Weekly Recap: The San Antonio Savant

With apologies to Corey Conners, an amiable fellow and pretty fair golfer, it would have been a better story had a half dozen of the other players contending at the Valero Texas Open won instead of him.

There was baby-faced rookie Sam Stevens, who has played all of 17 tournaments on the PGA Tour; Sam Ryder, looking for redemption after kicking away the Farmers Insurance Open a few months back; veteran Patrick Rodgers, now agonizingly winless in 235 career starts; 51-year-old Padraig Harrington, looking to turn back time for just one more week; and, above all, Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar, both making an 11th-hour attempt to qualify for this week's Masters.

In the end, Conners, the highest-ranked golfer of anyone within earshot of the leaderboard, showed why he is where he sits and the others are where they are. Conners made the shots he needed to and squeaked past a gallant and emerging Stevens by one stroke to win for the second time on the PGA Tour -- and the second time in San Antonio.

Conners, one of 11 golfers in the field heading to the Masters, takes some much-needed momentum into Augusta National, where he has played quite well through the years. He had recorded nothing better than a T12 on Tour in the first three months of 2023, and that came way back in January. As a result, he fell to 40th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He's now back up to 28th, just off his personal best of 25th.

The 31-year-old Canadian has long been among the better ball strikers on Tour but was always held back by his putter. At TPC San Antonio, he led the field in both Strokes Gained: Approach and Tee-to-Green. He ranked 41st in SG: Putting, and it's fair to wonder if that would've gotten the job done against a better field.

Conners now heads to the Masters, where his odds are about to get shorter and his list of backers is about to grow longer. He finished top-10 the past three years at Augusta National, improving from T10 to T8 to T6 a year ago. In the RotoWire full-field player rankings for the Masters released midway through the Valero Texas Open, we placed Conners 16th, just behind Max Homa and Sam Burns and just ahead of two former champions in Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama.

We couldn't put Conners ahead of Homa and Burns, two recent winners on Tour who are ranked top-10 in the world but who have had far less success at the Masters than Conners -- far less, as in no success at all.

Now, based on Conners' play in San Antonio, it would be easy to envision him leapfrogging those two and winding up with another top-10 on his major dance card come next Sunday night.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Sam Stevens
The 26-year-old rookie, who barely looks old enough to vote, is the latest golfer to emerge from the Oklahoma State pipeline. Stevens couldn't crack a top-50 finish in any of his eight tournaments during the fall season but has become a different golfer since the calendar flipped. He finished 13th at the Farmers, was fifth a few weeks back at Puerto Rico and now came within a missed nine-footer for birdie on 18 of forcing Conners to a playoff. Stevens began the year at 404th in the world rankings, began the week at 278th and now sits at 127th. He's also 43rd in the FedExCup standings, and remember, golfers who are top-50 after the BMW Championship qualify for all the designated events the following season.

Matt Kuchar
Kuchar missed the Masters last year for the first time in forever, and he needed to win the Valero to head back. He came close, tying for third two strokes behind Conners. The high finish was almost enough to propel the soon-to-be 45-year-old back into the top 50 in the OWGR, which would've cruelly been too little too late to qualify for the Masters. Kuchar sits 51st after his fourth top-10 of the season and third in his past five starts. Kuchar is positioned to qualify for the U.S. Open in June, if he stays inside the top 60 of the OWGR.

Sam Ryder
At age 33 and in his sixth full season on Tour, Ryder is finally showing what was expected of him when he graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour as one of its top players. Ryder tied for third and, as mentioned above, that followed a tie for fourth I January at a Farmers tournament he led for a good chunk. In between, he's notched top-20s at Phoenix, the Genesis and the Valspar. That is come big-time golf. If the Tour Championship started today, Ryder would be just on the outside at No. 36 in the point standings.

Patrick Rodgers
There were many people rooting for Rodgers, the 54-hole leader who has never met the expectations of an All-American at Stanford nearly a decade ago. He bogeyed four holes on the front nine and limped home with a disappointing solo fifth. Rodgers had missed four of his past five cuts coming in. This was Rodgers' fourth career runner-up, in his 235th career start, and first since the 2018 RSM Classic.

