2022 Valero Texas Open – DFS Golf Picks
Make the most of the data, predictions, and insights from this article to help with your fantasy golf picks for the Valero Texas Open, and check out our PGA Lineup Optimizer to make more educated player selections for your DFS lineups. Best of luck to you for this week and every week!
The Valero Texas Open
Preview for the Valero Texas Open: This historic tournament dates way back to 1922, that’s right, 100 years the Texas Open has been in existence – the third oldest on the PGA Tour, in fact. The best score to date at this event and on this course since 2010 is by Corey Conners who shot a -20 in 2019 to win by two strokes over Charley Hoffman. Winners of the Valero Texas Open over the last five editions include Jordan Spieth in 2021, no tournament in 2020 due to the pandemic, Corey Conners in 2019, Andrew Landry in 2018, Kevin Chappell in 2017, and Charley Hoffman in 2016.
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Tournament purse: The prize money for this week’s event is 8.6M, the winner collects $1.548M and also earns himself 500 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: TPC San Antonio – The Oaks Course is 7,435 yards in length, is a par 72, and the greens are Bermudagrass and average 6,400 square feet. The winning score here over the last ten editions ranges from -8 to -20, so when the strong Texan winds are blowing, scoring can be quite challenging. Some core key stats to focus on this week are, in order, strokes gained: putting, strokes gained: around the green, strokes gained: approach, driving distance, and strokes gained: tee to green.
The field: The field is respectable with defending champ, Jordan Spieth, in action, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Hideki Matsuyama, and other talent, as well. We have a near full field of 144 competitors, and the top 65 plus ties after round 2 will play weekend golf for rounds 3 and 4. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be a B-.
Three questions I have about the Valero Texas Open:
- Who are the best putters? A strong short game tends to be the most important aspect for players who have had success here, especially putting. The top 10 putters over their last 24 rounds include Maverick McNealy, Wyndham Clark, Bryson DeChambeau, Denny McCarthy, Martin Trainer, Scott Stallings, Sam Ryder, Gary Woodland, Abraham Ancer, and Brendon Todd.
- Can Jordan Spieth defend his title in his home state? He hasn’t been his usual self for a while now, but he did finish solo 2nd at Pebble Beach last month. He was playing a lot better golf last year leading into this event, so I don’t think he will win this week but he did finish 2nd here in 2015 and has three top 10’s in the last four times that he has competed at the Texas Open.
- Which players have gained the most strokes total recently? Over the last 24 rounds, the top ten stroke gaining players as it relates to the key total category include Hideki Matsuyama, Rory McIlroy, Chris Kirk, Jhonattan Vegas, Abraham Ancer, Ryan Brehm, Maverick McNealy, Gary Woodland, Adam Hadwin, and Patton Kizzire.
DraftKings lineup construction strategy this week: We have a fairly large field this week with a bunch of studs and it’s a fairly deep player pool, so going in the stars and scrubs or hybrid direction for GPPs makes a ton of sense. You will want to pay attention to projected ownership on Wednesday and pivot to lower owned players where good options present themselves, and as always, leave at least a few hundred dollars on the table for each lineup, or even $1K+ is a good idea since many optimal lineups are no more than $49K.
All the best in your journey to win or at least be in the money in some contests this week – here are my 15 DFS golf picks which feature my top 3 players from each tier on DraftKings (DK) in no particular order, plus I include player salaries for DK, as well. I consistently provide recent and seasonal finishes for each of my picks, their performances at the event over the last 5 years, and add in some tasty pieces of information, also.
The $10K+ Range
Hideki Matsuyama (Salary: DraftKings – $10.8K) – Matsuyama has two wins in his last seven starts including taking down the Sony Open in January, and he has seven straight top 30’s thanks to strong approach play. He should top his T30 from a year ago as his form is much better than last year at this time, and you can bet he will want to have a strong outing before he attempts to defend his Masters’ victory next week. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T30.
Jordan Spieth (Salary: DraftKings – $10.6K) – I debated rolling with Abraham Ancer over Spieth, but the Texan should be keen to repeat from last year. His strokes gained stats aren’t looking very good, but he can turn on a dime and I believe he will show up this week in his home State. He has finished no lower than T30 over his last four appearances here, and three of them have gone for top 10’s. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – Won and 2019 – T30.
