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By John Maginnes
PGATOUR.com Contributor

SAN ANTONIO -- I have been trying to figure it out all week. I mean, it doesn't make sense. Daniel Chopra said that it is strictly a coincidence. It is not like the golf course favors one style of play. LaCantera is not a bomber's paradise, and it is not particularly demanding in terms of accuracy. Like all PGA TOUR courses, bad shots are penalized, but they don't suffocate you here.

Fredrik Jacobson (blue shirt) and Jesper Parnevik (white shirt) were among several Swedes who emerged as players to be reckoned with this week. (Ferrey/WireImage)

So, why was the story of the week the fact that the Swedes were dominating the Valero Texas Open when no foreign born player has won the tournament in 15 years? It has been all Americans since Nick Price won the Texas Open back in 1992.

There is only one tournament on the PGA TOUR that has a lengthier stretch of apple-pie-and-hot-dog winners. And Texan Chad Campbell became the 15th consecutive American winner at the Viking Classic last week.

When you consider the number of foreign-born players on the PGA TOUR over the last two decades, that is a pretty amazing statistic. One of the reasons the Viking Classic may have enjoyed so many home country winners is that for years it was the PGA TOUR event played opposite the British Open. For most players who live outside the States, the British Open is the biggest event of the year -- they call it simply The Open Championship.

Yes, I am aware I posed a question I haven't answered. Maybe because the more I think about it the more I realize that Daniel was right, it is just a coincidence. But, here is the theory that I have been working on the last couple of days. Like most of my hypotheses, it has no scientific base and is completely unverifiable. Heck, it barely even involves the Swedes -- but here goes.

PGA TOUR players, particularly American ones, love sports. They don't just love golf. They are fans of all sports. They support their alma maters and professional teams with the same vigilance as those shirtless idiots in Green Bay in January. The only difference is that they are busy on the weekends and only get to attend a few games a year. That, and the fact that most TOUR players hate to be cold -- except Jerry Kelly, but that is another story all together.

Due to their travel schedules, most players don't even have time to develop an affinity for weekly television series. Most of the television they watch involves a ball and sweaty grown men. So with football season in full swing and the baseball playoffs capturing the attention of many, there are a lot of distractions for the Americans on TOUR these days.

While some of the conversations in the locker room on the PGA TOUR involve golf --and occasionally politics -- the majority of conversations are about sports. TOUR players may be the most vehement of armchair quarterbacks.

Here is where my theory loses some steam. I was going to suggest that because of their sports fanaticism, American TOUR players are distracted this time of year. But the fact of the matter is most veteran players are constantly juggling real life and their profession. Jesper Parnevik has four small children and Justin Leonard has three. I can't imagine that either of those gentlemen gets to watch sports, or anything else, on television that doesn't involve large purple dinosaurs.

Not only that, Justin didn't let the fact that his Texas Longhorns lost the battle of the Red River to Oklahoma on Saturday affect his play on Sunday. He came out and continued his mistake-free golf and took only six holes to erase his four-stroke deficit to Jesper.

So maybe the reason that the Swedes were playing so well at the Valero Texas Open had to do with some other anomaly. Or maybe it is no anomaly at all. Jesper, Mathias Gronberg and Richard Johnson are all transplanted Swedes who live in Jupiter, Fla., just up the beach from Palm Beach. Daniel is a Floridian now, too -- he lives in Orlando. This is significant in that the greens they all practice on at home are Bermuda. If you are from north of the Mason-Dixon line and have played golf in the Deep South, then you know that the grass is significantly different than what you are accustomed to putting.

Whether you are from Scandinavia or Austin, Texas, putting on Bermudagrass is an animal to be attacked only after significant familiarity. Some players never seem to get the real feel for Bermuda. You would think that Swedes would be at a distinct disadvantage. But these aren't just any Swedes -- they are Florida Swedes.

Maybe it was the grass on the greens, or perhaps it was the food in player dining. Either way, the Swedes had a great week in San Antonio. I wonder if they know who Santa Anna was.