TPC San Antonio Key Fantasy Stats

Valero Texas Open

April 19th – 22nd, 2018

TPC San Antonio (ATT Oaks)

San Antonio, TX

Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,435

Purse: $6.2 million

with $1,116,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Kevin Chappell

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 2018. What we do is take their rank for each stat and then add up the four categories.
The scoring average of the field at TPC San Antonio in 2017 was 72.85 so with par being 72 that means the average score was just under a shot over par, making TPC San Antonio the 10th hardest course to score on in 2017. In 2016 the course played to a 72.21, or a quarter of a shot over par, making it 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. The reason for high scores in 2017 was winds that blew between 10 to 30 mph all week, with Saturday having the hardest day. So if winds are high, the scores will be high and for this year again the weather will be the story. Each day this week will see winds between 10 and 21 mph, with Friday being tough with breezes up to 25 mph and Sunday will see winds between 10 and 20 mph. Showers will be around most of Friday and Saturday will have thunderstorms with a 90% chance of rain. Sunday will be great with the winds going down and sunny skies with temperatures in the high 70s.

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 26th in driving distance, meaning that players throttle back (not hitting it far) and layup to make sure of hitting in the fairways. You can see those results in fairway accuracy, the course was 22nd on tour last year with 59.49 average, so it’s very important to place drives in the fairway. Last year the course was 3rd in greens hit which is very high probably because of all the wind. It’s also something that is expected on this course in past the greens have been very tough to hit, in 2016 it was the 15th hardest, in 2015 it was the 2nd hardest greens to hit on tour, and the between 2012 and 2017 all the winners were in the top-17 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-5th in that stat, with winner Kevin Chappell ranking 2nd in this stat, 2016 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 22nd in scrambling on tour, meaning that the pros were able to get up and down when missing greens. Last year Kevin Chappell was 26th in scrambling getting it up and down in 13 of the 20 greens he missed.

Another important item in doing well is putting, last year the course ranked 22nd in making putts from ten feet and in with 87.07 average. Again in looking at our profile of Chappell, he ranked 18th in this stat making 64 of 70 putts from ten feet and in.

Last is birdie average and it’s hard to image but the players only averaged making 3.16 birdies per round. That ranked it 14th on tour, while Chappell won with just 20 birdies for the week, a 5.50 average.

*Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green: Stat is a 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 2018 with 136 of the 156 players having stats (Sergio Garcia doesn’t have enough rounds to qualify):

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