Byeong Hun An
The former top-25 OWGR golfer's career hit the skids a couple of years ago. He fell to nearly 300th in the rankings and was relegated to the Korn Ferry Tour. Now 31, An is having a bit of a bounceback season. He's missed only three cuts in 17 starts -- with one WD -- and now has his second top-10 after a T6 at the Valero. It's hard to envision An ever returning to the top-25, but at this point keeping his Tour card is Job No. 1, and he seems likely to succeed there.

Rickie Fowler
All eyes were on Fowler heading into the Valero. Still one of the Tour's most popular players, his game had gone sideways and he had missed the past two Masters. But with a new caddie and a return to swing coach Butch Harmon, Fowler had rediscovered much of his game this season. He entered the week ranked 59th and needed a win to return to Augusta. He never was in contention, though he did close with a 6-under 66 to tie for 10th, which was his fourth top-10 on the year and fifth top-20 in his past six starts. It also moved him to 53rd in the world rankings. That's important, because the top-60 in early June get into the U.S. Open, another major that Fowler has not played in since 2020.

Padraig Harrington
Harrington is much older than Fowler and even Kuchar, now 51. And you never know when the three-time major champion will have played in his final Masters. He actually played last year, for the first time in seven years, after a fluke tie for fourth at the 2021 PGA Championship. It will be weeks like this one – a tie for 10th at the Valero – where he could catch lightning in a bottle. The Masters will actually be the only major that Harrington misses this year. He's a former PGA and British Open winner and, as the winner of the U.S. Senior Open last year, qualified for the U.S. Open this June.

Ben Martin
The 35-year-old Martin, a former top-50-ranked golfer nearly a decade ago who won the 2014 Shriners, is playing his best golf in years. He' now made six straight cuts with three of them top-10s, after his tie for 10th at the Valero. He also had a T13 at Pebble in that stretch.

Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama's on-again, off-again neck issues appeared to be off this past week. He played four rounds and tied for 15th. You would think that would green-light him for wagers and lineups at the Masters, but this neck injury has been coming and going for more than a year. Predicting when it won't be bothering Matsuyama is like trying to time the stock market.

Lanto Griffin
Griffin, who is trying to return from 2022 back surgery and missed five weeks after withdrawing from the Genesis in February, pronounced himself fit and tied for 15th at the Valero after twin 69s on the weekend.

Alex Noren
Noren had missed three of his five PGA Tour cuts in 2023 with no finish inside the top-50. Just in time to head to Augusta, he found something with a tie for 15th at the Valero.

Jimmy Walker
The 44-year-old ranked about 400th in the world keeps plugging away, playing this year thanks to a one-time career money exemption. In 12 starts, he's missed eight cuts, but in the four makes, he's had three top-25s, including T22 at the Valero. Not a viable fantasy option, just a neat little golf factoid.

Nicolai Hojgaard
One half of the 22-year-old Danish golf-playing twin brothers has secured Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour after tying for 28th. That came a week after his runner-up at Puntacana. He's ranked 119th in the world, actually eight spots behind brother Rasmus.

Ryan Gerard
Gerard, who gained a bit of fame with a solo fourth as a Monday qualifier at the Honda in February, now has earned Special Temporary Membership after tying for 56th. He followed the Honda with a tie for 11th at Puerto Rico.

MISSED CUTS

Some notables who missed the cut were Tyrrell Hatton, Ben Griffin, Cam Davis and Kazuki Higa. Hatton hurt his right hand at the Match Play two weeks ago but obviously felt well enough to play this week in advance of the Masters. … Griffin had risen to No. 75 in the world by making 13 of 14 cuts. An MC was bound to happen sooner or later, even in a weak field. … Davis had tied for sixth at THE PLAYERS and 17th at the Match Play coming in. … Higa is the Japanese sensation who had soared to No. 81 in the world after winning four times in Asia last year. He was in the Valero on a sponsor invite a week before playing in the Masters thanks to receiving one of two special invitations to Augusta.