TPC San Antonio Key Stats

Valero Texas Open

April 20th – 23rd, 2017

TPC San Antonio (ATT Oaks)

San Antonio, TX

Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,435

Purse: $6.2 million

with $1,226,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Charley Hoffman

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most important stats for TPC San Antonio, based on data from last years Valero Texas Open, and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2017. What we do is take their rank for each stat and then add up the four catagories.
The scoring average of the field at TPC San Antonio in 2016 was 72.21, so with par being 72 that means the average score was quarter of a shot over par, making TPC San Antonio the 17th hardest course to score on in 2016. The previous year, 2015 it played to a 74.52 scoring average making it the second hardest course for that year on the PGA Tour. In the history of the PGA Tour it’s one of the highest scoring averages for a non-major so it’s important to note that all the players will be tested this week. With perfect weather the scoring average last year went down drastically from the previous year so maybe 2015 was a fluke. Possibly, but in 2014 the course was 8th hardest, in 2012 it was the 4th hardest and in 2011 it was the 7th hardest so no two ways around it, TPC San Antonio will be hard. One of the reasons the course plays tough is wind, if it’s blowing it will add to scores. Players will not see winds in the first two rounds, but over the weekend they will. According to weather forcasts Saturday will see winds in the 14mph range, with thunderstorms in the afternoon. Sunday is suppose to be nice, but winds will blow at 12mph, so the course will again play over par and tough.

TPC San Antonio has been and will be one of the toughest courses the tour will see this year. Hitting it hard and far is important, last year it ranked 13th hardest in driving distance, meaning that players throttle back (not hitting it far) and lay up to make sure of hitting in the fairways. You can see those results in fairway accuracy, the course was 32nd on tour last year with 63.17 average, so year it’s very important to place drives in the fairway. Last year the course was 15th in greens hit which is very high probably because of the lack of wind. In past the greens have been very tough to hit, in 2015 it was the 2nd hardest greens to hit on tour, and the between 2012 and 2015 all the winners were in the top-15 in greens in regulation with 2015 winner Jimmy Walker and 2012 champion Ben Curtis leading that stat. So our first key stat is strokes gained Tee-to-Green because you have to do well in this stat to win. Last year the course ranked T-14th in that stat, winner Charley Hoffman was 10th in this stat and 2015 winner Jimmy Walker was 3rd.

Just like we have seen the last couple of weeks on tour, if you miss fairways you have to scramble well, last year TPC San Antonio ranked 43rd in scrambling on tour, meaning that the pros were able to get up and down when missing greens.. While Charley Hoffman ranked 42nd in this stat, and since he only hit 49 greens ranking T-17th, the key for Hoffman was scrambling

Another important item in doing well is putting, last year the course ranked 10th in making putts from ten feet and in with 87.07 average. Again in looking at our profile of Hoffman, he ranked T-16th in this stat making 61 of 67 putts from ten feet and in.

Last is birdie avearge and it’s hard to image but the players only averaged making 3.20 birdies per round. That ranked it 16th on tour, while Hoffman won with just 18 birdies for the week, a 4.50 average.

*Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green: Stat is great barometer on how players games are from tee to green, taking a combination of driving distance, driving accuracy, greens hit and proximity to the hole.

*Scrambling: So which course is tough to get it up and down on holes players miss the greens. Since all of the area’s around the greens are mowed short and are left with really hard shots to get it close, scrambling is important. You are not going to be perfect so you have to make sure you can make pars from some tough places

*Putting inside 10 feet: Very easy, counts every putt from ten feet in to see who makes the most.

*Birdie Average: Average number of birdies made over the course of a round

Players from this year’s field with stats from 2017 with 135 of the 156 players having stats:

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.