Does Golf's Field Of Dreams Lie In The Hills Of San Antonio?

Now, before you start checking your watch or pinching yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming or in some kind of time warp, it’s OK.

It is indeed May 14, 2009 and Paul Goydos is the co-leader of the Valero Texas Open with David Duval, Lee Janzen, and Cory Pavin all in the mix.

The Texas Open dates back to 1922 and is one of the oldest events still on the PGA Tour’s schedule.

Walter Hagan, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino are just a few of the names that appear on the long and very distinguished list of past Texas Open champions.

As you’d expected, over the past 87 years new tournaments have emerged, schedule changes have occurred and the Texas Open is not the same big time event it once was.

In 2007 and 2008, the Valero Texas Open was part of the PGA Tour’s Fall Series, which, needless to say, did not help in drawing the high quality fields the tournament had grown accustomed to over the years.

With the loss of the AT&T Classic in Atlanta this year, the PGA tour had a gap in their schedule and the Valero Texas Open was the obvious choice to move into that slot and become part of the regular season race for the FedEx Cup.

Positioned the week after the Players Championship on the schedule, the Valero Texas Open will still have trouble attracting many of the top players in the world who are both physically and mentally drained after what many consider to be golf’s fifth major.

That being said, the Valero Texas Open might have a new marketing ploy they can use to attract fans and some big name players.

In recent years, the Valero Texas Open could be considered golf’s version of a field of dreams.

Struggling players come to San Antonio and regain their game while older players come to experience the glory of a PGA Tour win one last time.

In 2002, Loren Roberts came to the Valero Texas Open having not won a PGA Tour event in more than two years.

Roberts came out of nowhere to shoot 19-under-par for the tournament, which included a final round score of 64 and gave Roberts his eighth and final PGA Tour win.

In 2003, at the age of 44, Tommy Armour III had not won a PGA Tour event since the Phoenix Open almost 14 years earlier.  

Armour did not shoot higher than 65 all week at the 2003 Valero Texas Open and wound up running away with the tournament by a margin of seven strokes.

Bart Bryant turned pro all the way back in 1986 and has spent much of his career up-and-down between the Nationwide and PGA Tours.

In 2004, Bryant shot a 60 in the third round of the Valero Texas Open en-route to his first PGA Tour victory in 18 years as a pro.

Bryant’s win at the 2004 Valero Texas Open wound up being a major stepping stone for him as he went on to win the Memorial Tournament and the Tour Championship the following year.

The last two years have seen Justin Leonard and Zack Johnson regain their games and use their wins in San Antonio as a stepping stone to success the follow year.

Leonard had been struggling with his game and had not won on the PGA Tour in more than two years prior to the 2007 Valero Texas Open.

Leonard, a native of Texas, carded four straight rounds in the 60’s, re-found his game and captured his third Texas Open win in 2007.

Leonard used his win at the 2007 Texas Open as a stepping stone to success in 2008 where he finished 10th on the tour’s money list, eighth in FedEx Cup points and earned his way onto the victorious American Ryder Cup team.

Johnson has followed a very similar path since his win at the 2008 Texas Open.

Prior to the 2008 Texas Open, Johnson hadn’t won since May of 2007 and had finished within the top-10 at just one event in during the 2008 season.

Like Leonard the previous year, Johnson re-found his game in San Antonio, won the Texas Open and hasn’t looked back since.

So far in 2009, Johnson has a win, three top-10 finishes and is currently ranked 8th on the tour’s money list.

That brings us to 2009, where the first round leader is Paul Goydos at seven-under par and the likes of Lee Janzen, David Duval and Corey Pavin are just three strokes behind him.

Obviously there is a lot of golf yet to be played and names are bound to jump up and down the leader board over the next three days.

But, if Goydos can continue to play well and somehow win this week, or if a player such as Lee Janzen, David Duval or Corey Pavin can leave San Antonio with a win this week, the Valero Texas Open might reach mythical proportions as a place where golfers can go to re-find their games and experience the joy of victory one last time.

Just maybe, golf’s field of dreams lies in the hills of San Antonio.