The 24th Houston Open Golf Tournament in conjunction with the PGA Tour kicks off Thursday with three Lamar University alumni joining a host of top players; former open champion and 2013 FedEx Cup Champion Henrik Stenson is the favourite heading into the first round.
 
Once a pivotal pre-Masters tune up on a course prepared as close to Augusta National as possible, the Houston Open has always been an exciting date on the PGA calendar. Shawn Stefani, Dawie Van Der Walt and Chris Stroud will be the three Lamar University alumni playing in Houston over the next few days.
 
Chris Stroud turned pro in 2004 following his graduation from Lamar University with a major in Management Information Systems. In his four-year tenure at Lamar University, Stroud was named Southland Conference Men's Golfer of the Year four times. In 2004, Stroud was named a PING All-American First Team member. In 2017, Stroud won his first professional PGA tournament at the Barracuda Championship in Reno, NV. Stroud reached a career high FedExCup ranking of 43rd in 2013 and has a career low round of 62 shot at the 2010 Miracle Network Classic. Thus far this season, Stroud has tallied up some impressive results, finishing second and fourth at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship and the John Deere Classic, and will look to emulate similar performances this weekend.
 
Shawn Stefani turned pro in 2005 following his graduation from Lamar University with a major in General Studies. In 2004 Stefani was named to the Southland Conference first team and finished tied for 38th at the NCAA Regional Championships. Since becoming pro, Stefani reached a career high in 2015, finishing the year ranked 54^th in the FedExCup Rankings and has a career low round of 63 which was shot at the Humana Challenge in 2015. Thus far this season, Stefani's best performance was recorded at the Sanderson Farms Championship, in Jackson, MS., on Sept. 22, where an impressive round of 65 in the second round saw him finish in 27th overall.
 
Dawie Van Der Walt turned pro in 2007 after graduating from Lamar in 2004 with a major in Applied Science. In his time at Lamar, Van Der Walt led the Cardinals to their 20th Southland Conference Championship and went onto finish third individually at the 2006 NCAA Regional Championships at Sand Ridge GC in Chardon, Ohio. In the same year, Van Der Welt placed fourth at the NCAA Championships with a 72-hole score of 7-under 281. Van Der Walt was named to the 2006 second team PING All-America. Since turning pro, Van Der Walt reached a career high ranking of second in 'The 25 Rank' in 2015 and boasts an impressive career low round of 60 which was shot at the 2012 Cox Classic. Van Der Walt's last tournament this season saw him finish tied for 11th place at the Albertsons Boise Open in Boise, ID., on Aug. 25 following a resurgent fourth round of 65.
 
All three Cardinal alumni are due to tee off on Thursday, Oct. 10th. Stroud starts at 7:35 a.m. from the 10th tee and will be paired with Brian Gay and J.J. Spaun. Stefani will be the second Cardinal to tee off and is due to play off the 10th tee at 12:05 p.m., pairing up with D.J. Trahan and Ricky Barnes. Lastly Van Der Walt will round off the Cardinals in action on day one, teeing off from the 10th tee at 1:55 p.m. and will be paired with Seamus Power and Hank Lebioda.
 
Two other players from the Golden Triangle will also be competing this weekend, with Braden Bailey and Andrew Landry due to tee off at 8:55 a.m. and 12:35 p.m. Full results and the latest scores can be found on the Houston Open Website.