Steele won at TPC San Antonio in 2011. (Carroll/Getty Images)

By Tim Price, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

SAN ANTONIO -- Brendan Steele is in his third season on the PGA TOUR, yet he admits to still trying to figure a few things out.

How to practice. What to eat. Where to play.

Where to play?

“This tournament was an easy one to pick,” Steele said Tuesday morning as he looked out over the practice range at TPC San Antonio while preparing the Valero Texas Open.

While many players tend to shy away from the demanding Greg Norman layout, Steele is a die-hard enthusiast of the Oaks Course at TPC. This is the site of his first and only win on TOUR, posting an 8-under two years ago to clip Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell by a stroke on a leaderboard that also included Brandt Snedeker and Keegan Bradley.

Steele, who turns 30 on Friday, also finished fourth here last year, when a final-round 67 on the par-72 track put him four back of winner Ben Curtis. It was a bright spot on an otherwise dull year.

He failed to repeat a win after that rookie-season triumph in San Antonio, he missed the cut in the Masters (he needs to win this week to get back to Augusta) and he did not advance to the FedEx Playoffs (he's currently 66th in the standings).

That’s where the how-to-eat comment comes into play for Steele’s season.

“It’s really been kind of my new thing for this year,” he said.

Steele has been visiting a nutritionist in his hometown of Irvine, Calif. At 6-foot-2, 175 pounds, Steele doesn’t offer much resistance to the winds he’s facing in Texas.

“He really taught me how to eat so we wouldn‘t have big spikes and crashes out there,” Steele said. “I think it’s been a big difference for me in my consistency. I’ve played pretty solid almost every week this year. I feel like I’m close to having a real big run.”

Though Steele has one top-10 finish (T6 when he shot all sub-70 rounds at the Waste Management Phoenix Open), he has made seven cuts in the eight events he’s played. That’s a much better strike rate than missing 10 cuts in 24 tries last year.

Steele comes to San Antonio off a 38th-place finish at the Shell Houston Open. Perhaps the longer TPC San Antonio (7,522 yards), plays to his game. Steele is 13th in greens in regulation on shots 125 yards and longer at 89 percent.

And when he won here in 2011, his total driving number (combination of rank on driving accuracy and driving distance) was 17.

“Definitely guys that drive the ball well and keep the ball in play do well here,” Steele said. “You’ll see a lot of different clubs off the tees just because guys need to get it in play, somewhere, on some grass, and I’ve been fortunate to not end up in that native stuff past the rough very often the two years I’ve been here. I think that’s the biggest reason I’ve done well here.”

 

Two former champions are among those setting the pace as the morning wave heads to the back nine in the first round of the Tampa Bay Championship presented by EverBank.

Defending champion Luke Donald and K.J. Choi, who has won the tournament twice, are playing togethyer and both are 3 under. Also tied at the top of the leaderboard is Brendan Steele.

World Golf Hall of Famer Vijay Singh also has played 13 holes and is tied at 2 under with Chez Reavie and Peter Tomasulo. Nick Watney, Ryan Palmer and PGA TOUR rookie Patrick Reed are among eight players tied at 1 under.

Former champion Jim Furyk, who lost in a playoff last year, is even par through 13 holes while Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer are also at that number.

The pairings have been unveiled for this week’s PGA TOUR Matchups Game on Facebook. You can check out the Matchups for the Wyndham Championship below, or on the PGA TOUR’s Facebook page.

Participants have until 6 a.m. ET Thursday to make their picks. Log on to the PGA TOUR Facebook page and click the Matchups link to make your picks for this week, or to sign up.

Webb Simpson vs. Bill Haas	Wake Forest alums do battle in their home state
Carl Pettersson vs. Ryan Moore	Two past Wyndham champs ready for more at Sedgefield
Davis Love III vs. Jason Dufner	Ryder Cup Captain keeps close eye on Ryder Cup rookie
Sergio Garcia vs. Trevor Immelman	Two international stars are looking to kick-start their season
Jhonattan Vegas vs. Brendan Steele	Both need a big week to get into the FedExCup Playoffs

