Valero Texas Open Preview

2018 Valero Texas Open Preview
Dates: April 16-22, 2018
Where: San Antonio, Texas
Course: TPC San Antonio – AT&T Oaks Course
Par/Yardage: 36-36–72/7,435 yards
Field size: 156
2017 champion: Kevin Chappell
Purse: $6,200,000 ($1,116,000/winner) FedExCup: 500 points to the winner Format: 72-hole stroke play
Twitter: @valerotxopen

 

The 2017 Valero Texas Open

• Twenty-five players began the final round of last year’s Valero Texas Open at or within five strokes of Kevin Chappell’s 8-under 208 lead.
• With eight birdies against just one bogey, good for a 7-under 65, Brooks Koepka posted a total of 11- under 277 30 minutes before Chappell finished.
• Also at 11-under, Chappell came to the par-5 18th needing birdie to avoid sudden death and claim his first career PGA TOUR victory.
• A solid chip for his third shot was followed by an 8’ 2” putt for birdie which dropped and resulted in the Chappell win at 12-under 276.
• Chappell’s win in San Antonio came a year after a T4 finish in the event. His last eight rounds at TPC San Antonio (2016-17) have been sub-par scores. Each of the six rounds leading up to 2016 were over-par scores.

More on Kevin Chappell

• Kevin Chappell’s win at last year’s Valero Texas Open marked his third top-5 finish in the event in eight starts (1st/2017, T4/2016, T2/2011).
• With his win in San Antonio, Chappell advanced to the FedExCup Playoffs for a seventh consecutive season and to the FedExCup Playoffs finale, the TOUR Championship, for a second straight season.
• Chappell’s win at the 2017 Valero Texas Open also helped earn him a spot onto the American squad for the Presidents Cup Team (1-1-1). Chappell teamed with 2016 Valero Texas Open champion Charley Hoffman in Four-ball competition on day two, where they posted a convincing 6-and-5 win over Anirban Lahiri and Charl Schwartzel.
• So far this season, Chappell has collected three top-10 finishes; T6/CareerBuilder Challenge, T8/AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, T7/Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.

 

Valero Texas Open and the FedExCup

• Each year, the Valero Texas Open proves pivotal in the race for the FedExCup.
• Since being moved to its current spot on the schedule in 2009, the winner of the Valero Texas Open has made it through at least two Playoffs events seven of nine times.
• Kevin Chappell (2017) Jimmy Walker (2015), Adam Scott (2010) and Zach Johnson (2009) made it through the season-ending TOUR Championship.

 

Field Notes

Sergio Garcia

• 2017 Masters Tournament winner and TPC San Antonio design consultant will be making a third start in the Valero Texas Open and first since 2010 (T45)
• Prior to a missed cut at the Masters Tournament two weeks ago, claimed three consecutive top-10 finishes on the PGA TOUR; T7/World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, 4th/Valspar Championship, T9/Dell Technologies Match Play
• In search of his 11th career TOUR victory in his 329th start this week

Charley Hoffman

• 2016 Valero Texas Open winner will be making his 13th consecutive start in the event, where he has never missed a cut
• Has finished in the top-15 10 times, including a 1st, T2 and T3 showing in 2016, 2011 and 2013, respectively. Finished T40 in 2017
• Is a collective 41-under par since 2010 (when the event moved to TPC San Antonio)
• Is two weeks removed from a T12 finish at the Masters Tournament
• Is in search of his fifth career PGA TOUR win and first since the 2016 Valero Texas Open
• As one of Steve Stricker’s captain’s picks in 2017, turned in a 1-2 record in his first Presidents Cup

Jimmy Walker

• 2015 Valero Texas Open champion and nearby Boerne resident set to make 13th start in the event
• In addition to 2015’s victory, also finished inside the top five in 2010 (T3). Finished T13 last year
• Is coming off a T20 finish at the Masters two weeks ago
• Lone top-10 finish of the 2017-18 PGA TOUR Season is a T8 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Adam Scott

• 2010 Valero Texas Open winner poised to make first start at TPC San Antonio since 2011 (T23)
• Winner of 13 PGA TOUR events, most recently the 2016 The Honda Classic and World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship a week late
• Will be making his ninth start of the 2017-18 season and first since finishing T32 at the Masters

Matt Kuchar

• Will be making his 14th start at the Valero Texas Open, and seventh straight
• Best finish at TPC San Antonio is a T4 in 2014 (finished T2 at La Cantera in 2001)
• In search of his eighth career TOUR win in his 414th start. Last win came at the 2014 RBC Heritage

Joaquin Niemann

• Chile native and World No. 1 amateur poised to make his professional debut at Valero Texas Open
• Niemann, 19, closed with a final-round, 8-under 63 to win the Latin America Amateur Championship in January, worth an invitation into the 2018 Masters (MC
• In his only other PGA TOUR starts, finished T29 at the 2017 Greenbrier Classic and missed the cut at the 2017 U.S. Open

Cameron Champ

• Former Texas A&M standout will be making his sixth start on the PGA TOUR and fourth as a professional
• He missed the cut in each of the three starts as a pro in the 2017-18 PGA TOUR Season (OHL Classic at Mayakoba, The RSM Classic, Genesis Open)
• Earned his spot into the field at the Genesis Open as the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption recipient
• Qualified for the 2017 U.S. Open, where he was T4 through 36 holes, before finishing T32
• Will be playing the Valero Texas Open on a Sponsor exemption

Tournament notes

• Past FedExCup winners in the field: Jim Furyk (2010), Bill Haas (2011), Brandt Snedeker (2012), Billy Horschel (2014).
• Players in the Valero Texas Open with Texas collegiate connections include:
  • Baylor University – Jimmy Walker
  • Lamar University – Chris Stroud, Shawn Stefani
  • TCU – J.J. Henry, Tom Hoge
  • Texas A&M – Ryan Palmer, Cameron Champ
  • o University of Texas – Bob Estes, Cody Gribble, Beau Hossler

• 2018 marks the ninth consecutive year of the Valero Texas Open being contested at TPC San Antonio, a Greg Norman design with Sergio Garcia serving as design consultant. Adam Scott won the first playing of the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio in 2010.
• Past Valero Texas Open champions in the field (9): Bob Estes (1994), Zach Johnson (2008, 2009), Adam Scott (2010), Brendan Steele (2011), Martin Laird (2013), Steven Bowditch (2014), Jimmy Walker (2015), Charley Hoffman (2016) and Kevin Chappell (2017).
• Since 1970, there have only been four international winners of the Valero Texas Open, three of whom emerged since 2010: Steven Bowditch (2014), Martin Laird (2013), Adam Scott (2010). The fourth, Nick Price, defeated Steve Elkington in 1992 in sudden death at Oak Hills CC.
• Dating to 1922, the Valero Texas Open is the third-oldest non-major on the PGA TOUR calendar behind only the BMW Championship (1899) and RBC Canadian Open (1904). It’s also the longest-running event on the PGA TOUR to be held in the same city.