Brendan Steele sinks the winning putt at the 2011 Valero Texas Open

In only his 12th start on the PGA Tour, Brendan Steele found he winners circle at the Valero Texas Open.  It was a tough week at the TPC San Antonio Oaks course, with lots of big numbers being posted, most notably Kevin Na’s 16 on the par 4 ninth hole.

The wind blew relentlessly for most of the tournament, though it didn’t seem to bother Steele as he posted par or better all four days, including 2 rounds in the 60′s.

Brendan Steele may be a relatively unknown name on tour, but he proved his abilities with a victory on the Nationwide Tour last year.  As ESPN reporter Jason Sobel astutely noted at the close of the 3rd round:

Casual fans see no-names atop Texas Open leaderboard. Astute fans see Nationwide winner [Steele], NCAA champ [Kevin Chappell] and a guy who clinched the Walker Cup [Cameron Tringale].

And now that Nationwide winner is a PGA Tour winner as well.

There are 5 first time winners on tour so far this season (Jhonattan Vegas, D.A. Points, Gary Woodland, Charl Schwartzel and Steele) and 3 of those are rookies (Vegas, Schwartzel, and Steele).

Charlie Hoffman and Kevin Chappell both made pushes to win the tournament shooting 68 and 70 respectively but they came up one shot short at the end of the day.  Still, it was a good finish for both, with both bagging their first top-10 this year.

In other interesting news from the Valero, Garth Mulroy withdrew on Friday at 11:56 (he was 1 shot under the cut line) after learning that his wife (Chris) had gone into labor.  He made it back to Raleigh, NC just in time to see his second son (Ryan) born at 4pm.    Congratulations Garth and Chris.

Yeah, I’d be smiling too… first pair of cowboy boots and a $1m check.

I wish I could say that I saw Schwartzel coming from a mile away and brilliantly picked him last week as a darkhorse favorite to win the Masters. But unfortunately the Power of the Schwartz-el wasn’t with me.

So how did my darkhorse picks fare? Read on to find out.

1. Ryu Ishikawa (T20) – I was pleasantly surprised by the strength of Ishikawa’s performance.  I figured if there was one player that was most likely to miss the cut out of picks, it was Ishikawa.  But he shot back to back 71′s to make the cut with room to breathe.  It got away from him a little bit on Saturday but he came back with a strong 70 on Sunday to finish T20.

This was only the 3rd cut he’s made this year on tour, and judging by his performance, he’s starting to get things figured out over on this side of the pond.  I think we might see him in contention for a win later this year.

I also have to call out Hideki Matsuyama.  He was the low amateur (the only one to make the cut) at T27.  He didn’t have a great Sunday, but he shot a brilliant 68 on Sunday.  Matsuyama is from Sendai, the city devestated by the earthquake/tsunami last month and will be returning there this week to finish school and help wherever he can.  He showed a lot of class in his comments during the green jacket presentation ceremony.

2. Anthony Kim (MC) – As pleasantly surprised as I was with Ishikawa’s performance, I was equally disappointed with Kim’s missed cut.  The bottom line is that he just made to many bogeys.  He fired off 4 birdies in 5 holes on the back nine Friday but it was only good enough to get him to +2 for the tournament, missing the cut by one.

I think it’s just taking a while for him to come back from the thumb injury and he’s still not 100%.  Hopefully we’ll see him back at full strength in the near future.

3. Gary Woodland (T24) – Not a bad showing for his first Masters.  He didn’t play his best golf on Saturday, culminating in pegging a spectator in the face with hooked shot on 15.  Hey, when you play golf with thousands of fans all over the course, it happens.

But he did get everything back on track for Sunday.  He made 3 birdies on the way in to card a 70 and finish the tournament at 2-under (T24) alongside Jim Furyk and David Toms.  Not bad company.

He played 13 really well all week, finishing at 4-under on that hole alone.  Hell be able to build on this experience and I think we’ll see his name on the leaderboard at Augusta one day in the not too distant future.

4.  Ben Crane (MC) – I wasn’t quite as surprised as I was with Anthony Kim that he missed the cut.  He really struggled on Friday making 5 bogeys on the way to carding a 75, leaving him at +4, 3-over the cut line.  I’m just disappointed that we won’t get to see a video featuring him in the green jacket.

5.  Justin Rose (T11) – Justin Rose played a solid tournament.  His only problem was that he really didn’t get things going until Sunday, when he shot a 68.  He was dead straight off the tee all week (78%) and hit a ton of greens (79%).  But he averaged 31 putts, which just isn’t going to get it done at the Masters.

He’s playing really well though so I would not be surprised at all if he picks up another victory or two this year.  And if he keeps hitting it this straight, we could definitely see him contend at the US Open, where the course will be set up to punish 300 yard wayward drives (neither of which describes Rose’s tee game).

So how did I do overall? 5 Picks.  T11, T20, T24, and 2 MC’s.  Honestly I don’t think that’s too shabby for darkhorse picks.  Did any of you guys pick Schwartzel to win?

Liars…

[Image Flickr/Pocketwiley]

[Update] My apologies to Gary Woodland, it was a hooked drive that his a patron in the face, not his club.  That’s what I get for trying to watch multiple feeds at the same time

Gary Woodland, one of my “darkhorse” picks this week at Augusta, didn’t exactly have a career round today today at Augusta.  On the 15th tee box, he hooked his drive into the gallery and hit a fan in the face.

