The PGA Tour heads to the land of Victor Wembanyama, The Alamo, and great churros for the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio.
This is the final week before The Masters, so we're getting a bit of an elevated field with all of the guys who want to go into Augusta feeling warm and ready. It's a bit of a disservice to Valero that a lot of my thoughts about it as an event come down to it being the tournament before The Masters, because it has given us some fun winners in the past. It's a thankless spot in the schedule, but someone has to be the sacrificial lamb, I suppose.
While we didn't hit on a winner last week in Houston, we ended up with a pretty strong showing, with four of the eight picks who teed it up (congratulations to Scottie Scheffler, who withdrew due to baby number two being born) finishing in the top 10. After some hiccups early in the season, the process feels dialed in again, so let's catch fire heading into the first major this week.
Honorable Mentions: Daniel Berger, Brian Harman, Johnny Keefer, Marco Penge, Michael Thorbjornsen
9. Maverick McNealy
2026 has not been the kindest to Maverick McNealy, as he's only been able to find four top-25 finishes so far this year. While the results haven't been there for McNealy, his strong strokes gained performance, which has stayed in line with last year, leads me to believe that he's just run into some bad luck on the course. On a golf course that rewards excellent ball striking like TPC San Antonio, I expect McNealy to finally contend this year.
8. Sudarshan Yellamaraju
One of the best performers over the weekend last week in Houston, Yellamaraju is showing no signs of slowing down on his hot form the first part of 2026. The biggest thing that has elevated the Canadian in recent weeks is that he has turned his short game from a true liability to being, at the very least, average.
With the driver being a major weapon in his bag, he will continue to contend as long as the short clubs keep up their end of the deal. Don't be surprised by seeing his name on the leaderboard this weekend.
7. Ludvig Aberg
We last saw Aberg at The Players, where it was Aberg's tournament to lose heading into the back nine on Sunday. While a couple of penalties derailed his chase of the trophy, it has been good to see the Swede find himself back at the top of leaderboards once again.
Now that we're finally out of the woods from any injury issues that he may have been dealing with, I expect Ludvig Aberg to be a mainstay on leaderboards moving forward, and this next stretch of tournaments should prove to be quite fruitful for him.
6. Robert MacIntyre
Possibly the forgotten man from The Players, Robert MacIntyre kind of came out of nowhere to finish solo fourth in his last start on Tour. The biggest turnaround was the lefty finding his irons once again, with The Players being his first start in the positive for strokes gained: approach since the Sony Open to start the season. A player who should definitely be winning more, a course that emphasizes iron play and short game should be right up MacIntyre's alley.
5. Alex Noren
Much like the case I made for Maverick McNealy, Alex Noren's underlying statistics have shown him to be a much better golfer than his two top-25 finishes this season would lead you to believe. The Swedish vet has only played Valero a couple of times in the past, but has performed well with a T15 in 2023 and a T14 in 2024. A bigger weekend seems on the horizon for Noren, and I think it comes this weekend.
4. Tommy Fleetwood
I fully left Tommy Fleetwood off of my rankings for The Players because he has returned to the version of Fleetwood that can rack up top-10 finishes, but refuses to win. One thing that is a little concerning is that Tommy's putting has been noticeably worse this year than it was last season, which has certainly affected how high his ceiling can be.
This is a bit more of a respect pick than anything else, I don't fully believe in a Fleetwood win this week, but I can't leave him off because of what he can do.
3. Sepp Straka
A disappointing Sunday put a bit of a damper on what was a very solid T8 finish at The Players for Sepp Straka, who is showing off the same form he had last season at this time. Straka is always going to project well for short game-focused courses, the interesting thing to think about is that he doesn't usually play the week before The Masters, so will his mind be split between Houston and Augusta? If he keeps his focus, then the Tank should keep moving right along.
2. Russell Henley
This season has felt like a disappointment so far for Russell Henley, but here are his finishes so far this year: T19-T8-T19-cut-T6-T13. Even though it hasn't felt like anything special, Henley has put together a strong year so far, and as we start to hit the stretch of the schedule where not every course is distance-oriented, I expect Henley to start finding some top-5 finishes. Henley finished fourth here last season, and I expect him to find similar success this year.
1. Collin Morikawa
I still think that, if Collin Morikawa hadn't withdrawn from The Players with his back tightness, that he would have played a major role in that Sunday. Obviously, after taking a few weeks off, we are banking on Morikawa feeling truly 100%, which we never really know until we get to the first tee on Thursday. However, if we're all systems go, then Collin Morikawa is going to be playing late on Sunday. This is the most back we've felt about Collin in a little while, and I think his great run of form should continue.