Valero Open begins in San Antonio
J.J. Henry and Stewart Cink are tied for the first round lead at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio. Henry and Cink each shot a 5-under-par 67 to open the event.
Cink is making his first start at the Valero Texas Open since 2003. He has three top 20s in four previous starts in San Antonio.
Henry is looking for his 11th consecutive made cut of the season this week. Henry’s last missed cut was his last event of 2010 at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Steve Stricker leads the TOUR with 30 consecutive made cuts.
Charley Hoffman, Jhonattan Vegas, Vaughn Taylor, Kevin Chappell, and Adam Scott are tied at -4.
Hoffman is looking for his first top 10 of the season. He has made eight of 11 cuts coming into this week. Hoffman has recorded an under-par score in 17 of his 21 rounds at the Valero Texas Open
Former University of Texas golfer Jhonattan Vegas is making his second start at the Valero Texas Open. Vegas made his professional debut here in 2008 after Monday Qualifying. He finished T35 with all four rounds in the 60s (69-67-69-69).
Adam Scott’s victory at the 2010 Valero Texas Open was his third career victory in the state of Texas, having previously won the 2007 Shell Houston Open and the 2008 HP Byron Nelson Championship. He joined Byron Nelson as the only players to win all three events. Last year, he became the first Australian to win the Valero Texas Open since Bruce Crampton in 1964 and the first international champion of the event since Nick Price in 1992. Since 1960, only Arnold Palmer (1960-1962), Justin Leonard (2000, 2001) and Zach Johnson (2008, 2009) have successfully defended a Valero Texas Open title.
Kevin Na recorded a 16 on the par-4 9th hole in the first-round. It is tied for the second highest score on a hole on TOUR since 1983. It is the highest score since 1983 on a par-4. Na’s only other bogey in the round was on his first hole of the day. He had five birdies on the day, three coming after the 9th hole.
The 2011 Valero Texas Open features five players that finished among the top 10 at the Masters Tournament: Adam Scott (T2), Geoff Ogilvy (T4), Angel Cabrera (7), Bo Van Pelt (T8) and Ryan Palmer (T10).
