIlroy is Aaron Rai (+2800). Rai is searching for his second TOUR win in less than 12 months on a course where he owns back-to-back T7 paydays. Rai will embrace the difficult driving conditions -- Memorial Park provided the fourth-toughest fairways to hit in 2024 – and will need another solid week from an improving putter.

It is time to pack away the disappointment of the playoff loss at THE PLAYERS Championship for J.J. Spaun (+3300). An excellent start to 2025 outweighs the latest result. Making his 10th start, he has hit the podium three times in his nine previous starts, including runner-up twice, and is the only player on TOUR who can make that claim this season. Already having a career-year by money earned, the 34-year-old has already matched his best season in podiums (3) and is one top-10 payday short of equaling his best haul (4) matched in 2024. Sitting second in SG: Approach, another week of attacking flagsticks will add to his haul of top-10 results.

Davis Thompson (+3300) earned his first top-10 payday of the year with a T10 result at THE PLAYERS two weeks ago. After missing the cut in the previous two events, the 25-year-old posted four rounds of par or better at TPC Sawgrass, including nine-under (T3) on the par-5 holes alone, and should be full of confidence heading to Houston. In his first eight loops at Memorial Park, he signed for rounds in the 60s five times.

One of two previous winners at Memorial Park entered this week, Tony Finau (+3500) earned his title in the 2022 edition, the final tournament played in November. His title defense, not held until March 2024, saw the big-hitter share second, missing out on a playoff by one shot. The six-time winner on TOUR shares the course record (62) and has posted it in each of his last two visits, both in Round 2.

With a T8 payday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard the week prior and T3 at The American Express earlier in January, Jason Day (+3500) was on the radar at THE PLAYERS Championship. Sadly, the excitement was short-lived. The Australian didn’t make it to his Thursday tee time due to illness. The upside is there is no injury to report, and all systems should return to go as he launches back into competition. Never missing a start since the return to Memorial Park, he missed the weekend for the first time in four starts in 2024 but owns a T7 and T16 from previous visits.

World No. 11 Wyndham Clark (+3500) is the third member of the Official World Golf Ranking top 15 entered. Searching for his first top-10 result of the season, he returns after playing only 27 holes at THE PLAYERS Championship before withdrawing with a neck injury. Not many hit it farther than the 2023 U.S. Open champion. Possessing power throughout the bag shrinks this big ballpark. Making his fifth consecutive start at the event, he produced eight of 14 rounds in the 60s, but T16 resulted in the biggest paycheck.

Stephan Jaeger (+4500) became the second of four champions at Memorial Park to win on TOUR for the first time. Holding off five players by a shot, the German won for the first time in his 135th start. Defending a title for the FIRST time is never easy, but he thrives on big ballparks (Torrey Pines South, VidantaWorld) and has two top-10 paydays in 2025.

After contending down the stretch at the Valspar Championship, Jacob Bridgeman (+5000) will tee it up in Houston. The 25-year-old, currently in the form of his early TOUR life, shared second at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches and followed with T15 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Joining him from the top five last week is 22-year-old Ryo Hisatsune (+17000), who cashed T4 and picked up a check for a T10 at VidantaWorld before the Florida Swing.

Here's a look at some of the other notable odds for the rest of the field, via FanDuel:

• +3500: Sungjae Im, Michael Kim
• +4000: Si Woo Kim, Min Woo Lee
• +4500: Taylor Pendrith
• +5500: Maverick McNealy, Sahith Theegala
• +6000: Keith Mitchell, Ben Griffin, Alex Smalley, Thomas Detry
• +6500: Max Greyserman, Taylor Moore
• +7000: Joe Highsmith
• +7500: Kurt Kitayama
• +8000: Patrick Rodgers
• +9000: Kevin Yu, Rasmus Højgaard, Nick Taylor, Jake Knapp, Harry Hall, Seamus Power

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