Valero Texas Open Preview and Notebook:
SAN ANTONIO – (PGA Tour Brunch) – The Valero Texas Open features four of the Top 30 in the FedExCup standings, led by No. 9 Tony Finau and eight of the Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, also led by Finau (No. 13).
The Valero Texas Open is the 27th of 50 events in the 2020-21 PGA Tour season.
Eight past champions are playing this week, including: Zach Johnson (2008, 2009), Brendan Steele (2011), Martin Laird (2013), Jimmy Walker (2015), Charley Hoffman (2016), Kevin Chappell (2017), Andrew Landry (2018) and Corey Conners (2019).
Scottie Scheffler is coming off a runner-up finish in last week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, his best career finish on the Tour. He lost, 2 and 1 to Billy Horschel in the championship match. Finau-Jordan Spieth-Scheffler are the favorites this weekend. Both Spieth and Scheffler hail from Dallas, Texas.
Spieth, a former University of Texas player, seeks a 12th career PGA Tour title but first since The Open Championship in 2017.
A win at the Valero Texas Open is the final opportunity to earn a spot for next week’s Masters Tournament. The Texas Open is being contested the week before the Masters for only the third time in the last nine years (2013, 2019, 2021).
THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: Valero Texas Open: 4/1-4/4
COURSE: TPC San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas
ARCHITECTS: Pete Dye and Greg Norman
YARDS/PAR: 7,492 yards/Par 72
PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $7,700,000/$1,386,000
DEFENDING Champion (2019) Corey Conners – (Leaderboard link)
PAST RESULTS: (link)
PAST CHAMPIONS of Event: (link)
FEDEx CUP Points Available/Winner Share: 2,989/500
SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup #ValeroTexasOpen
TV COVERAGE: Today, April 1 and Friday, April 2: 4:00pm to 7:00pm (EDT) on Golf Channel. Saturday, April 3 – Early coverage on Golf Channel from 1:00pm to 3:30pm and the switch to NBC for 3:30pm to 6:00pm (EDT) on Saturday and then Sunday, April 4 Golf Channel coverage from 1:00pm to 2:30pm EDT then the switch to NBC for 2:30pm to 6:00pm EDT.
STREAMING: PGA Tour Live will offer streaming coverage of Featured Groups today and Friday from 8:15am to 7:00pm (EDT). Twitter will offer free coverage both days from 8:15am (EDT) to 9:30am.
PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Today – Friday – 1:00pm to 7:00pm (EDT); then Saturday and Sunday, 1:00pm to 6:00pm (EDT)) on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. PGA Tour Radio is available on Sirius 208/XM 92) or online on PGATour.com.