2023 Valero Texas Open: Top 10 Power Rankings at TPC San Antonio

Taylor Montgomery has come down to earth a bit after a scorching start to his rookie campaign on the PGA Tour, but he’s still a dangerous player.

Montgomery opened 2022-23 with five consecutive top-15 finishes and nine made cuts in a row. He was solo third at the Fortinet Championship and solo fifth at The American Express.

Montgomery was playing tons of events and was due to fizzle out at some point.

It appears he’s refinding some form as he bounced back from missed cuts in Phoenix and Los Angeles to take T-39th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, T-44th at the Players Championship, and T-17th at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

Montgomery was bound for a much better finish at the Players before playing holes 15-17 in 7-over on Sunday. That can happen to just about anyone at TPC Sawgrass.

The UNLV product was close to advancing out of group play last week in his Match Play debut. Montgomery beat Ryder Cuppers Shane Lowry and Jordan Spieth each 2 & 1 before falling to Mackenzie Hughes 6 & 4.

Despite the beatdown, Montgomery had another crack at Hughes in a playoff to determine the group winner. Hughes won that, too, to send Montgomery home packing.

A deep run could’ve vaulted Montgomery into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking to make the field at next week’s Masters.

Instead, it’ll take a win this week to qualify for Augusta National.

Montgomery is making his Valero Texas Open debut this week.

He’s proven to play well at unfamiliar courses. More impressively he’s putting well, which is hard for inexperienced players to do early in their careers.

Montgomery ranks third on the PGA Tour this season in strokes gained per round putting (1.134) and is first in putts per hole (1.647) and one-putt percentage (49.36%).

He’s also 51st in SG off-the-tee (.242) to help him sit 17th in total SG (1.093).