Best Active Players Without a Major and Hole-By-Hole Tour of TPC San Antonio

A few notes: 

I used 30 years old as the cutoff for veterans versus young guns. 

I’m at a loss for Patrick Cantlay’s major championship record. He’s played in every major since the start of 2018 (27 appearances) and has just five top 10s. Seventeen golfers have more top 10s over that span, many of whom have reached that total in fewer starts. Cam Young has equaled Cantlay’s top 10 count in just 14 career starts! Will Zalatoris has seven top 10s in 15 major starts. Moreover, Pat hasn’t been a true threat in any major he’s played in. His iron play isn’t quite on the level of other elite players, but still, he’s a well-rounded golfer and his track record in majors doesn’t line up with his talent. I’m not particularly bullish on his chances of getting one across the finish line; however, he belongs high on this graphic.

Zalatoris is the player I’m most excited to watch next week at Augusta. Entering this calendar year, I’ve been outspoken about my optimism for his 2025 season. To date, he hasn’t finished in a top 10. I’m slightly lower on Will than I was entering January, but his iron play and major championship track record are causes for optimism. He ranks 18th on Tour right now in Strokes Gained: Approach – much of which has been earned in strong fields. I’m not counting him out of contending at the Masters, where he’s finished in the top 10 in all three career appearances. 

If you don’t think Davis Thompson belongs in this conversation, that’s a reasonable position. I just want to reiterate my enthusiasm for where Thompson’s game may be heading. He drives the ball long and straight, has hit his irons solidly dating back to the Genesis, and he is well above average around the greens. Already with a win under his belt (2024 John Deere Classic) and a T-9 at last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst, I’m excited about what the 25-year-old could do over the next couple of years in majors. 

Player Spotlight: Corey Conners 

A golf course on which Corey Conners thrives is generally a demanding golf course from tee to green. Conners, a two-time winner of the Valero Texas Open, is an instructive player to analyze, especially in relation to TPC San Antonio. 

Conners is one of the PGA Tour’s premier ballstrikers. Though he doesn’t pound the ball off the tee, he hits accurate tight draws on a rope. So far in 2025, Conners is hitting 65% of his fairways, ranking 21st on Tour. In eight seasons on the PGA Tour, Conners has never been ranked outside the top 80 in driving accuracy, and he’s finished seasons inside the top 20 three times. He’s also been a perennial high-level iron player, ranking as high as third in Strokes Gained: Approach last season. 

The bad news? His short game flat out stinks, at least compared to top players in the world. Conners’ around-the-green play and putting have always been his Achilles heels. When you stripe the ball but can’t get up and down to save your life, you’re going to consistently post a bunch of strong finishes with very few wins. That’s exactly how Conners’ results look over the course of his career. He’s made a bunch of cuts but has only won twice on Tour, both times on this golf course. 

Famously, Conners won his first PGA Tour event at the 2019 Valero Texas Open after Monday qualifying for the event. He is often cited as one of the prime examples of why the institution of Monday qualifying is important to the Tour’s DNA. I don’t want to wade too far into that discussion – at least right now – but the point I do want to make is that I would place a massive bet that Conners would’ve made it onto the PGA Tour without the assistance of Monday qualifiers. In the leadup to the 2019 Valero Texas Open, Conners was consistently gaining strokes with his ball striking against high-level PGA Tour competition. Just weeks before hoisting the trophy in San Antonio, he finished T-41 at the 2019 Players Championship, gaining over four strokes off the tee (Rank – 8th) and over four strokes with his approach play (Rank – 11th). I guarantee he would’ve quickly plodded his path onto the Tour even if he’d missed out on Monday qualifying for the ‘19 Valero.   

Ballstriking talents like Conners are rare, and this is a golf course that will reveal who can keep a tee shot on line and hit precise approach shots. Akshay Bhatia cleared third place by nine strokes last year without shredding the field with his putter, a strong signal of his ballstriking prowess and upside.   

So as you watch the action unfold this week, I’d encourage you to track Corey Conners’ progress on the leaderboard and click along with his shot trails. He is as certain as just about anyone in the field to avoid penalty areas and gain strokes from tee to green. And after a recent putter change, he’s somewhat quietly gained strokes with his putter in three straight tournaments following the change. I’m hesitant to place too much stock in the putter changes, but I’m not hesitant to predict a strong week for Conners in San Antonio. 

Reader-Submitted Question: 

Reader: I’m guessing no matter what I ask, you’re going to write about TPC San Antonio but what’s your updated opinion of Min Woo Lee’s game? 

Answer: I’ve written and talked about TPC San Antonio a decent amount – most extensively in a written piece in 2023 – but I’d really encourage you to watch some of the action this week. Completely subjectively, I feel like this tournament has the biggest disconnect between quality of golf and viewership. When the wind blows, as it often does, and when the course is firm, as it usually is, this golf course presents one of the best viewing experiences of the year. 

So today I’m going to try something different and offer a couple of lines with something to watch on each hole. 

A Hole-By-Hole Look at TPC San Antonio:  

Hole 1 (Par 4, 454 yards) — Left or right off the tee is a serious problem. A severe slope guards the front right of the green. It’s a difficult up-and- down if you miss the green, and shots from the cavernous left green-side bunker are particularly intimidating. Narrow misses off the tee get penalized, wide misses get crushed. This hole is TPC San Antonio in a nutshell. 

Hole 2 (Par 5, 602 yards) — Straightforward long par 5. With a narrow neck and small, firm putting surface, it’s virtually unhittable in two. I appreciate that where you leave your second shot truly makes an impact on your score on this hole.  

