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Traditional parkland venue with little water but lots of sand
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Ryder Cup skipper Keegan Bradley [22/1] can triumph in Texas
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Jordan Spieth [22/1] ready to win again
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Read Matt Cooper's profiles of the leading 50 players
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Read Dave Tindall's guide to the 2025 Masters here!
Tournament and Course Notes
The Texas Open, which dates back to 1922, has always been staged in the city of San Antonio. This week's venue, the Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio, made its PGA Tour debut in 2010 since when it has hosted this event 14 times.
Due to the Covid pandemic, the 2020 instalment was cancelled, although the Oaks Course did host a tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour in July of that year.
Designed by Greg Norman, in collaboration with Sergio Garcia, the Oaks Course was opened just three months before it staged its first PGA Tour event. The venue's downhill holes are played into the prevailing wind, while uphill holes travel in the opposite direction.
TPC San Antonio is laid out just over 1,000 feet above sea level, with water coming into play on only two holes - which is rare for such a modern course.
The majority of fairways are tree-lined and tight, while greens are undulating. Bunkers are large, plentiful and deep on what is a traditional parkland course. The layout is marginally longer than the PGA Tour average, while the Bermuda grass putting surfaces have been over-seeded with Poa Trivialis.
The Oaks Course is approximately 14 miles north of San Antonio city centre, and around 150 miles from the Mexican border, as well as 190 miles from the nearest coast.
Betfair Exchange market for the Valero Texas Open
Good Current Form
Tommy Fleetwood [14/1] travels to San Antonio in decent shape, having made the news a few weeks ago by reaching No 9 in the World Ranking without yet winning on the PGA Tour.
The Englishman will be keen to remove that annoying tag as soon as possible, and is better placed than ever to make that vital breakthrough this coming week. On his San Antonio debut last year Fleetwood tied-seventh over the Oaks Course.
Other in-form players who could prosper in a field that is hardly overladen with top-25 stars, are Keegan Bradley [22/1], Denny McCarthy [28/1], Daniel Berger [33/1] and Akshay Bhatia [25/1].
Of this quartet, Bhatia is the defending champion while McCarthy finished second in the Texas Open 12 months ago.
As for American Ryder Cup skipper Bradley, he has had a brace of top-six finishes this year, along with a trio of other T20s. He tied-eighth here on his most recent visit three years ago.
Betfair Sportsbook latest for the Valero Texas Open
Good Course Form
No one ticks more boxes this week than Corey Conners [14/1]. The Canadian is a two-time winner at TPC San Antonio, while his three most recent PGA Tour starts have all yielded top-eight finishes.
The 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama [18/1] warms up for Augusta at a venue where he tied-for-seventh last year.
The world No 6 from Japan won the opening event of the new PGA Tour season, although he did struggle last time out when he missed the cut at Sawgrass.
Former world No 1 Jordan Spieth [22/1] is without a victory since April 2022, but has shown some signs of improvement during the early weeks of the year.
The 31-year-old has twice stood on the podium at the Oaks Course, including once as a winner. He also tied-10th 12 months ago.
He's had a brace of T10s on Tour this year and his 16 rounds at this course average 69.75.
Elsewhere, Chris Kirk [66/1] has registered four top-10s at the Oaks, while Sam Stevens [50/1] has posted finishes of 14th and 2nd on his only two appearances in this tournament. Both are decent each-way candidates.
Latest betting for next week's Masters Tournament
Stroke Averages
Lowest Eight At TPC San Antonio (2018-24)
Average .... (Rounds)
69.75: Corey Conners(24)
69.75: Jordan Spieth(16)
70.11: Denny McCarthy(18)
70.18: Matt Kuchar(22)
70.20: Akshay Bhatia(10)
70.22: Chris Kirk(18)
70.45: Charley Hoffman(22)
70.45: Si Woo Kim(20)
Min. No. of Rounds = 10
Only those entered this week are included in table
Oaks Course Champions
The majority of champions have tended to start extremely well. Eleven of the last 13 winners of the tournament were no worse than three strokes off the pace after 18 holes.
And none of these 13 champions were more than four shots adrift after round one.
Meanwhile, 11 of the last 13 winners were also no lower than tied-third after 36 holes.
MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut
Note: List Contains Leading Reserves