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Tournament Stats:
Valero Texas Open
October 4 - 7, 2007
The Resort at LaCantera Golf Club
San Antonio, Texas
Par 70 / 6,881 yards
Purse: $4.5 million with $810,000 going to the winner
Defending Champion: Eric Axley
List of Champions & Scores
Results & Scores 2006 Tour Championship
Box Score of 2006 Tour Championship
Tournament facts:
Tournament Record:254 (Tommy Armour III in the 2003 Valero Texas Open)
54-Hole Record:
189 (Tommy Armour III in the 2003 Valero Texas Open.)
36-Hole Record:
126 (Tommy Armour III in the 2003 Valero Texas Open; Paul Azinger in the 1989 Valero Texas Open.)
Low round of tournament:
60 (Bart Bryant in the third round of the 2003 Valero Texas Open.)
Tournament information:
The Valero Texas Open is an historic tournament. Dating back to 1922, the tournament has been through 16 names to date, but it can always trace its lineage back to San Antonio, Texas. As for host courses of the Valero Texas Open, the event has predominantly been hosted by the Brackenridge Park Golf Course, the Willow Springs Golf Course, Fort Sam Houston Golf Course, Oak Hills Country Club, and since 1995, The Resort at La Cantera.Always known as a place where pros can go to score low, the Valero Texas Open has been the site of numerous scoring feats. Al Brosch, in the 1951 Texas Open held at Brackenridge Park, became the first PGA Tour player to post a score of 60. In 1955, just four years later, Mike Souchak, again playing at Brackenridge Park, posted a 72-hole score of 257, which would stand as the PGA Tour record until 2001. In the 2003 Valero Texas Open, Tommy Armour fired a 254 at LaCantera to set the record for lowest 72-hole score in PGA Tour history. His score to par of 26-under also was a Tour record for Par 70 courses. His score eclipsed Donnie Hammond's 22-under par, which he shot at the 1989 Valero Texas Open.
Course information:
The Resort at La Cantera was designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish in 1994. La Cantera in Spanish means "the rock." It is aptly named because the golf course lies upon an old rock quarry. The course itself typically plays as a 7,000 yard Par 72; however, for the Valero Texas Open it is pared down to a Par 70 that plays at 6,881 yards. La Cantera features a course rating of 72.5 and a slope rating of 134. The tees, fairway, and rough are Bermuda Grass with respective cuts of 0.4", 0.4" and 2.5".The greens at La Cantera are a .125" cut of an amalgom featuring Tifdwarf, a strain of Bermuda Grass, and Sabre II Poa Trivialis, a Blue Grass that is predominantly used in the Southern half of the United States. With an average size of around 7,000 sq. ft., the spacious greens provide golfers ample opportunity to attack the pins.
As for hazards, La Cantera has 76 bunkers and water that comes into play on 10 holes. The water hazards include traiditonal-lake layout as well as running streams and waterfalls. The bunkers are the most recent renovation to the course, having been re-designed and sanded in 1999.
The signature holes at La Cantera are Number 7 and Number 12. The 7th hole requires a tee shot from atop a cliff that drops down to the fairway. The tee box overlooks Fiesta, Texas, a nearby town that, among other things, includes Six Flags amusement park. The 12th hole has a ravine that runs along the front of the green.
In its short existence, The Resort at La Cantera has accumulated a slew of awards including "Best New Public Course" in America for 1995 by Golf Digest; second "Best Public Course" in the state for 1996, and 17th among the "Top 75 Upscale Courses" for 1996 by Golf Digest; 58th best of the "Top 100 Courses You Can Play in the U.S. by Golf Magazine in 1998; and "Top 10 PGA Courses You Can Play" by Golf Digest in 1998.
The Buzz:
The schedule of the PGA Tour says that there are five events left but for many fans they say the season is over. Yes it is for Tiger Woods who will not play for ten weeks coming back at the Target Challenge. Still there is a lot of golf left, as an example next week at Las Vegas Phil Mickelson and Mike Weir are planing on playing so for the die hard golf fan, there is some good golf left.Surprising to see all of the Walker Cup players that have turned pro, two members of that team Dustin Johnson and Colt Knost will make there professional debut's this week. Knost, who won the U.S. Amateur and the Amateur Pub links gives up exemptions in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open feels that he has done his homework and that the advantages outweighs the disadvantages. Unfortunely we won't know if the gamble will pay off until next April.
Again, this is a big time for bubble boys. Check out the PGA Tour money list for those on the bubble.
Now for the big news for this event, it's the first time since 2003 that it hasn't been opposed the same week as the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. Still it hasn't done much good to get a good field.
Here are some things to look for this week:
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Here are some of the secrets that it will take to play well this week at the Valero Texas Open:
It may seem hard to believe but this use to be a major tournament on the PGA Tour. The list of winners include Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer. This tournament was such a big deal in the 60s, Arnold Palmer won three straight years in 1960, '61 & '62. In 1972 the tournament went from a spring date to late fall, thus a decline in the marquee names that attended.-
Key stat for the winner:
You have to make a lot of birdies, ten times in the last 25 years the winning score has been at least 262. - What they will encounter is a course that has been altered several times in the last couple of years. The goal has been to make the course play tougher to par, which by the results the last couple of years is proving it wasn't accomplished. One of the reasons why it never play tougher was because of the weather. Lack of rain means the course will play easy, exactly what has happened the last couple of years.
- With the lack of rough this will bring more middle tier players into the mix. Even though the course is a shotmakers course, I still feel that a longshot could win this week, that seems to be the trend in events with low marquee players showing up.
- In looking at the past stats of the winners, six of the last seven champions did well in putting statistics, so that seems to show that good putters do well.
- One trend that is pretty unique at the Texas Open is the fact that 3rd round leaders tend to rule the roast. Since 1988 the 3rd round leader has won 15 of the 19 tournaments so if you are looking for a neat bet with someone, bet the 3rd round leader to win the tournament.
- Thirteen previous Texas Opens have been decided in playoffs, the last coming in 1999 when Waldorf outlasted Ted Tryba for his second Texas Open title. This is the 12th year that the event has been held at LaCantera Country Club, the seventh club to play host to the tournament.
