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.

Apparently Robert Gamez didn’t think his pants/shirt were visible enough.  So he added a “tour yellow” Srixon golf bag.  I like the tour yellow golf balls, but I’m not sold on the tour yellow staff bag.  It kind of looks like he took a white staff bag and turned a bunch of elementary school kids loose on it with a crate of highlighters.

He does stand out on the course.  I’ll let you guys decide if that’s good or bad.

The par 4 9th hole at the TPC Oaks course in San Antonio probably isn’t very high on Kevin Na’s list of favorite holes right now.  Na carded a 16 on the hole today.  It was a significant blemish on an otherwise great round that included 5 birdies, 1 bogey, and whatever the hell you call a 16.

Na’s 16 included 3 tee shots, 2 unplayable lies, 2 left-handed shots, one swing where he completely missed the ball, one penalty stroke for the ball bouncing back and hitting him, and a 6 foot putt to close out the hole.

Afterwards Na told his caddie that he didn’t even know how many strokes he had taken.  They ultimately had to consult with PGA tour officials who determined that the proper score was a 16.

The PGA Tour Report posted a shot by shot breakdown of the hole.

When he finally made it out of the brush, he received appluase that Golf.com called “sarcastic”.  Personally, I think the applause was more along the lines of everybody in the gallery feeling relief and thinking “Yep, I’ve been there before”.

Na now sits at 8 over par, instead of one shot off the lead held by Stewart Cink and JJ Henry at 5-under. He’ll need a career round to make the cut and get back in the mix. Unfortunately for Na, winds are expected in excess of 25 mph tomorrow, making a 2nd round comeback unlikely at best.

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

The star of Wednesday’s events at the TPC San Antonio AT&T Oaks Course (what a mouthful) was, without a doubt, Adam Scott.  Scott is fresh off of a T2 finish at the Masters, where he had the lead on the back nine until Charl Schwartzel made 4 consecutive birdies coming in to grab the win.

If his play in today’s pro-am was any indication, Scott has found a way to maintain his Master’s form.  He seemed to be enjoying himself after taking a couple of days off following Sunday’s exciting finish:

It’s certainly a big  let down I think mentally or emotionally after any Major… So… like I said, it was important for me to have a couple of days where I did not do much…

The most noticeable change in Scott’s game has been the switch to a long putter, which he used to great effect at Augusta.  For the time being, the long putter will remain in the bag:

Certainly the four times I’ve used it I’ve putted well so for now, yeah, it’s in.

If he keeps playing this well with the long putter, I suspect that we’ll be seeing a lot more of them showing up at bag drops all over the country.

While Scott certainly seems like a strong pick to win this week, there are a number of other players who will have something to say about that.  2011 event winners Jhonattan Vegas and Martin Laird are in the field.  Geoff Ogilvy is coming off of a strong finish at Augusta, as is Bo Van Pelt, who made 2 eagles on the back nine Sunday.  And don’t forget San Antonio native, Jimmy Walker, who already has 3 top-10′s this year.

But clearly Scott isn’t deterred:

[I'm] looking forward to getting out there and geting those good feeling happening again from last year and also carrying on the good feelings I had going on the golf course last week.

As you’re reading this, I’m on a plane back to my home state of Texas to attend the Valero Texas Open.  For those of you that don’t know, I love any excuse I can use to go down to San Antonio because my family’s ranch is just outside of town.

Adam Scott is the defending champion, and with his strong performance at the Masters, he’s definitely a favorite to do well again here this week.  The course/resort itself is absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to get out there Wednesday morning.

So keep checking in all this week for updates and interesting tidbits from San Antonio.

[Image Flickr/Will Norris]