Hole 3 (Par 3, 171 yards) — A decent-enough par 3 with water short and a ridge bisecting the green. Players who are unsure of the wind or not dialed with their irons will often go long over the back into short grass, which isn’t an easy up and down if conditions are windy and crispy.

Hole 4 (Par 4, 481 yards) — Beast of a par 4. Demanding drive where you can find trees and native areas both wide left and right. Approach must be precise into a narrow opening in the front of the green. 

Hole 5 (Par 4, 400 yards) — I liked when they used to set up this hole as drivable. Though there’s a penalty area down the left, there’s a little more room left off the tee than most players realize. If you bail out right off the tee, you’ll have a tough shot into a small, firm green. 

Hole 6 (Par 4, 403 yards) — Gentle dogleg left. Comfortable tee shot for a drawer of the ball. One of the weakest holes on the golf course.

Hole 7 (Par 3, 207 yards) — Tough par 3 that shares a green with the second hole. Requires an accurate strike to hit the green. If you steer clear of the left-hand bunker and favor the right side of the green, you’ll frequently end up with a touchy short-game shot from the short grass right of the green. 

Hole 8 (Par 5, 604 yards) — Underrated par 5. Long, straight, and uphill. Depending on conditions, it can be reachable in two if you smash two shots. Missing right off the tee – either into the fairway bunker or worse – is problematic, so a lot of guys send it down the left, bringing a big tree into play on their second shots. You’ll see a lot of woods hit on the second shot that must navigate the tree positioned just left of the fairway.

Hole 9 (Par 4, 474 yards) — Another brutish par 4. You have to put two good swings on it. The green is perched up, and there’s a steep bank of short rough left of the green. If you miss the green left, you’re probably not getting it up and down. 

Hole 10 (Par 4, 467 yards) — One of the weakest holes on the golf course. Standard par 4 with some slope from left to right in the fairway. 

Hole 11 (Par 4, 405 yards) — Decent implementation of a centerline bunker. Successful shots down the left side reap the reward of a green angled to receive shots from that direction. Shots that miss too far left will find the native area/trees, which can result in a steep penalty depending on where the ball settles. I generally prefer players going down the right side and not prioritizing the angle.

Hole 12 (Par 4, 410 yards) —Packs a decent punch for being a shortish par 4. Features extremely steep bunkers around the green. I’ve watched players find trouble everywhere on this hole, both left and right off the tee and certainly in the bunker on the front left side of the green. 

Hole 13 (Par 3, 241 yards) — Long par 3. You’ll see some players pull lumber on this hole. Conditions are reliably firm and fast in San Antonio, so it’s tough to carry the front bunker and get the ball to stop anywhere near a front pin location. Par is always a good score on this hole. 

Hole 14 (Par 5, 553 yards) —Another long par 5. Turns gently to the right. Patrick Rodgers hit a 3-wood approach shot miles right and into the native area in 2023 to derail his chances of winning the tournament. Again, that’s TPC San Antonio in a nutshell: long, difficult, and unfriendly to a wide miss. 

Hole 15 (Par 4, 464 yards) — The main thing to watch here is tee shots finding penalties down the left side of the hole. The tee shot is pretty visually intimidating and invites you down the left side, but you just can’t afford to flirt with finding a penalty down the left. The fairway bunker down the right is no bargain, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the penalty area on the left. 

Hole 16 (Par 3, 183 yards): Features a bunker in the center of the green that tilts back to front, like the sixth hole at Riviera. The green is not as complex as the sixth at Riv, and overall it’s a much weaker hole. Still, it’s pretty fun to watch guys play this hole, especially to a back pin location. Also, spectators sitting along the back of the green get absolutely peppered by tee shots here. 

Hole 17 (Par 4, 347 yards): A par 4 that plays well both when set up on the back tees and when set up as drivable. If you go left off the tee, you’re left with a delicate uphill shot. Too far left may find a penalty area, though that’s rare. You have to miss way left to end up in the penalty area. If you just bomb right of the fairway and green, you’ll typically have a tight, barren-desert lie from which it’s difficult to catch a pitch shot clean with enough spin to control it. Overall, it’s a really strong pro golf hole.

Hole 18 (Par 5, 618 yards) — Yet another long par 5 that’s demanding off the tee. Starting at wedge distance, a creek runs up the left side and crosses the fairway up in front of the green. The hole is reachable in two, but it’s also easy to find the water short on the approach or barrel a shot over the green, which isn’t always an easy up-and-down. It’s a fine enough finishing hole, nothing from which architects need to derive inspiration. 

Overall, I’m a huge fan of how TPC San Antonio tests Tour pros. There’s enough width that fairways are hittable, and the golf course isn’t gimmicky, while wide misses get crushed. When you spray it, you’ll quickly find yourself in dense trees that line the property or amidst the rocks/desert plants in the native areas. When the wind blows and the golf course is firm, it shreds the golfers who don’t bring their A-games. 

Is TPC San Antonio an architectural masterpiece? Eh, it’s fine. There are some strong holes out there. I’m particularly fond of the first hole and 17th hole. But to those who complained that Memorial Park lets you get away with spraying the ball too much last week, you’re correct that it does, especially when it’s soft. TPC San Antonio doesn’t let you do that. It is extremely challenging. Whoever wins this week will stripe their golf ball. 

If you like these hole-by-holes, it’s something I can do again in the future for golf courses with which I’m most familiar. Feedback is welcomed. 

Ok, that’s all for this week. Have a question you want me to answer next week? Email me at joseph@thefriedegg.com!