The tournament held immediately before The Masters used to get a pretty raw deal.
While some players prefer to play the week prior to their trip to Augusta, most took the week off so they would be fresh for the biggest event of the year.
The PGA Tour has combated that problem by declaring this week’s Valero Texas Open a “signature event.”
That decision has paid dividends, as plenty of the Tour’s best players are headed to TPC San Antonio.
Rory McIlroy is the +800 favorite at DraftKings, but there’s plenty of starpower at the top of the board, considering Augusta is on the horizon.
Ludvig Aberg, Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa have all made the trip to TPC San Antonio and are 22/1 and under.
There are plenty of heavyweights in this field and that will make it tough for a long shot to upset the odds, but this course is no stranger to surprise winners (JJ Spaun was 150/1 when he lifted the trophy in 2022 and Corey Conners was a triple-digit price when he did so for the first time back in 2019) and this season has been ruled by dark horses.
Ten of the 13 winners on the Tour this season have gone off at 50/1 or longer and eight of them were listed at 100/1 or higher.
Here are a few darts worth throwing in the Alamo City this week:
2024 Valero Open long-shot bets
Rickie Fowler (120/1, FanDuel)
Things have gone quiet for Fowler after a resurgent 2022-23 campaign.
The 31-year-old has yet to finish inside the top 30 in any of his eight starts, and his last outing was an unremarkable T68 at The Players.
That said, Fowler is not that far removed from being one of the most in-form players on the Tour. Fowler racked up a win, a runner-up, eight top-10 finishes and missed just two cuts during the 2022-23 season.
One of those top-10s came at TPC San Antonio, a place where he’s finished inside the top-20 in three of four starts. If Fowler was in any sort of form, he’d be among the favorites this weekend.
I’ll buy low on a player with a winning upside and a good course history.
Matt Kuchar (150/1, FanDuel)
It’s been a while since Kuchar won on the PGA Tour, but if he’s going to get back into the winner’s circle there’s a decent chance it’ll come at TPC San Antonio, which is undoubtedly one of his favorite tracks.
Kuchar finished runner-up and T3 at TPC San Antonio in the last two years and has four top-10 finishes at this course since 2013.
The 45-year-old has been in awful form in 2024, but those results are too good to ignore when you’re getting 150/1 odds.
K.H. Lee (90/1, BetRivers)
There’s a community of punters who love to back Lee any time he plays a TPC course and for good reason.
The 32-year-old’s two wins on the PGA Tour both came at TPC Craig Ranch (another Texas track) and he also finished runner-up at TPC Scottsdale a few years back.
Lee also has a top-10 finish at TPC Summerlin and TPC Twin Cities.
Get the lowdown on the Best USA Sports Betting Sites and Apps
But it’s not just Lee’s penchant for producing at TPC courses that makes him a worthy long shot this week.
He’s in good form with two top-10 finishes in his last four outings and has had a couple of strong showings at this event in the past. Lee, who resides in Texas, finished inside the top-25 in two of his three starts at TPC San Antonio.
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