Tour Guide: Sprayers Need Not Apply

If you came to the Club TFE Tour Guide expecting a bashing of TPC San Antonio, you’re in for a surprise. At least one of us is going to ask you to give the Valero Texas Open a real chance!

A Golf Course with Consequences

By Joseph LaMagna

We made it. It’s finally a major championship week.

Ok, fine. The Valero Texas Open is very far from being a major championship, but this is a damn good tournament, one that I’ve always felt deserves more respect. If stronger fields turned up in San Antonio, golf fans would probably have a much more favorable opinion of this tournament than they currently have. Fortunately, this year more top names than in previous years are teeing it up, so this tournament has an opportunity to shine.

From my perspective, TPC San Antonio is the single most underrated test on the PGA Tour schedule, a position I’ve long touted on Fried Egg Golf platforms. The rough at TPC San Antonio is kept short, which must mean guys who spray the ball perform well here, right? Wrong. This is a golf course where accuracy is required as much as at just about any other venue on the PGA Tour schedule.

The key to understanding the importance of driving accuracy is to always consider not just the penalties associated with small misses, which will find the short rough here, but to also understand the penalties associated with wide misses. Featuring fairways often lined with trees and/or thick desert brush, TPC San Antonio imposes a massive penalty upon wide tee shots. It is for this reason that a player like Corey Conners, one of the most accurate drivers on the PGA Tour, has had so much success on this golf course. He rips tight, accurate draws off the tee into these fairways while many other players in the field struggle to keep the ball out of penal areas. Conners is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, and he’s a two-time winner at TPC San Antonio.

The sixth hole is a strong representation of the questions asked by this golf course. A par 4 typically measuring ~400 yards, the sixth demands a draw off the tee.

No. 6 at TPC San Antonio

Trees line the left-hand side of the hole, obstructing players from playing a cut into this fairway. If you lose your tee shot left, there’s a high chance you’ll be taking a penalty shot. Players cannot simply blast a drive way out right on this hole, either. A fairway bunker penalizes those who miss the fairway just a little to the right, and anything hit right of the fairway bunker finds further trouble. On this hole, players who have too much confidence in their ability to control a draw with their modern driver are taking a big risk. Especially when the wind is blowing, this is a demanding tee shot, much like the tee shots on nearly every other hole at TPC San Antonio.

Is this golf course an architectural masterpiece? No, I wouldn’t say so. The greens are fairly underwhelming, and outside of the elevated putting surfaces the golf course is pretty flat. I’m not sure that it has any outstanding holes, but it has a bunch of solid, demanding holes with quite a bit of variety. Conditions in San Antonio also tend to be both favorable and somewhat predictable. The golf course is generally windy and firm, a nice complement to steep penalties on wide misses. All in all, the golf course presents a reliably strong formula for testing the best professional golfers in the world.

The winner this week is going to be a golfer who hits the ball straight. Sprayers need not apply. My pick to win is Ludvig Åberg, one of the best, straightest drivers of the ball in professional golf. He should be confident standing on all of these tee boxes, which can’t be said of most players in the field. As we look ahead to the Masters, this week could be a great opportunity for Åberg to thrive on a favorable course setup and pick up some momentum headed into one of the biggest weeks of his young career.

One shot from last week

By Will Knights

This wasn’t a difficult week to pick a shot.

What a golf shot that is from the leader! 😲#HIO24 pic.twitter.com/zTdh5AIb8j

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 31, 2024

First things first, Keita Nakajima is a stud. I’m really hoping he can put the final pieces together and hit the big time in the near future. His golf swing is beautiful, and he would be a welcome addition to the PGA Tour, if that’s the route he chooses.

Back to business. I have to assume that this lie was nearly perfect, otherwise you’d have to think Keita would have just pitched this out. Regardless, to hit a ball pin high with the ball this far above your feet is crazy. You are hitting this shot using almost all upper body and hand-eye coordination, so to control the distance is beyond impressive.

And that’s not even to mention the forced carry over the water. Bravo, Mr. Nakajima.