The final tournament before the Masters begins this week as a handful of the world’s top 20 players use the Valero Texas Open as their final tune-up before Augusta. Defending champion Jordan Spieth leads that charge alongside Rory McIlroy, who will look to close out the career Grand Slam next week. They will be joined by Bryson DeChambeau, who is only making his second TOUR appearance since injuries slowed his season in January.

DraftKings is pushing things along this week, as the now must-have GPP is the $20 Pitch + Putt with an $800,000 prize pool and $200,000 from that position to first place. We will remain focused on this tournament as we seek out the best plays of the week.

As always, you can count on a wide range of good information from the FantasyLabs team to get your lineups started. Matt Vincenzi has his stats and course adjustment article highlighting coins in each price range. Landon Silinsky has posted his cash game article, giving us a good core set of games for the week ahead.

If you missed it, we’ve added two new metrics to our PGA Player Models – Perfect% and SimLeverage. You can find an explainer on these measures here.

The Cliff Notes version is that you can use SimLeverage to quickly find leveraged games in tournaments, while Perfect% is great for finding the best prized games for cash games.

And for large field tournaments, you can use our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups, or use our Lineup Builder if you like to create your lineups by hand.

High level

Jordan Spieth ($10,600)

First-hour property projections Wednesday morning have Rory McIlroy around 26%, which is frankly a bit crazy. Sure, he’s a good candidate for the course, and he finished second in his only appearance here in 2013. I just won’t eat that level of chalk in an event where there are intangibles for players that looking to next week. Instead, I’ll run into defending champion Jordan Spieth with about half ownership and the same cap.

Spieth definitely showed some improvement at Dell Match Play. It was pretty clear that his game, especially on the approach, was really starting to come together. He actually left most of his shots on the greens, which we can always rely on to bounce back.

Spieth is a Texas specialist and someone who will always be on my shortlist when he plays in his home country. This all lines up nicely for the three-time major winner to be a starting point at the top of my rosters.

Tony Finau ($9,100)

I’m heading back to the pits here with Finau as he also started showing signs of life last week at the Austin Country Club. He birdied eight in his last game on Friday and should carry some of that confidence into the new week. We’ve reached the point where Finau’s price is lower than players like Chris Kirk and Keegan Bradley in DFS this week.

At his best, Tony is clearly a level or two above these guys. I’ll be willing to take a chance on some talent this week, even when the form is a little off, and Finau fits that profile with projected mid-teen ownership.

Midrange

Kevin Streelman ($8,700)

I love everything about the way Kevin Streelman is moving through the week. He’s my best bet of the week, and he’ll be key for me in DFS as well. A lot of people are discussing the significance of Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee this week, and while I think that’s a bit of a stretch, Streelman has gained strokes in this area in every tournament he’s entered this year. .

The problem for him was his irons, but he found that form starting with the players. He earned 3.7 shots on that elite field on approach and carried it into another solid week at Valspar. He has everything in the right direction and is now heading towards a path where he has enjoyed success in his career with back-to-back top-8 finishes in his last two appearances.

Streelman lines up as a big play this week, and ownership is acceptable in the mid-teens.

Russell Knox ($8,300)

The Valspar marked the first week since late January where Russell Knox ended a tournament losing shots on the court on approach. He bounced back quickly then and won over four shots with his irons in his next event, and I’ll be looking for a similar comeback to train this week in Texas.

Knox has been great at starting the year with his ball-striking, and that translates into some solid results. It peaked with a T6 finish at The Players before a somewhat down week, as reported at Valspar. I think a week off last week will do great things to freshen him up, and with his double-digit ownership he makes a lot of sense on a course where I’m looking for elite ball-striking first.

Choice of value

Matt Kuchar ($7,800)

There are several players you could go into that range this week, and ownership should really be pretty flat. I’m going to take my first hit on Matt Kuchar, who is a bit of a Texas pundit himself, and he seems to be getting back to some form. Kuch finished 16th at Valspar, and it was truly the first sign of life in his game since Sony earlier this year.

He has six top-10 finishes to his name in the Lone Star State since the 2016-17 season and seventh and 12th in his last two appearances at this event. He’s a solid game in single-digit ownership this week, but I won’t fall too much in love with any player here as the best plan is likely to spread things out a bit in that range.

Matthew NeSmith ($7,100)

I don’t really have any chalk in this list, so I can eat some with Matthew NeSmith. He was in good shape for his first TOUR victory just a few weeks ago at Valspar and fell short. I hope he can keep this form in the week at Valero.

NeSmith played this event in 2021 and finished in the top 35, but hit the ball really well and struggled on the greens. If he can keep the ball in line and find better play on and around the greens this week, we saw the kind of advantage he can provide just two weeks ago.

Choice of sleeper

Austin Smotherman ($6,800)

It may not end up being a sleeper as it has been discussed how Smotherman finished fourth in a Korn Ferry Tour event at this course in 2020. He clearly knows and seems to have a liking for this track, which provides definitely one to pull up in this price range.

Digging deeper, however, it’s not just this result that makes him a contender for the long game and bet, as he was one of the best players in this area with his ball striking during of the last 24 rounds. He is still a lesser known player but has a lot of talent, and this may be the kind of event where he can make a name for himself on the big TOUR.

Kevin Tway ($6,300)

Kevin Tway probably falls into the category of players I play that maybe you shouldn’t, but I’ll try to sell him here. The main crux of my game is a combination of prize money and the fact that he’s a Lone Star State Certified Specialist.

After his second-place finish at the Houston Open in the fall, he now has four top-10 finishes in the state over the past five seasons. He entered this event lacking in form similarly to this week as he had missed two of the previous three cuts and posted a 56th-place finish in the other.

There’s nothing that’s going to blow it to you this week – but at Tway, I believe, in Texas – is the motto I take to release high-end games for the Valero.