Last week on the PGA Tour, Augusta National came out with a first time winner by the name of Charl Schwartzel. This week, the Valero Texas Open and TPC San Antonio revealed to us another young first time winner. Californian Brendan Steele took home this week's title in the tough winds at a relatively low score of -8. The 28 year-old UC Riverside alum headed into the final round with a one-shot lead over fellow rookie Kevin Chappell and managed to hang on by one. He holed about a 5-footer for par to take home the trophy and stand above the rest on this day. Scoring was clearly not easy on this weekend, with stars Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy unable to make charges, with them shooting 76 (Adam) and 73 (Geoff) each. Birdies came at a premium and parring most of the holes meant you were playing well with the very disruptive wind. Steele picked up a cool 1.1 million for this gutsy victory. He also will receive invitations to the upcoming Players Championship, next year's season-starting Tournament of Champions, and the 2012 Masters as well. His total score of 280 is the lowest it has been since 1934, when the final score in that tournament was 283. Before this win, Steele's best finish on the PGA Tour was a 17th place finish at the Farmer's Insurance Open back in February, so it was clear that he was in good form this week. Now we will wait and see he can continue to ride this success the rest of the season, and possibly see if any of his fellow rookies can come up with a win to fight him for the chance to win PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.
Highlights of the final round are posted below. Until next week, take care! And watch out for an upcoming special edition of an HTWD Range Session blog, as well as our Wednesday picks of the week for The Heritage...
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