Valero Texas Open Round 1: TPC San Antonio Plays Wet and Mean, and That Suits J.J. Spaun Just Fine

The last full-field event before the Masters got underway Thursday in San Antonio under difficult conditions, with J.J. Spaun posting a 5-under 67 to share early position with Ludvig Aberg while the course reminded everyone why this is a serious test.

The week before the Masters has a particular energy that every player in the Valero Texas Open field understands and navigates differently. Some come to San Antonio locked in, treating TPC San Antonio’s AT&T Oaks Course as a legitimate tune-up and approaching the week with the same focus they’d bring to any other $8.5 million event. Others are already mentally on the first tee at Augusta and spend four days at the Valero in a kind of competitive purgatory, going through motions that look like golf but feel like warm-ups.

Thursday’s first round sorted the two groups fairly efficiently. The players who were locked in shot 5-under and below. The players whose minds were already at Augusta shot something else.

J.J. Spaun — who is in the first group by temperament, by form, and by the very specific motivation of a player who won this event in 2022 and wants to do it again — posted a 67 to share the early lead with Ludvig Aberg. Andrew Putnam, who plays this course well every year, is alone at 6-under, one ahead of the pair. The conditions that produced those scores are worth noting: rain fell in the morning, the fairways played soft, and then the wind picked up in the afternoon to make approach shots significantly more demanding than the yardage suggests.

TPC San Antonio as a Final Exam

The AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio plays 7,494 yards and is absolutely not a birdie-fest by design. Its par-5s are reachable for the long hitters, which accounts for most of the low scoring. But its par-4s — particularly the ones on the back nine where the green complexes get interesting — require precise iron play and the ability to two-putt from positions that most players wouldn’t describe as comfortable.

Spaun’s 67 was built on exactly those skills. He found fairways on the holes that demanded it, converted birdie from distance on two of the par-5s, and made par on every hole where bogey would have been the reasonable outcome for a lesser ball-striker. His history here — a win in 2022, multiple top-20s in subsequent appearances — means the Oaks Course is not a mystery to him. He knows where the tournament is won and where it’s lost. Thursday, he played accordingly.

Aberg and the Augusta Subplot

Ludvig Aberg is a player who everyone in professional golf currently agrees is one of the best players on the planet who has not yet won a major championship. He’s been third at The Players Championship this year, he’s been in contention at Augusta in previous visits, and he carries the particular pressure of a player with a résumé that should by now include a major and doesn’t.

His 67 at TPC San Antonio Thursday was clean and controlled — exactly the kind of round that suggests he is using this week as legitimate preparation rather than mental pre-travel. Five birdies, one bogey, a round that held its shape even when the wind made afternoon conditions challenging. If he continues in this vein, Aberg is going to contend at the Valero — which will be useful information for how he approaches Augusta.

Robert MacIntyre is at 4-under, two back of Putnam. The Scot has been in excellent form and is another player whose Valero result will read as either a confidence builder or a question mark entering the Masters. The first round suggests the former.

TPC San Antonio plays 7,494 yards. It plays considerably harder when the wind decides to participate. Friday should tell us who actually came to San Antonio to play golf.