Day 9: Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course - Brandon Foertsch


Today was the big day: The Houston Open! We arrived at the Memorial Golf Course at 9:30, and entered with very little crowd. The morning was beautiful, and at the start of our journey around the course, we followed Chris Gotterup, the #10 player on the tour. He was on a back-nine heater, and we got super close to a shot out of the rough on hole #18. He made it onto the green 




Before lunch, we caught Keith Mitchell on Hole #6 making a difficult chip onto a slopy green. We were right up at the ropes. Here is the video of his chip:


Lunch was at a Becks Prime tent, where we indulged in $20 cheeseburgers and $8 fries. I love Becks Prime, but these pre-made and packaged Becks Prime burgers were sub-par. Anyways, the group was hungry, and lunch set us up for the hotter afternoon.


In the afternoon, our only goal was to follow Min Woo Lee, my favorite golfer, for as long as we could. There was a large crowd around him, as he was the winner of the 2025 Memorial Open. Min Woo Lee is a young golfer from Australia who appeals to younger golf fans because of his on-course personality, breaking the traditional norms of quiet, respectful golf. In addition, Min Woo Lee is appealing because of his activity on social media promoting the tour. His nickname is "The Chef", and after every shot, good or bad, his fans yell: "Cook up, Chef!" or "Let him cook!" We got to do this from hole #1 through hole #6, and on hole #5, we got to be up close to a shot out of the rough. Here is the video of this shot:

We left at 2:30 and were very tired. The sun had been out in the afternoon. It's safe to say I slept extremely well Thursday night.

As this will be the last blog, I would like to share my thoughts on my "Golf M-Term". During the first week, we caught some amazing weather and had amazing coaching from the First Tee staff. I am extremely happy with how our lessons went. There were some bumps in the road when it came to communication with the coaches, but overall, the coaching itself was top-notch. When we played the 9-hole course on Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week, I wasn't expecting the level of play I saw from my group. The beginners, who just started a week and a half ago, were hitting great short shots, with a couple of great longer shots. In addition, I believe that the in-class work went great, and I gave my students a dose of golf history and culture. They are now ready to watch golf every weekend like a real fan! I had an amazing couple of months working on this course with Mr. Roddy before M-Term, and I can't thank him enough for his help. I hope I will be able to pass this curriculum to an ambitious student next year.

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