The First Tee: Valero Texas Open

Recap

Last week was a nice sweat with Jason Dufner being at the top of the leaderboard on Sunday. Overall, I had 8 out of 24 golfers missing the cut and about 15% of the field had 6/6 through for the weekend. Dufner was over 50% in all my lineups, however, I had a lot of Billy Horschel and Bill Haas who ended up missing the cut. Congrats to Wesley Bryan on his first victory! The core has been solid in the past 3 weeks. Let's keep it rolling!

This Week

We are back in Texas for the Valero Texas Open. It's being played at TPC San Antonio. The course is a Par 72 and it's 7,435 yards. The stats that I'm looking at for this week will be course history; recent form; greens in regulation; birdie or better %; and par 5 scoring. Other stats to consider: approaches from 175-200; and apex height. Draftkings has made pricing a bit tighter for this week. It's going to be interesting to see where the ownership will go at the top.

Core

Ryan Moore ($10,200) – Moore has played 3 events in the past 6 weeks. He hasn't missed a cut and he finished inside the top 10 at the masters. He only played at this course once going back to 2012 and he played very well, finishing 8^th. He's ranked 117^th for his greens in regulation; 40th for B.O.B.%; and 22nd for par 5 scoring.

Brendan Steele ($9,900) – Steele has been very consistent this year. He's had a bit of a rest in the past 6 weeks with the masters being the only tournament he's played during that time and he finished 27^th. In his last 6 attempts at this course, he has won here back in 2011 and outside of that, he has 1 missed cut and 3 top 15 finishes including a 4^th place finish back in 2012. He's solid with his stats this season, he is ranked 24^th in G.I.R.; 26th in B.O.B.%; and 12^th in par 5 scoring.

Tony Finau ($8,400) – Finau is interesting for this week. If you compare the stats that I'm looking for, to the rest of the field, he is in the top 20 in the field for all 5 categories. He is ranked 7^th for G.I.R.; 28th for B.O.B.%; and 30th for par 5 scoring. He's only played here once and finished 68^th back in 2015. Just like Moore, he only played 3 events in the past 6 weeks and hasn't missed a cut and finished 5^th at the Valspar. He could be a nice dark horse for this week.

Nick Taylor ($6,500) – Nick has played four times in the past 6 weeks. He only missed one cut and finished 22^nd last week. He's played here just once, which was last year, and he finished 21^st. He's about average with his greens in regulation and birdie or better %. He's ranked 116^th for G.I.R. and 117^th for B.O.B.%. He's one of the best in the field for par 5 scoring, ranking 18^th in that category.

Exposure

This week I would recommend going to the standard, 40-60% exposure for the core. For 3 entry max gpps, I would just use the 4 players and add maybe 4-6 players and rotate them around the 3 lineups. For multi entry gpps, I would add around 20 players with the 4 that I recommended. That way, if the core hits, then we will have a nice sweat for having a nice payday on Sunday! Which, at the end of the day, is what we're all trying to achieve!

Good luck everyone!