Following a pretty good week at Harbour Hill — I actually pulled into the lead at the RBC Heritage for three glorious days! — we mosey on down to San Antonio for this year’s Valero Open and TPC San Antonio.
This will be a tough cycle, for picking the hot hand this time of year worked well as part of an overall strategy last week, but that included Kevin Chappell, last year’s winner at Valero. But, the past two weeks, I have played Chappell partially based upon skills and partially because Chappell did play pretty well here in 2017.
Again, I am playing at FantasyDraft, a format I really like — they drop the low score from your 7-man roster ($100 K cap) for the weekend. For this week, I am simply playing a $1 50/50 with 90 slots, so sign up and see if you can beat me!
The Valero will invade the Oaks course at TPC San Antonio (there is a second Canyons Course on the grounds as
well) with a lengthy 7,435 yards, with pretty much the requisite par 72. There are indeed four long fives, with a pair — holes two and eight — at 602 and 604 yards, respectively — indeed pointing to big hitters and distance accuracy. Add in the shortest of the threes is 184 yards, with the remaining three exceeding 207 and just a pair of threes under 400 yards. Those two holes, five and 17, are just under 350, making for some more interesting tactics.
There are showers threatening Saturday and some related gusty winds Sunday, with the temperatures averaging in the high 60s. Of course, I am going to look at some hitters, but also for players hitting the green from 150 out and doing work on the green for the Valero. Let’s see who I like this time around.
Sergio Garcia ($16,900): If local knowledge is good for anything, Garcia designed the Oaks course along with Greg Norman, so if Sergio doesn’t know how to approach his own design, there is very little hope for the rest of us. That aside, the Spaniard has made three of four cuts this year with three top 10s, averaging 106 fantasy points per tourney.
Luke List ($15,800): List is among my favorite big hitters, is a leader in par 5 scoring, and has 12 cuts made out of 15 tries (118.73 FPPT) with four top 10s. List ranks #43 at hitting the green in reg and #2 at drives over 300 yards.
Brandon Steele ($15,000): Steele won at the Oaks Course in 2011 and has three more top 15s. He ranks #8 in GIR, and #4 at drives over 300, with four top 20s over his last seven starts and eight of nine cuts made (125.77 FPPT).
Pat Perez ($14,800): Perez has not just made the cut four times of four tries at TPC San Antonio, he has top 10s in all four. As for this season, he is eight for nine with a troika of top 10s, averaging 127.44 FPPT while ranking #4 overall in GIR.
Jhonattan Vegas ($12,700): Moving towards the value picks, Vegas has just one top 10, but has 10 cuts of 12 tries to his credit. Vegas ranks #66 in driving distance and #105 GIR.
Stewart Cink ($12,300): Another value pick but another big hitter, Cink has three top 10s, making nine cuts of 12 tournaments. Cink ranks #130 at driving distance, but gets in close with a #35 rating at GIR.
