Tour News
DraftKings Fantasy Preview: Valero Texas Open
The field isn’t top notch at the Valero Texas Open, but names like Jordan Spieth, Jim Furyk, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson and Phil Mickelson will be gracing the field.
DraftKings is once again offering a buy-low, earn-high format this week. At just $3, or FREE with first deposit, you can enter a contest with a $45,000 prize pool that gives away $3,000 to first place and guarantees money to the top 3,525 scores.
You can join the DraftKings competition here.
If you’re unfamiliar with the competition rules, you can look back at my Arnold Palmer preview for that information.
With a less-heralded event on the docket, this might be one of your best chances to cash in on your golf expertise at DraftKings.
My aid in that endeavor is below.
The Course
At the Valero Texas Open, the TPC San Antonio Oaks Course layout has been the host since 2010, which only gives us five years of data.
That isn’t a large sample, but two main characteristics for a successful showing at the course have been assumed: accurate driving and a great short game.
But we don’t deal in assumptions here, and some have questioned the accuracy over length advantage in driving at TPC San Antonio anyway.
To find the answer within the 5-year sample, I recovered every player who finished in the top-10 at the Valero since the course change in 2010. This set of 46 different golfers would give us an idea what kind of player contends (and potentially wins) on Sunday at the Oaks Course.
There is some judgement involved, but on the distance vs. accuracy question, I found 19 from this group to be in the top third on the PGA Tour in driving distance, with 14 clocking in on the same regard for accuracy. Power has been proven to be more potent than accuracy in driving on the PGA Tour in general, so this result speaks to a pretty even split, with power advantaged a little.
Overall, general driving ability showed to be highly important in contending at the Oaks layout, as I considered 19 from this set to be top third on the Tour in overall driving (distance + accuracy + precision). The short game matched driving’s 19 players placed in the top third.
Putting actually had 17 top-third golfers, which marks it as a far more vital area than has been previously noted at TPC San Antonio.
Approach play only registered 10 top-third golfers, which marks it as the least effective facet of the game for contending at TPC San Antonio.
As for minutiae, it’s better for a player’s driving flaw to be missing a lot of fairways rather than missing a few of them by a lot. The rough at TPC San Antonio is nothing too scary, but the big misses bring the haunting trees and natural vegetation into play.
Six-man Roster
- Jim Furyk: $11,000
- Matt Kuchar: $10,300
- Jason Dufner: $8,400
- Scott Piercy: $6,500
- Pat Perez: $6,500
- Seung-Yul Noh: $6,300
Two types emerge at TPC San Antonio. There’s the player with excellent driving and short game. And there’s the all-around player, with the layout advantaging driving, short game and putting heavily.
Furyk is a mix of the two, as the 44-year-old is one of the best drivers and short game players on the planet, and is generally above average in every facet. His last two finishes at the Valero are 6th and 3rd, and he’s been on form the past month, if under the radar.
Kuchar and Perez are the all-around player mold. Kuchar has stalled with zero top-20s in his last three starts, but he rarely goes long without contending, and his T4 at the Valero in 2014 is an example of how he thrives at this time of year.
As for Perez, he’s not great at anything, but he’s above average in every facet, and his three consecutive top-25s at the Oak Course speak to his strong track record here.
Dufner has put together a thoroughly mediocre campaign in 2015 for a player of his caliber, with just one top-10 and three top-25s in seven starts. And he has no previous experience here. But this course is near perfect for him.
The 38-year-old is short off the tee, but incredibly accurate and unbelievably precise (top-15 in Distance from Edge of Fairway the last 5 years). And he’s secretly an elite short game player. This is an excellent track to get him back on point.
Piercy and Noh are my wildcards. The former is a long-hitter who is prone to big misses, and his best work is on courses where he can go low, which definitely doesn’t describe the Oaks Course. But his performance on and around the greens is nearly unmatched when he’s hot, and I’m taking a stab at that happening this week.
The latter is a bomber whose most positive feature at this point is his approach game. But his next big performance could come at any moment.
You can join the DraftKings competition here
Sleeper Team
- Seung-yul Noh: $6,300
- Martin Flores: $6,300
- Boo Weekley: $6,100
- Ken Duke: $5,800
- Chris Stroud: $5,800
- Derek Ernst: $5,100
A really poor bottom to this field, so my sleepers are the set just above the lowest group.
Flores has done remarkably well in this event with three consecutive top-25s, and possesses a great short game. Weekley’s driving is consistently top notch and, even with three missed cuts in his last four starts, a newly masterful short game gives the 41-year-old too tantalizing a combo for this course to overlook him.
Stroud is in the midst of a miserable season where he has made less than half his cuts and seen his putting plummet. I expect his normally excellent flatstick to return this week and combine with his near-elite short game and above-average driving.
I picked Duke on a whim, and Ernst is a product of course and recent play. He showed signs of life with a T17 at Valspar following seven missed cuts in eight events, and while no course will ever truly fit Ernst’s “great driving, but terrible at everything else” game, TPC San Antonio is the closest he’ll get with driving and short game (his second best feature) at a premium.
Bonus
Alternate Six-Man Roster
- Jordan Spieth: $14,000
- Harris English: $9,200
- Charles Howell III: $8,000
- Kevin Chappell: $6,600
- Boo Weekley: $6,100
- Derek Ernst: $5,100
I trust Spieth this week with his all-around game (admittedly best around and on the greens, though), but he’s just too expensive to be my true No. 1.