It looked painful for the fan, although it didn’t seem like it caused any serious harm.  A few minutes later Woodland was shaking the fan’s hand after apologizing.

Woodland went on to make par for the hole and finished the day with a 2-over 74.  Hopefully he’ll have a better day out on the course tomorrow.

In the latest Masters odds from Bodog.com, Phil Mickelson remains the favorite at 6-1.  Tiger is 8-1 (again, wtf?). Both Lee Westwood and Nick Watney are 14-1, with nobody else under 20-1.

The odds on my dark horse picks?  Justin Rose is 30-1.  Anthony Kim is 33-1.   Ben Crane is 100-1.  And Gary Woodland and Ryu Ishikawa are sitting at 150-1.

Interestingly Tom Watson is sitting at 400-1.  That might be a good long shot bet.  He came damn close to winning the British Open 2 years ago and was on the leaderboard going into Friday at the 2010 Masters after firing a first round 67.  Yes, at 61, he’s probably too old to realistically contend at the Masters.  But at 400-1 it might be worth a little fun money.

Phil Mickelson – 6/1
Tiger Woods – 8/1
Lee Westwood – 14/1
Nick Watney – 16/1
Martin Kaymer – 20/1
Luke Donald – 25/1
Paul Casey – 25/1
Rory McIlroy – 25/1
Dustin Johnson – 20/1
Padraig Harrington – 28/1
Hunter Mahan – 28/1
Justin Rose – 30/1
Graeme McDowell – 33/1
Bubba Watson – 33/1
Matt Kuchar – 28/1
Steve Stricker – 33/1
Rickie Fowler – 33/1
Aaron Baddeley – 33/1
Ian Poulter – 33/1
Ernie Els – 33/1
Anthony Kim – 33/1
Retief Goosen – 40/1
Jim Furyk – 40/1
Geoff Ogilvy – 40/1
Sergio Garcia – 40/1
Vijay Singh – 50/1
Francesco Molinari – 50/1
Martin Laird – 50/1
Charl Schwartzel – 50/1
K.J. Choi – 50/1

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

Everybody knows that Phil and Tiger are the two favorites to win the Masters.  And of course there are guys like Dustin Johnson and Lee Westwood that have sniffed at glory in the majors and come up just short.  But there are a number of other players who have legitimate shots at winning their first major this year.  Keep reading to find out who I like as “dark horse” picks.

1. Ryu Ishikawa – I don’t actually think Ryu is going to win the Masters.  He’s finding out the hard way this season that the level of play on the PGA Tour is very different than on the Japanese tour.  But the 19 year old phenom has serious game and I think it’s a matter of time before he gets his legs under himself and wins on Tour.  So if I don’t think that Ishikawa has a realistic shot at winning, why am I picking him?

Well, last week Ishikawa announced that he’s donating his entire 2011 tournament earnings to disaster relief in his home country of Japan.  That’s a hell of a thing for a 19-year old to step up and commit to.  And I for one would love to see him mixing it up on Sunday at Augusta with the entire country of Japan behind him (along with a good number of fans here in the US).  It would be one of the greatest feel-good sports stories in recent memory if he’s able to pull it off.

I know that I (and probably a number of others) will be rooting for Ishikawa this week.

2.  Anthony Kim – Kim had a rough 2011.  After getting off to a great start, he had a thumb injury that required surgery and forced away from the golf course for several months.  And when he finally did return in the Fall, it was obvious that he wasn’t quite a 100%.

But now several months later, Kim is showing signs of the form that he kicked off 2010 with.  No, he’s still not quite 100%, but his Friday 64 at Houston last week, showed that he can put it together.  The only question now is whether he can do it for 4 days in a row.

3.  Gary Woodland – He hits the ball a mile (although not always too straight) and is a pretty darn good putter.  That combination adds up to somebody who can win at Augusta where long errant tee shots aren’t penalized like they would be at a US Open.  Woodland had his breakthrough win at the Transitions last month and seems poised to continue to play well after his T13 finish in Houston.

If he can figure out a way to make putts on the slick greens at Augusta, he should do very well.

4.  Ben Crane – He leads the tour in greens-in-regulation at 73%.  No, he’s not a long hitter.  But he hits a lot of fairways and is able to convert those into GIR’s.  He hasn’t any great finishes yet this season, which is kind of surprising given that he ranks 16th in scoring average at 69.81.

Crane doesn’t do anything flashy on the golf course.  But sometime slow and steady wins the race.  Or in Crane’s case, really, really slow and steady.  But I’ll be honest, I kind of want Crane to win just to see what kind of video he’ll release afterwards.

5.  Justin Rose – Rose had 2 victories last year and came out ready to play this spring (I still can’t believe that he and Paul Casey were left off of the Ryder Cup team).  He already has 3 top 10 finishes this year including a T3 at a very tough Bay Hill course.  He’s not a particularly long hitter by Tour standards (284 yd avg drive), but he does keep it in the fairways (65%) and he hits a lot of greens in regulation (73%).

Rose’s short game is also excellent.  So on the rare occasion that he misses a GIR, he’s probably going to chip it close.  Like Woodland, the question mark will be his putting.  If he can get it going, he’ll be in the hunt on the weekend.

So what do you guys think of my picks?  Disagree?  Have any picks of your own?  Let me know in the comments.