Tournament Preview - Valero Texas Open

Tournament Preview - Valero Texas Open

Hello members,

A lot of Masters buzz this week but more on that below.  This week's event is the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.  Playing the TPC San Antonio for the $8.9m purse with the winner's share being $1.602m.  Majority of the big names are resting this week (unless they are LIV golfers) to rest up and fine tune before the Masters next week.  For a few golfers, a win this week will get them an invite to the Masters, like Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar.

Mike Trout, yes the baseball star, announced a new golf club in New Jersey designed by Tiger Wood's design company TGR Design.  Congrats if you had that square on your 2023 golf bingo card.

LIV Golf has a tournament this week in Orlando.  Speaking of LIV, rumor is if players break their contract, they will owe LIV 2-4x their signing bonus.  For someone like Brooks Koepka, that would be between $200-400m.  Yikes.  More information is found in this article by SI.

Weather

Southern Texas is a bit warm right now.  Could be some rain that delays tomorrow's round, but we shall see.  Wind will, and is always, a factor for this week.

The tournament socials can be found here for Twitter, Instagram, and their own website. 

ESPN Plus starting at 8:30am through 4:00pm EST Golf Channel starting at 4:00pm through 7:00pm EST

The full field was announced this weekend and all 144 players can be found here.

Tee times start at 7:30am CST / 8:30am EST.

• Previous Winners in this week's field:

  • J.J. Spaun - 2022

  • Corey Conners - 2019

  • Andrew Landry - 2018

  • Kevin Chappell - 2017

  • Charley Hoffman - 2016

  • Jimmy Walker - 2015

  • Marin Laird - 2013

• Notable previous winners absent:

  • Jordan Spieth -2021

  • Steven Bowditch - 2014

Betting Odds provided by Bovada.lv at this link (not sponsored)Some notable players to consider:

• Matt Kuchar - +2800 - 2nd place last year, needs a win to make the Masters so has some good motivation, and played well last week during the Match Play.

• Corey Conners - +2200 - previous winner

• Adam Schenk - +6000 - think he gets it done this week for his first Tour win

• TPC San Antonio has two courses - Oaks Course and Canyons Course. This week, the tournament is played only on the Oaks Course. The Oaks Course is a 7,435 yards long Par 72.

• Big awkwardness around this course since Sergio Garcia and Greg Norman jointly designed this track. 🫣 Also, the TPC website still references Sergio as a PGA Tour player... paging the webmaster now.

• The resort is only accessible to club members, their guests, or guests of the JW Marriott on property.

  • Initiation fee is between $25-50k.

• The 16th hole has a bunker in the middle of the green and is probably the most known hole.

Notes and News

• Updated eligibility for obtaining / keeping a PGA Tour card (twitter)

• Bubba Watson's Masters champion dinner was pretty simple (twitter)

• CBS confirms that LIV golfers will be features just as much as PGA players (twitter)

• Saturday of the Masters at 2pm EST will feature an interview with Tiger, Jack, and Scottie (twitter)

• Augusta National Golf Club announced the TV schedule - same as previous years with ESPN on Thursday and Friday and CBS Saturda (twitter)

• Gary Player may not be invited back to Augusta after this comment (twitter)

• Max Homa stays undefeated on Twitter (twitter)

• Brooksy was wildin out at a Florida Panthers game (twitter)

Twitter Roundup

May your rounds be filled with #oneputts.