2021 Texas Open: Top 10 power rankings at TPC San Antonio

With the Monday withdrawal (after committing Friday afternoon) of my No. 3 pick for the week, Dustin Johnson, I’ve made room for Brendan Steele to enter the top 10.

There’s a lot of reason to like the Man of Steele this week. For one, course history. The Californian feels right at home in Texas with eight made cuts in nine starts with three top-1s and two more top-30s. The highlight was firing 69-72-68-71 to pick up the first of what is now three PGA Tour wins. He won by one as a rookie over a pair of fellow Texas Open champs, Kevin Chappell and Charley Hoffman.

Hoffman was also in consideration for my top 10 this week. He’s a staggering 14-for-14 in cuts made at this event!

Steele’s done a little more for me lately, though.

He comes to TPC San Antonio on a streak of eight straight made cuts, all of which were T-43rd or better. Steele got into contention at the Sony Open at the beginning of the year (T-4th) and was among the best in the non-Matt Jones division at the Honda Classic (T-3rd).

If he’s going to break through for his first win in four years, there’s no better place for Steele than at the Oaks course.

He’s solid off the tee at 30th in strokes gained (.359 per round) and is a good bunker player at 32nd in sand saves (57.35%).

“I don’t think there’s anything about the course that’s unfair even when the wind blows that hard,”Steele said in 2012 in a transcript from ASAP Sports. “It demands really good shots and if you don’t hit them, you’re going to pay the price. You know, there’s nothing — there’s a difference between it being unfair and just being hard and there’s definitely nothing that’s unfair about it.”