Post by greenjacksixpack on Apr 1, 2019 21:05:25 GMT
... get ridiculously fortunate! 😯😯😯🤢
This week, we get to experience one again, the crispy, scorched event in Texas hill country known as The Valero Open... the worst event on tour each year. Granted...that early event that Champ won is worse...but, that field/event is like a half event, not a "real" one...I mean a tournament in Mississippi??? Puerto Rico should be a state ahead of Mississippi..he'll,GUAM deserves to be a state more.😮😉
Quasi-events aside...we all know what the Valero is, as far as the annual slate of tourneys. Before, each year we could look for a tournament that maybe had a few Texas players, a few other decent players, and the coverage even seemed subdued in the manner it was relayed to us, as if they even " had" to be there, but really could find something else they'd rather be, or do.
It is a shame...since San Antonio is so much more pleasant than Dallas and Houston, which generally are the more obnoxious,big, congestive-feeling type of cities. San Antonio is huge like both of them, but does not feel like so many other megalopolis. With the Riverwalk and such a nice city in general...if the course was really nice,like the Colonial, or Byron Nelson, or the (now) defunct Shell, Houston...this COULD actually be a tournament that players looked forward to on the calendar.
Alas...(sighhhhhhhhh)
Tournament placement upon the tour calendar often is discussed. Some events always have seemed to get a bit of the short end of the stick. The Valspar just recently is a perfect example of a tournament that is unlucky in that it is surrounded by bigger- priority events ( even more so now, with the Players going back to March. Players need some weeks off during the season, and with these bigger events surrounding them, the Valspar often just has a tough time getting quite as many bigger names as other events...even though it really is a very good all- around event, and test.
The Greenbrier is another wonderful course, that often has had to endure, smaller deluxe fields due to when the event has been held.
THIS year...look what happened.
With all the big switches..moving majors, new sites/tourneys (Yayyyyyyy, 3M)... FedEx emphasis, etc... the dust settled, and somehow the Valero wound up being the week before arguably THE best week of the whole season, at the place arguably the closest thing to Heaven to one who loves golf. Pairing The Valero and The Masters together, is comparable to pairing Phylis Diller and Jessica Alba.
But, look now what the Valero GAINS....
There are all these high-ranked Euro Tour players, who played last week at Match play, and will next week at Augusta. They are not going to fly all the way back to Europe, Asia, Australia, or South Africa, then right back again a few days later. Plus, they were already just up the road inAustin, as it is ...so they are in the field, where before they would not have been. Also, the final prize.. the chance for some player, who currently has NOT qualified for Augusta...get a win this week, you get to experience the ultimate next week!
Sooooo... now you gain some of THOSE players, trying to have a last shot entering this tourney, where before they would not.
Somewhere, the Greenbriers, and Valspars of the tour are shaking their collective heads. The Shell Houston people are getting drunk, or already have jumped off a bridge. Besides being a decent event, the setup of The Woodlands course, used Augusta National as its emphasis in design. When you played the course, you actually were playing conditions that were very similar to Augusta, so if, indeed you WERE going to be in The Masters field, you were also playing a course which could possibly help prepare you for a few things that would be similar at Augusta.
The Valero does NOT help,in such a manner.
But, boy...this tournament is getting a jolt,due to it being held this week...which actually adds a tiny bit of interest. It just is a shame that it is on this course...and even this coverage ( NBC). It will be so good to see/hear Jim Nantz again next week.
Anyway, here we are again. Wonder if Valero sold its soul to the Devil to land this sweet spot...because the Shell Houston was here pre- Masters week for awhile,and was a better event and course . Now, they are gone...and THIS is who lands the spot, now. Baffling.
This week, we get to experience one again, the crispy, scorched event in Texas hill country known as The Valero Open... the worst event on tour each year. Granted...that early event that Champ won is worse...but, that field/event is like a half event, not a "real" one...I mean a tournament in Mississippi??? Puerto Rico should be a state ahead of Mississippi..he'll,GUAM deserves to be a state more.😮😉
Quasi-events aside...we all know what the Valero is, as far as the annual slate of tourneys. Before, each year we could look for a tournament that maybe had a few Texas players, a few other decent players, and the coverage even seemed subdued in the manner it was relayed to us, as if they even " had" to be there, but really could find something else they'd rather be, or do.
It is a shame...since San Antonio is so much more pleasant than Dallas and Houston, which generally are the more obnoxious,big, congestive-feeling type of cities. San Antonio is huge like both of them, but does not feel like so many other megalopolis. With the Riverwalk and such a nice city in general...if the course was really nice,like the Colonial, or Byron Nelson, or the (now) defunct Shell, Houston...this COULD actually be a tournament that players looked forward to on the calendar.
Alas...(sighhhhhhhhh)
Tournament placement upon the tour calendar often is discussed. Some events always have seemed to get a bit of the short end of the stick. The Valspar just recently is a perfect example of a tournament that is unlucky in that it is surrounded by bigger- priority events ( even more so now, with the Players going back to March. Players need some weeks off during the season, and with these bigger events surrounding them, the Valspar often just has a tough time getting quite as many bigger names as other events...even though it really is a very good all- around event, and test.
The Greenbrier is another wonderful course, that often has had to endure, smaller deluxe fields due to when the event has been held.
THIS year...look what happened.
With all the big switches..moving majors, new sites/tourneys (Yayyyyyyy, 3M)... FedEx emphasis, etc... the dust settled, and somehow the Valero wound up being the week before arguably THE best week of the whole season, at the place arguably the closest thing to Heaven to one who loves golf. Pairing The Valero and The Masters together, is comparable to pairing Phylis Diller and Jessica Alba.
But, look now what the Valero GAINS....
There are all these high-ranked Euro Tour players, who played last week at Match play, and will next week at Augusta. They are not going to fly all the way back to Europe, Asia, Australia, or South Africa, then right back again a few days later. Plus, they were already just up the road inAustin, as it is ...so they are in the field, where before they would not have been. Also, the final prize.. the chance for some player, who currently has NOT qualified for Augusta...get a win this week, you get to experience the ultimate next week!
Sooooo... now you gain some of THOSE players, trying to have a last shot entering this tourney, where before they would not.
Somewhere, the Greenbriers, and Valspars of the tour are shaking their collective heads. The Shell Houston people are getting drunk, or already have jumped off a bridge. Besides being a decent event, the setup of The Woodlands course, used Augusta National as its emphasis in design. When you played the course, you actually were playing conditions that were very similar to Augusta, so if, indeed you WERE going to be in The Masters field, you were also playing a course which could possibly help prepare you for a few things that would be similar at Augusta.
The Valero does NOT help,in such a manner.
But, boy...this tournament is getting a jolt,due to it being held this week...which actually adds a tiny bit of interest. It just is a shame that it is on this course...and even this coverage ( NBC). It will be so good to see/hear Jim Nantz again next week.
Anyway, here we are again. Wonder if Valero sold its soul to the Devil to land this sweet spot...because the Shell Houston was here pre- Masters week for awhile,and was a better event and course . Now, they are gone...and THIS is who lands the spot, now. Baffling.
?