Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – The Valero Texas Open

The Valero Texas Open Fantasy Sleeper Report

Some have nicknamed Min Woo Lee ‘The Chef’ in the past. And he certainly cooked up a storm as he landed his maiden PGA TOUR title at the Houston Open on Sunday.

Although he enjoyed healthy lead at the 54-hole lead stage, the Australian saw that eroded at Memorial Park as Scottie Scheffler and Gary Woodland made great strides up the leaderboard in the final round.

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Leading by one with a hole to play, Min Woo hacked his drive into the rough, still 160 yards from home. He managed to muscle his way out, but only onto the fringe of the green. An up and down of about 54 feet normally wouldn’t pose any problems for these pros, but when you’re trying to close out a maiden PGA TOUR title? Nothing comes easily.

However, Lee boasts a tremendous short game, and he leant on that with – somewhat fittingly in the Lone Star State – a Texas wedge to within inches of the cup to leave what all maidens want: an unmissable tap in to secure the win.

So that’s week one of the Texan Swing in the can, and we move on with the second courtesy of the Valero Texas Open.

It’s an interesting field given that this event falls one week prior to The Masters. Do you tune up your game in competitive tournament mode, or work on it behind closed doors and away from the spotlight?

The likes of Ludvig Aberg, Hideki Matsuyama, Tommy Fleetwood, and Patrick Cantlay have opted to get major-ready at the Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio, while the likes of defending champion Akshay Bhatia, Keegan Bradley, Tom Kim, Tony Finau, and Jordan Spieth have also opted to tee it up.

In a way, the Oaks Course is the ideal location for a warm-up. It’s a fairly straightforward layout, with wide fairways and generous, overseeded greens, with just 64 bunkers and three water hazards on the entire property. This is a place that the players can work on their game in relative comfort.

The other interesting aside is from stark elevation changes, with up hill and downhill holes testing the players’ strategy and course management. Given how vital that is at Augusta too, you can see why those in the field this week are hoping to steal a march on those that aren’t.

Don’t forget that the Texas Open champion also enjoys a free pass into The Masters field as well, so there’s no shortage of motivation this week in an event that, otherwise, might well be awkwardly scheduled.

Of the most recent champions here, Bhatia and J.J. Spaun were winning their first strokeplay titles on the PGA TOUR. Corey Conners, who won here in 2019 and 2023, still only has these two wins to his name, while Jordan Spieth – the 2021 winner – loves playing high-grade golf in his home state.

The Texas Open is something of an idiosyncratic event then, which can surely only be good news for the betting fraternity. And with that in mind, here’s our sleeper shortlist for the 2025 Valero Texas Open.

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Gary Woodland – 50/1 – With back-to-back top ten finishes at the Oaks Course in 2021 and 2022, Gary Woodland returns in 2025 with plenty of confidence.

He was in outstanding form at the Houston Open, ranking inside the top-15 of the field for SG: Off-the-Tee and SG: Approach and, even more remarkably, leading the field for SG: Putting.

But for Min Woo Lee’s resilience, Woodland really could have lifted the trophy in Houston, and given his record at the Oaks Course, there’s surely no reason why he can’t go close in San Antonio, too.

Bud Cauley – 50/1 – J.J. Spaun will have left the PLAYERS Championship a few weeks ago thinking that he could have won the iconic event. And Bud Cauley will have had similar thoughts.

He sat in second place, one shot behind Spaun, through 54 holes at TPC Sawgrass, and while he settled for T6 in the end, it would have been confirmation for Cauley that he can mix it with the best.

Another with previous at the Oaks Course, including T10 and T18 finishes, it’s doubtful that Cauley has ever headed for TPC San Antonio before with his game in such fine shape.

Jake Knapp – 60/1 – Having made his name in 2025 as something of a bomber, Jake Knapp showed there’s subtlety to his game by finishing T6 and T12 at PGA National and TPC Sawgrass respectively on the Florida Swing.

Those performances were jacked up by quality on approach and on the greens, which will both come in handy at the Oaks Course. A missed cut at the Valspar Championship can be struck through given that Knapp played well in Houston last week… an unusually cold putter standing between him and a run at the top 20.

T12 at the correlating PLAYERS earlier this month could have been so much more but for a closing round of 73, but either way it shows that Knapp is ready to challenge for silverware once more.

Ben Griffin – 60/1 – Ben Griffin’s performance at the Houston Open was a reminder not to take the form of the Florida Swing too seriously.

He went MC-MC-45 through that stretch, but in his first start away from the Sunshine State, Griffin ranked second in the field for SG: Tee-to-Green on his way to a T18 finish.

A cold flatstick clearly prevented a run at the top ten or even better, but that’s not necessarily a club you need to worry about with a player that had gained strokes on the field putting in four of his prior five PGA TOUR starts.

J.J. Spaun won his maiden title at the Texas Open, and he and Griffin are similar in terms of ability and playing style… could Griffin finally get his hands on some PGA TOUR silverware in the Lone Star State?

Lee Hodges – 70/1 – A rib injury kept Lee Hodges out of the Florida Swing; a stretch of golf courses that may well have gotten the best out of his game.

Even so, he showed there were no long-lasting effects of that injury by finishing T11 at the Houston Open, where he gained strokes on the field in all four of the key SG departments.

That suggests that Hodges’ game is in an excellent space right now, which is confirmed by his formline – in six starts on the PGA TOUR in 2025, he’s banked a pair of top-ten finishes and a T11.

Given that he finished T6 at the Oaks Course in 2023, there’s no reason to think Hodges can’t replicate – or better – that this week.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the Valero Texas Open here.

Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2024-2025)

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