English has the dangerous trio of recent form and course fit, especially with his improved short game. Chappell may not have the first thing — four missed cuts in last five starts — but has the latter two at high levels.
Howell’s game is trending in the right direction toward Augusta and he is still hungry for that Masters invite.
Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2026 Memorial Tournament
GolfWRX is on site this week at the Memorial Tournament, with both Alistair Cameron and Tour Photographer Greg Moore on the ground in Dublin, Ohio, where a strong field is assembled to pay homage to the Golden Bear.
In addition to WITB galleries, we’ve already been treated to an in-hand look at Tommy Fleetwood’s new TaylorMade Spider putters.
Check out links to all our photos below.
General Albums
- 2026 The Memorial – Monday #1
- 2026 The Memorial – Tuesday #1
- 2026 The Memorial – Tuesday #2
- 2026 The Memorial – Tuesday #3
WITB Albums
- Jason Day – WITB – 2026 The Memorial
- Chris Gotterup – WITB – 2026 The Memorial
- SungJae Im – WITB – 2026 The Memorial
- Alex Noren – WITB – 2026 The Memorial
- Jacob Bridgeman – WITB – 2026 The Memorial
- Lucas Glover – WITB – 2026 The Memorial
- Bud Cauley – WITB – 2026 The Memorial
- Alex Smalley – WITB – 2026 The Memorial
Pullout Albums
- Jason Day’s 1off Payntr golf shoes – 2026 The Memorial
- JT Poston’s TaylorMade Spider – 2026 The Memorial
- Cameron putter – 2026 The Memorial
- Tommy Fleetwood’s TM Spider putters – 2026 The Memorial
- New Mitsubishi Chemical 1K Pro Orange shaft – 2026 The Memorial
- Bettinardi putter – 2026 The Memorial
- Min Woo Lee’s Callaway Apex 18* UT iron – 2026 The Memorial
- Wyndham Clark’s putter – 2026 The Memorial
- Lucas Glover putters – 2026 The Memorial
- Nicolai Hojgaard’s new Callaway 4 iron – 2026 The Memorial
- Adam Scott’s L.A.B. Golf putter – 2026 The Memorial
- Scotty Cameron Xperimental Prototype 11+ putter – 2026 The Memorial
- JJ Spaun’s updated/newest L.A.B. Golf putter – 2026 The Memorial
Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the ShopRite LPGA
GolfWRX Tour Photographer Greg Moore was on site in Galloway, New Jersey, ahead of the ShopRite LPGA powered by Wakefern to snap some WITB photos and more.
Check out links to all the photos below!
General Albums
WITB Albums
- Mimi Rhodes – WITB – 2026 ShopRite
- Aline Krauter – WITB – 2026 ShopRite(LPGA)
- Olivia Cowan – WITB – 2026 ShopRite
- Leah John – WITB – 2026 ShopRite(LPGA)
- Melanie Green – WITB – 2026 ShopRite
- Nastasia Nadaud – WITB – 2026 ShopRite(LPGA)
- Maria Torres – WITB – 2026 ShopRite(LPGA)
- Ana Belac – WITB – 2026 ShopRite(LPGA)
- Carolina Melgrati – WITB – 2026 ShopRite(LPGA)
- Sofia Garcia – WITB – 2026 ShopRite(LPGA)
Pullout Albums
Popular Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
The famed Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, is the scene this week for the Charles Schwab Challenge, where Ludvig Aberg enters the week as the tournament favorite.
Tour Photographer Greg Moore and our traveling equipment insider, Alistair Cameron, are both on site this week in the Lone Star State. Thus far, we’ve been treated to an in-hand look at TaylorMade’s new ZT Max putter, as well as a bounty of WITBs.
Check out links to all our photos below.

General Albums
- 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge – Monday #1
- 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge – Monday #2
- 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge – Monday #3
- 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge – Tuesday #1
- 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge – Tuesday #2
- 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge – Tuesday #3
- 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge – Tuesday #4
- 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge – Tuesday #5
WITB Albums
- Preston Stout – OSU Men’s golf – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Marcelo Rozo – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Charley Hoffman – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Ben Kohles – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Davis Chatfield – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Albert Hansson – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Jackson Koivun – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Cam Davis – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Keith Mitchell – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Kensei Hirata – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Eric Cole – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Zecheng “Marty” Dou – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Robert MacIntyre – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Matt Kuchar – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Joe Highsmith – WITB – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
Pullout Albums
- New Bettinardi covers – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- New Project X Titan Yellow shafts – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Doug Ghim’s custom Cameron putter – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Matt Kuchar’s HitsGolf training clubs – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Erik Van Rooyen’s Callaway Apex TD Ti Fusion 3 iron(updated with additional photos) – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Robert MacIntyre’s putters – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- JJ Spaun’s newest L.A.B. Golf putter – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Odyssey Damascus Milled Jailbird Mini broomstick – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Chris Kirk’s putters – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Rico Hoey’s Custom Odyssey S2S Tri-Hot Jailbird broomstick putter – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge
- TaylorMade Spider ZT Max putters – 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge

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