It is a week before the biggest PGA golf event of the year, as the Masters 2022 looms right around the corner. Some of the world’s best will take the week off and either head to Augusta early or get some rest at home. Others like Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth will take a different approach and play the week before in preparation for the Masters. McIlroy himself has been outspoken about this aspect, saying that at times he sits around too long a week before a major and gets antsy, which affects his play. In his route this year, he took last week off to go play at Augusta and decided this week to head to San Antonio for the Valero Texas Open. He joins Spieth, who is the defending champion of the event. The Valero Texas Open is played at , TPC San Antonio, which sits on the same property as world-renowned resort, the JW Marriot. This DFS golf preview article will provide a guide for this week’s event and offer up some early PGA DFS picks to help win big money this week for fantasy golf on DraftKings and FanDuel.
PGA DFS & Fantasy Golf Preview | Valero Texas Open 2022
Course Facts & Figures
Course Length
Par 72, 7,435 yards
Course Difficulty
A top-15 hardest course on tour each year, TPC San Antonio plays about the same length and par as Augusta National Golf Club. They’ve also done an excellent job at prepping for similar grass conditions, albeit a different type of grass, but rough length and green speeds should mirror what players will see next week.
Hole Dispersion
- Four Par 3’s: 213, 207, 241, 183
- Ten Par 4’s: 454, 481, 342, 403, 474, 447, 405, 410, 454, 347
- Four Par 5’s: 602, 604, 567, 591
Grass Types and Hazards
- Grass Type: Champion Bermuda
- Average Green Size: 6,400 square feet
- Water Hazards: 3
- Bunkers: 64
- Rough Length: 1.5
Designer
Greg Norman
Best Stats for DFS Golf Picks This Week
Off the Tee: Driving accuracy is one of the hardest on tour, coming in at 63.4 %.
Approach to the Green: That makes greens in regulation very hard to hit, coming in at 62%.
Around and On the Green: With two very tough components in play already, the greens and green complexes are easy to navigate here at the Oaks Course.
Valero Texas Open Tournament History
The spot before the Masters is still a bit new for this event, but it has been the host of a professional event for at least the past 10 years. Even in 2020, when the event was canceled, the Korn Ferry Tour used it. starting at the top are a few names already mentioned in Spieth and McIlroy. McIlroy played here all the way back in 2013 and came in second, while Spieth has come in the top 10 three of his last four times coming to the event, with a second-place finish and the win last year.
Neither of them comes even close to Charley Hoffman’s relationship with this golf tournament. He’s come in the top 11 in six of his last eight showings at the event, including a win and two-second place finishes. Those runner-up finishes were in each of the previous two years. Kevin Streelman is one of several golfers that have come in the top 10 here twice, skipping last year’s event but coming in sixth in 2019 and eighth in 2018. Branden Grace has made three straight cuts and had a string of back-to-back top-10s in 2017 and 2016 before taking a two-year hiatus from the event. He came back last year with a 23rd. Chris Kirk has four top-13s in six tries but missed the cut in each his two other appearances since 2015. Others with multiple top-10s include Ryan Palmer, Brendan Steele, Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson, Kevin Chappell and Jimmy Walker.
Anirban Lahiri will be making his first start since his runner-up finish at the Players a few weeks ago and heads to a course where he hasn’t missed the cut in his last three tries. He also came in fifth last year. He’ll be one of a few golfers that will be on the lookout for a last-second bid in an attempt to earn a Masters Invitation. Davis Riley, coming off his second-place finish at the Valspar, comes back to a course that helped earn him that start at the Valspar, winning the 2020 Korn Ferry Tour event held at this course.
PGA DFS Golf Rankings & Stats
2022 Valero Texas Open PGA DFS Player Preview
The week before a major will never be filled with tons of stars, but there are an increasing number of top players that are playing the week before a major championship. Aside from Spieth and McIlroy, others joining them are Bryson DeChambeau, Abraham Ancer, Tony Finau, Corey Conners and reigning Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama,
Latest PGA DFS Content
- Houston Open DFS Sims Set-Up: Injury Bugs & Other Key Factors
- Houston Open First Round Leader Picks, Bets & More (2024)
- PGA DFS Picks: Top Values for the Houston Open (2024)
- DraftKings Golf Cheat Sheet: Best PGA DFS Sims Picks for the Houston Open | Tony Finau
- 2024 Valspar Championship DFS Fades, Pivots & Stands: No Thanks, Xander Schauffele
- Stokastic DFS on Youtube
Valero Texas Open Stats: Strokes Gained Review
Last year Spieth was in the midst of his comeback to good form and used a through-the-bag approach to win here last year. His weakest stat was off the tee, but when looking at the broader top 10, this truly is a tee-to-green haven for most golfers. Among tournaments this year, this one has the lowest average strokes gained putting for golfers that finished in the top 10 of any event while subsequently holding the highest tee to green. That is primarily due to how easy the greens are and more putts being holed, thus a lesser chance to gain strokes on the field, but Spieth still found a way to gain just shy of six strokes last year.
Averages for Last Year’s Top 10
- Strokes Gained Off the Tee: 0.48
- Strokes Gained on Approach: 1.2
- Strokes Gained Around the Green: 0.36
- Strokes Gained Putting: 0.76
- DFS Points: 94
- DFS Ownership: 10.3%
- Average DFS Salary: $8,009
Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!
[PGAPAGE]