FEDEXCUP: Standings | Movers | Leaders | 2012 Winners | More Chris Dunham, PGATOUR.COM The 18th event of a 37-event PGA TOUR Regular Season, the Valero Texas Open provides an opportunity to move past a disappointing first half of the year and set the tone for a stronger second half of the season. This is exactly what Brendan Steele did a year ago. A rookie on TOUR last year, Steele had missed six cuts in his first 11 starts and had just one top-25 finish on his resume. He missed just five of 16 cuts from the Valero Texas Open on and notched seven top-25 finishes in that span. “I had a really good mental approach here last year,” Steele said. “I kind of went through (a bad stretch) last year before I got here and that’s why I was kind of off everybody’s radar when I did get here.” Steele put himself on everybody’s radar, as well as the FedExCup map, with his victory at TPC San Antonio. The then-rookie moved from 112th in the standings up to 19th. He peaked at No. 18 the following week and went on to finish 52nd in the FedExCup Playoffs -- the sixth best finish of all rookies. The 2011 champion wasn’t the only player whose season changed in San Antonio. Co-runners-up Kevin Chappell and Charley Hoffman also made FedExCup splashes. Chappell jumped 117 spots to No. 63 with his runner-up finish and peaked at No. 61 in a rookie campaign that ended with an 84th-place FedExCup finish. Hoffman, who won the 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship to control his own fate at East Lake, checked in at No. 25 following last season’s Valero Texas Open. He was unable to recapture the magic that pushed him to East Lake in 2010 and finished the year at No. 41. THIS WEEK: Five of the top 30 in the FedExCup standings will be teeing it up this week at the Valero Texas Open. Seven more inside the top 50 are scheduled to play. More than half (26) of the players ranked between Nos. 51 and 100 will also be playing and looking to emerge like Steele, or Hoffman, or Chappell did in 2011. Looking for some players who could have breakthrough weeks in Texas? You can always start with last year’s trio. Hoffman (No. 97), Steele (No. 115) and Chappell (No. 84) all rank well outside the FedExCup top 50 and could again get a much-needed boost at TPC San Antonio. Our experts weighed in with their weekly picks and just three selected players inside the FedExCup top 50. Others to watch include No. 91 Fredrik Jacobson (two top-5 finishes in the last two seasons here), No. 100 Ryan Palmer (Texas native who plays well in the state) and No. 78 J.B. Holmes. (back-to-back top 15s here). Whoever wins this week will certainly crack the top 50, maybe even the top 30, in the FedExCup standings. ROOKIE GATHERING: This week’s field boasts 24 of the TOUR’s 26 rookies. That’s a 100 percent count of healthy first-year players. Sang-moon Bae withdrew last week with a shoulder injury while Joe Affrunti has been out since April. Those two will not make the trip to TPC San Antonio while the other 24 rookies will be attempting to follow in Brendan Steele’s footsteps as a rookie winner of the Valero Texas Open.

TPC San Antonio was only in its second year as a PGA TOUR venue in 2011, and players were still finding their way around the massive track. With plenty of yardage and large, multi-tiered greens, the field made plenty of bogeys, averaging about 14 per player.

So how did Brendan Steele win? He made only eight bogeys, giving him six shots on the field in that category alone. He finished at 8 under, beating Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell by stroke.

A large portion of his consistent scoring can be attributed to his performance around the
greens. Green missed 30 greens in regulation, but successfully salvaged par or better 22 times.

Steele secured the win when he sank a 7-footer for par on the 72nd hole. He was 17-for-17 on putts inside 10 feet in the final round.

How Steele ranked vs. the field in the 2011 Valero Texas Open:

Statistic	Steele rank	Steele stat	The field
Driving Distance	10th	303 yards	289 yards
Driving accuracy	T7	64.29 percent	51.65 percent
Total Driving	2nd	17	76
Going for the green	T8	52.38 percent	36.45 percent
Scrambling	6th	73.33 percent	56.09 percent
Strokes Gained-Putting	5th	1.565	--
Putts per round	2nd	26.00	28.70
Putting - Inside 10'	6th	91.30 percent	85.22 percent
Birdies	T2	17	8
Par 5 birdie or better	Tst	50 percent	25.96 percent

 

TPC San Antonio has quickly developed a reputation as the toughest par-72 course on the PGA TOUR, excluding majors. In general, the field is missing the fairway half the time (51.65 percent), and they barely hit the green half the time (56.32 percent).

Toughest courses on TOUR in 2011 (non-majors):

Event	Rank	Course	Par	Average
The Honda Classic	1	PGA National	70	72.54
RBC Canadian Open	2	Shaughnessy	70	72.521
HP Byron Nelson	3	TPC Four Seasons	70	72.354
Valero Texas Open	4	TPC San Antonio	72	73.665
Arnold Palmer Invitational	5	Bay Hill Club and Lodge	72	73.203

Valero Texas Open defending champion Brendan Steele's assessment of TPC San Antonio?

