Valero Texas Open First-Round Leader Tips: Picks from 50/1 to 80/1

• 50/151.00 Aaron Rai is a proven fast starter in good form

• 50/151.00 Harris English has been shooting low scores

• 80/181.00 Aaron Baddeley is showing good signs again

Weather forecast for Thursday

It's a sunny day in San Antonio although a little chilly to start with before temperatures peak at around 85 degrees in the afternoon.

Winds are very light to begin with and never get beyond around 9mph in the afternoon so the elements won't really be much of a hindrance. In other words, there's no draw bias.

Back Aaron Rai @ 50/151.00

Aaron Rai has finished 29th and 28th in his two starts here and in the first of those he opened with a 67 to sit third after round one.

With back-to-back seventh places in the Houston Open, Rai likes his Texas golf and he made another quick start in that event last week.

This time the Englishman carded a Thursday 66 and that put him sixth on the first-round leaderboard.

Back in January, Rai was third after 18 holes (65) of the Sony Open - a tournament whose results correlate well with this one - and two starts later he sat third after the opening lap of the Farmers Insurance Open.

With no less than three first-round leads on the PGA Tour last year (Farmers, Heritage and Canadian Open), he's a great follow in this market so the 50s looks well worth taking.

Rai is an early starter at 07.31 from the 10th.

Back Harris English @ 50/151.00

Harris English is another morning starter I like at 50s.

The American, who tees off at 08.15 from the 10th, is in impressive form this season having delivered seven finishes of 21st or better from his eight starts (he's made the cut in all of them).

English ended round in the top eight at both the Sony Open and Bay Hill and has sprinkled plenty of low scores this season, including a final-round 66 at Sawgrass last time.

Looking at his record in Texas, he's been in the top three after 18 holes on five occasions and that includes his very latest visit.

That came in last year's Charles Schwab Challenge where a 65 put him in second.

His overall course form didn't leap out when he played this event between 2012 and 2019 (this is his first start here since then) but his round one positions in those five previous visits included third, seventh and 11th.

Back Aaron Baddeley @ 80/181.00

Aaron Baddeley has been creeping back into some decent form in recent times with three top 25s in his last six PGA Tour starts and five top 40s in his last eight.

Aussies have a good record in Texas and in 13 starts in this event, Baddeley has a third, two fifths and four other top 20s.

On this specific course, his form reads 3-15-67-20-29-5-16-30-18.

As for first rounds, he's ended the opener in 21st or better in five of the last seven and was second after day one in 2015.

Sixth on the round one leaderboard at the Valspar Championship two starts ago, the 43-year-old can thrive from his afternoon tee-time of 12.46 (10th hole).

Now read Dave Tindall's US Masters guide here