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PGA Tour: Valero Texas Open Tee-Off

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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.

World Golf Champ – Dell Technologies Match Play

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AUSTIN – The 64-player WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play field is divided into 16 four-player groups. Each group will play roundrobin matches within their group on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Players receive one point for a victory, ½ point for a tie and zero points for a loss.

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The player with the best record in each of the four-player groups advances to the Round of 16 for single-elimination match play. In the event two players are tied in points following the completion of group play, those players will have a suddendeath hole-by-hole-playoff starting on No. 1. If three or more players are involved, it will be a stroke-play hole-by-hole playoff.

The Round of 16 will be played Saturday morning, followed by the Quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon. The Semifinals will be Sunday morning, followed by the Championship Match and Consolation Match(third place) on Sunday afternoon.

The top seed for each of the 16 four-player groups are the top 16 players in order of their position in the Official World Golf Ranking. The remaining three players in each group were determined by a blind draw from each of the three pools depending on their standing in the world rankings.

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WGC Opening Round Notes:

On Wednesday, the top-16 group seeds went 6-6-4 in the first round. The top-seeded player to lose was Justin Thomas (No. 2) while Dylan Frittelli, seeded (No. 64), won his opening match.

Of the 22 players making their first appearance at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, 13 went on to claim at least a ½ point in their opening match. Geoff Ogilvy (2006) was the last player to win the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in his first event.

In his bid for a seventh World Golf Championships title, reigning FedExCup champion and No. 1 seed Dustin Johnson defeated Adam Long, 2-up while defending champion Kevin Kisner defeated Louis Oosthuizen, 2 and 1.

2010 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play winner Ian Poulter won five consecutive holes (Nos. 9-13) to defeat Rory McIlroy, 6 and 5, in his 30th match in 15 starts of the match play event. Wednesday’s round also marked the fourth occasion in 12 starts that McIlroy, the 2015 champion, has lost an opening match (2013, 2017, 2018 and 2021). McIlroy’s biggest loss in any match was 8 and 7 to Ben Crane in round two of 2011.

Match Play Recaps:

All of Wednesday’s opening round matches recapped: (link)

Tournament Site: (link)

THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: World Golf Championship 

COURSE: Austin Country Club, Austin, Texas

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup @DellMatchPlay

TV COVERAGE: Thursday, March 25 and Friday, March 26: 2:00pm to 8:00pm (EDT) on Golf Channel. Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28 – Early coverage on Golf Channel from 10:00am to 2:00pm and the switch to NBC for 2:00pm to 6:00pm (EDT) on Saturday and 3:00pm to 7:00pm EDT on Sunday.

STREAMING: PGA Tour Live will offer streaming coverage of Featured Groups on Thursday and Friday from 10:15am to 8:00pm (EDT); Saturday from (8:30am-2:00pm (EDT) only.

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Thursday – Friday – 2:00pm to 8:00pm (EDT); then Saturday, March 27 from 10:00am to 6:00pm EDT and Sunday, March 28: (11:00am to 7:00pm (EDT)) on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. PGA Tour Radio is available on Sirius 208/XM 92) or online on PGATour.com.

PGA Tour: The Honda Classic Review

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The Honda Classic: Review and Notes

THE YEAR of the 40s: Matt Jones won his second PGA Tour title in his 330th start and became the fourth winner in his 40s this season. He also became the sixth player this season to win more than six years after his previous victory.

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Jones converted his 54-hole lead/co-lead for first time on Tour, and finished with a five-stroke win which ties the largest margin of victory in tournament history.

Brandon Hagy earned his best career PGA Tour result on his 30th birthday, and in doing so, he moved up 101 spots in the FedExCup standings.

Sam Ryder played the famed “Bear Trap” in 3-under for the week, the best of any player who made the cut.

Chase Seiffert (T-3) at (-6) closed with 6-under (64), matching his career low (64/R4) at the 2018 Travelers Championship). He moved from T-41 to T-3 and carded his fourth score of 65 or better this season.

Brendan Steele (T-3) at (-6) recorded his second consecutive top-10 result at The Honda Classic (T-4) in 2020 and has five Top 15 finishes in last six starts at The Honda Classic.

The Honda Classic – Final Leaderboard

Matt Jones 61-70-69-68—268 (-12)

Brandon Hagy 69-62-76-66—273 (-7)

Five players at (-6)

Full Leaderboard (link)

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