No matter your unique behavior in how you build a roster in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, it’s always good practice to map out long-range targets for specific golfers.

It’s why future possibilities were added to the bottom of this weekly column this season. But even before you pencil in names, a broader view and respect for the schedule as a whole can simplify your process. It’s forever been a strategy at the beginning of every segment, but it’s particularly useful as we mull over decisions for this week’s Valero Texas Open.

The Valero is the third of 11 tournaments contributing to Segment 2, but it’s also the third of only five in the segment that isn’t a Signature Event or a major. In fact, each of the next five in the fantasy season is one or the other. (PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf is on hiatus the week of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in late April.)

With a total of four Signature Events and two majors in Segment 2, and with only three starts per golfer available throughout, it’s impossible to cover every base with all of your favorites. Even though you’re keen on cutting yourself some slack and just letting the chips fall where they may, the savviest of your competition will get surgical, so you’re advised to act in kind.

After next week’s Masters, there will be three consecutive Signature Events, none of which will have a cut. The Cadillac Championship is a new tournament held at Trump National Doral’s Blue Monster. While the course isn’t new to professional golfers, it’s been 10 years since the PGA TOUR last visited, so the statute of limitations on the value of any course history has expired. The same goes for Aronimink Golf Club, host of the PGA Championship, which anchors the fivesome of premier events on deck. Both of those tournaments can be treated as bonuses. It’s why they are omitted from future possibilities. Great players will play well at both, but we will be relying on factors other than familiarity.

All of that encourages leaning into some of the chalk at TPC San Antonio.

Yes, a weaker finish in all of the next five stops (and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday that concludes Segment 2, albeit with a cut) will yield similar FedExCup bonus points to that of a better result at the Valero, but the combination of three promises of four rounds for every golfer at three Signature Events and a pair of rotational sites promotes commodities on a tough test in a full field like this week’s.

This approach isn’t bold. It’s brilliant.

Captain

Ludvig Åberg … There are many terrific options, so let your strategy be your guide. The Swede is No. 2 in my Power Rankings (prior to Collin Morikawa's withdrawal) but I’m chasing in my little league, so I’m willing to play the field for this designation.

No matter where you rank in your competition, continue to adhere to the long-range plan of assigning this role to only the best of the best. It’s way too early to get cute. Save your Hail Marys in the FedExCup Playoffs, if necessary.

Other considerations

• Tommy Fleetwood ... That last message is the perfect segue into this guy. He’s omitted from Future Possibilities because TPC San Antonio isn’t among his proven playgrounds – he’s 2-for-2 with a T7 in 2024 – but he’s chalk just about everywhere he plays.
• Robert MacIntyre ... Perhaps not the name you expected to see here, especially since he’s “way” down at No. 4 in the Power Rankings. Although he’s from Scotland, he presents as a Swiss Army knife. He’s been a quick study, he’s entirely comfortable in his leaps forward on the world’s biggest stages and he’s yet to develop consistent wells of success into which to tap.

Rounding out the roster

Despite this devotion, the winds whistling across the Hill Country of Texas have my respect, so modifications after tee times are released and a final review of the weather forecast is more likely here than, say, at next week’s Masters where course success is top priority.

My starters

• Ludvig Åberg (C)
• Tommy Fleetwood
• Robert MacIntyre
• Keith Mitchell

My bench

• Michael Thorbjornsen (1)
• Hideki Matsuyama (2)

CAREFUL

For almost every tournament, a usually impressive subset of the field warrants avoiding, and it might be represented in my Power Rankings which is not written in the context of any fantasy golf format. In this section, I single out who demands pause and why.

• J.J. Spaun ... Given that the 2022 Valero champ slots immediately behind Bronson Burgoon in ownership percentage at just 3.1% at last check, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf gamers don’t need the assist. Just 3-for-7 on the season with no better than a T24 at THE PLAYERS Championship, Spaun has lost his mojo, but the speculative assessment is that he rekindles some juices on a course that’s rewarded him before, especially because of its level of difficulty. If anyone can regain form at TPC San Antonio, it’s a winner of the U.S. Open. Just don’t bet on it.

• Andrew Novak ... This is just in case you were looking for validation not to invest. While he’s been a bit of a TPC San Antonio whisperer with a solo ninth (2023) and a T3 (2025), he’s delivered only one top-35 finish in eight starts this season. The counterargument is that it’s in line with longer-range expectations, but he still needs to prove that the trendy uptick last year wasn’t an anomaly.
• Alex Smalley ... Casting a spotlight on him coming off a T21 in Houston, his third top 25 in five starts. Sits 65th in the FedExCup with only one missed cut in his last 11 starts dating back to November, but he’s 0-for-4 with zero sub-70s at TPC San Antonio.

Future possibilities

NOTE: This section consists of notables in this week’s field for whom this tournament could be one of more than three starts you may consider burning in Segment 2 of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple tournaments are listed (e.g., “1” for strongest, “2” for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change throughout Segment 2 no matter how many tournaments remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment.

• Brian Harman ... Valero (2, defending champ); RBC Heritage (1); Charles Schwab (3)
• Hideki Matsuyama ... Valero (3); Masters (1); the Memorial (2)
• Maverick McNealy ... Texas Children's (3); Valero (2); RBC Heritage (1)
• Jordan Spieth ... Valero (3); Masters (4); RBC Heritage (1); THE CJ CUP (5); Charles Schwab (6); the Memorial (2)