The $9K Range
Corey Conners (Salary: DraftKings – $9.8K) – The Canadian had an impressive victory over Dustin Johnson last week at the match play event to finish 3rd, and should be full of confidence this week. Conners won here three years ago when he gained almost 16 strokes ball-striking and followed that up with a T14 last year – something tells me he’s headed for another top 10 this week and could win it all again if his putter is good and it has been here gaining at least 2.16 strokes over the last two installments of the Texas Open. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T14, 2019 – Won, and 2018 – T26.
Si Woo Kim (Salary: DraftKings – $9.6K) – Kim has been a regular here since 2017 and has performed well, especially three years ago when he finished T4 and gained strokes across the board. His ball-striking stats look good, he just missed out on advancing to the sweet sixteen last week at the match play event, and should finish inside the top 25 and has upside. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T23, 2019 – T4, 2018 – T45, and 2017 – T22.
Chris Kirk (Salary: DraftKings – $9.4K) – Kirk has pretty much gained strokes ball-striking in every tournament that he has competed in since last Summer, and has two top 8’s here over the last three editions. He also has two top 7’s over his last three starts including a T5 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he gained strokes across the board and has accomplished that challenging goal in three out of his last four starts. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T6, 2019 – Cut, 2018 – T8, and 2017 – Cut.
The $8K Range
Adam Hadwin (Salary: DraftKings – $8.9K) – He had a T9 at THE PLAYERS Championship and then followed that up with a T7 at the Valspar Championship two weeks ago where every part of his game was working. He had a respectable T23 here last year and should be able to build upon that given his recent hot streak. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T23 and 2017 – T72.
Kevin Streelman (Salary: DraftKings – $8.7K) – Streelman didn’t compete here last year, but has two top 8’s since 2018 thanks to gaining strokes in every major stat category. He’s also coming off a T7 at the Valspar Championship and has three top 22’s in his last four starts with ball-striking and putting leading the way. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2019 – T6, 2018 – T8, and 2017 – T53.
Patton Kizzire (Salary: DraftKings – $8.0K) – Kizzire has four top 33’s in his last five starts including a T10 at the Sony Open and he’s getting the job done with good approach play and a solid short game. He had a great showing here a year ago with a T9 thanks to gaining over 8 strokes on approach and he gained 3.65 on the greens. He seems like a solid mid-tier play to me for your cash games and hybrid lineups. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2019 – T9.
The $7K Range
Matt Kuchar (Salary: DraftKings – $7.8K) – He hasn’t been outstanding lately and I have to admit that I chose Kuchar more so because of his course history, but he is coming off a T16 at the Valspar Championship where his short game gained him almost 7 strokes. Will he have a third straight top 12 here this week? Likely not, but he clearly likes this place and short game players succeed on this track. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T12, 2019 – T7, 2018 – T51, and 2017 – T40.
K.H. Lee (Salary: DraftKings – $7.6K) – Lee has made eleven consecutive cut lines and has only missed one over his last seventeen starts, so you can count on him earning fantasy points for your lineup throughout four rounds this week. Add to it that he has done quite well here in two looks, and there’s a lot to like about K.H. this week. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T23 and 2019 – T14.
Nick Taylor (Salary: DraftKings – $7.3K) – If you’re looking for a good cut maker, then you can look at Taylor who has only failed to play weekend golf once over his last nine starts and is 4/5 here with two top 22’s. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T59, 2019 – T52, 2018 – Cut, and 2017 – T22.
The $6K Range
David Lipsky (Salary: DraftKings – $6.9K) – I don’t really like the $6K range this week and I don’t think I’ve ever gone with Lipsky in all of the years I’ve been writing about DFS golf, but he’s 6/7 over his last seven starts and had a T26 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in a fairly strong field. He doesn’t have experience here, so I would be cautious with him, but you might want to throw him into one GPP lineup and see what happens. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: None.
Tyler Duncan (Salary: DraftKings – $6.5K) – He has two straight top 35’s including a T25 at the Valspar Championship two weeks ago where he gained strokes across the board. He hasn’t been outstanding here, but did finish top 45 last year and comes in with better form than he did in 2021. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – T44, 2019 – Cut, and 2018 – Cut.
Kevin Chappell (Salary: DraftKings – $6.7K) – He won here five years ago and is recently 4/6, so there’s some hope that he can finish top 30. Most of his stats aren’t looking so hot lately, but his approach play has been the strongest part of his game at least and he did gain 4.13 strokes at the Phoenix Open last month, so that’s a positive. Valero Texas Open finishes over the last five years: 2021 – Cut, 2018 – T30, and 2017 – Won.