"Brutally hard."

Indeed, Steele's description is backed up by last year's statistics, as the par-72 TPC San Antonio course had the highest scoring average of any PGA TOUR event (73.665), and ranked fourth highest in average strokes over par (1.665).

The course also ranked in the top five in such categories as toughest fairways to hit, toughest greens to hit, toughest approaches in several distances and lowest par-5 birdie or better percentage, and also ranked No. 1 in toughest putting course.

Steele won last year with a score of 8 under, with winds from the south offering little mercy for players.

"A lot of guys have talked to me about it," Steele said Tuesday. "They wanted to know what it was like. A few of guys talked to me and said, 'Wow, that sounds great, sounds like the kind of course I like' and they committed to the field this year.

"It's a really good course, very big challenge. ... It's so tough that a lot of guying are going to be walking away shaking their heads. I think it's a good test and it's a little different test than we see kind week-in, week-out."

Steele did make a point of saying the course was hard but not unfair.

"I don't think there's anything about the course that's unfair even when the wind blows that hard," he said. "It demands really good shots and if you don't hit them, you're going to pay the price.

"There's a difference between it being unfair and just being hard, and there's definitely nothing that's unfair about it."

The pairings have been unveiled for this week’s PGA TOUR Matchups Game on Facebook. You can check out the Matchups for the Valero Texas Open below, or on the PGA TOUR’s Facebook page.

Participants have until 6 a.m. ET Thursday to make their picks. Log on to the PGA TOUR Facebook page and click the Matchups link to make your picks for this week, or to sign up.

GO TO FACEBOOK PAGE TO PLAY MATCHUPS GAME

K.J. Choi vs. Matt Kuchar	These two technicians are each seeking first win of year
Brendan Steele vs. Johnson Wagner	Defending champion takes on No. 5 in FedExCup points
Justin Leonard vs. Harrison Frazar	These two Texans have played together for almost 30 years
Charley Hoffman vs. Kevin Chappell	These two finished a shot behind Steele here last year
Bud Cauley vs. Harris English	It's an SEC battle (Alabama vs. Georgia) between rookies.

This week, the PGA TOUR goes to San Antonio, Texas, for the Valero Texas Open. Here are some of the features you can expect to see on PGATOUR.COM this week:

TUESDAY: LARRY DORMAN

Award-winning journalist Larry Dorman will file his bi-monthly column about the future of the Valero Texas Open, which has undergone significant changes in recent years. The event, one of the oldest on the PGA TOUR, has moved to TPC San Antonio. The Oaks Course is among the tougher venues on the PGA TOUR, especially when the Texas Hill Country winds pick up.

TOP-10 TUESDAY

This week’s Top 10 Tuesday video will feature the top 10 native Texans to have played on the PGA TOUR. It's the timeless argument: Who will be No. 1? Ben Hogan or Byron Nelson?

DIRECT CONNECT

Defending Valero Texas Open champion Brendan Steele will be our guest for this week's fan-based interview . Steele will answer your questions in our weekly feature, published every Wednesday. Click here to ask him a question.

POWER RANKINGS

Fantasy expert Rob Bolton provides his list of the top 10 players for TPC San Antonio -- and five players who didn't quite make the top 10 list. Published Monday afternoon.

FANTASY INSIDER

Need help setting up your team for the Valero Texas Open? Rob Bolton does the homework, so you don't have to. From the A-listers to q-school grads, he breaks down who's most likely to excel at TPC San Antonio. Published Tuesday afternoon.

EXPERT PICKS

In 16 weeks this season, PGATOUR.COM experts have picked eight winners. The Valero Texas Open is a tough week to pick a winner, especially with the two-year-old TPC San Antonio in play. Check it out Tuesday afternoon.

NOTABLE GROUPS

As soon as the tee times are released, we will provide a quick list of the marquee groups at TPC San Antonio. Published Tuesday afternoon.

SHOTLINK

How did defending champion Brendan Steele roll to the win in the 2011 Valero Texas Open? What stats/skills stand out at TPC San Antonio? Published Wednesday.

LIVE INTERVIEWS: Each week at regular PGA TOUR events, PGATOUR.COM will carry live streams of pre-tournament interviews. Here’s the schedule for this week (please note: all times are tentative and subject to change)

Tuesday, April 17: Brendan Steele (3 p.m. ET)
Wednesday, April 18: Matt Kuchar (12:30 pm ET), Jordan Spieth (1 p.m. ET), Bud Cauley (1:30 pm ET).