Els heads Valero Texas Open field
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2010 Valero Texas Open | Preview | 11 May 2010
The PGA Tour is in San Antonio in Texas this week for the first of three tournaments in a Texas swing which includes the Valero Texas Open, the HP Byron Nelson in Dallas and the Crown Plaza Invitational in Fort Worth.
This week the TPC San Antonio will play host to the tournament for the first time, the event switching from its home since 1994, the La Cantera Golf Club. This year’s venue, the AT&T Oaks Course, one of two layouts at the TPC San Antonio, is a Greg Norman and Sergio Garcia design collaboration opened this year.
The defending champion in this week’s event is Zach Johnson who outlasted a congested leaderboard to win in a playoff over James Driscoll. Eight players finished within two shots of the playoff pair.
This week’s field is not overly strong in terms of the world ranked players involved but several highly credentialed players are in the tournament including the two times PGA Tour winner in 2010 Ernie Els.
Els has been a little disappointing since his victories at Bay Hill and Doral, missing the cut last week at the Players Championship. Don’t be surprised to see him bounce back this week however.
Johnson has not exactly been at the top of his form in 2010 but there have been signs of late that things are getting better. This is of course a significantly different venue to that on which he won in 2009 but I don’t discount his chances.
Bo Van Pelt appears to be back to the player he was when winning in Milwaukee last year. He has been inside the top five in his last three starts on the PGA Tour and on three very strong layouts and might well go on with it on what will no doubt be a demanding Norman layout this week.
Charley Hoffman is another getting back to his best. He played well for three rounds at the Players last week and another PGA Tour victory to go with his Bob Hope Chrysler Classic three years ago seems more than a possibility.
There has been a lot to like about Adam Scott’s progress in 2010. He has not contended but after a generally horror year for much of 2009 he is headed in the right direction. It might be a bit much to expect him to win but if he contended it would be no surprise.
Ben Crane is playing well in 2010 a win at the Farmers Insurance event was the highlight although last week’s 4th place finish at the Players was also very impressive and good lead in form to this week.
Australasians other than Scott are Marc Leishman, James Nitties, Aaron Baddeley, Adam Scott, Mathew Goggin, Steve Elkington, Mark Hensby, Matt Jones, David Lutterus, Jarrod Lyle, Cameron Percy, Aron Price, Michael Sim and New Zealanders Tim Wilkinson, Phil Tataurangi and Grant Waite make up the Australasian contingent.
Sim returns to tournament golf after a break which included a forced withdrawal from the Masters caused by injury. The highly talented West Australian last played at the WGC event at Doral but in 2010 he has already finished runner up at the Famers Insurance Open at Riviera.
