Adam Scott, Brendan Steele, Martin Laird, Charley Hoffman, Kevin Chappell, Andrew Landry, Corey Conners. Seven Valero Texas Open champions, all at TPC San Antonio, and a collective who tell us so much about the formula for this Greg Norman-designed course, one we haven't seen for almost exactly two years now.

At least three of those names — Scott, Chappell and Conners — are associated with horrible putting, but it's the flip side that explains why they've enjoyed sustained success on the PGA Tour. Just like the others, they're quality ball-strikers and, in particular, they drive the ball brilliantly. I don't know as there's an active course on the roster, not now that Firestone and Doral have departed, which points us in a specific direction quite like San Antonio.

Maybe that's because Norman was one of the finest drivers there ever was, and so has been his consultant on this project, Sergio Garcia. Maybe it's a coincidence. But one way or another, the roll-of-honour here, plus names like Trey Mullinax, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy in the runners-up column, is explicit.

Conners was the eighth-best driver on the circuit during the year of his win, the fact he triumphed as a Monday qualifier without full status underlining just how tilted his game was, and to some extent is, towards what he does off the tee. A year before him, Landry stands out as a top-third-on-tour driver despite below-average distance, and had Mullinax held his nerve, the 19th-ranked driver would've won. Chappell was 30th, one place better than Hoffman, one worse than Laird. Scott was 20th in 2010 and spent the next seven or eight years as one of the best around.

It's worth saying that the details of victories for this group support the theory. Conners ranked fourth off the tee and first in approaches in beating Hoffman by two, both of them hitting the ball to an incredible standard and getting by with their short-games. Conners gained a total of 16.5 strokes on the field, and almost 15 of those came before he started chipping and putting. Landry, who also led in strokes-gained approach, happened upon one of those killer weeks with the putter, but it wasn't decisive in his victory over Mullinax, who led the field in that department.

Chappell? Same: outstanding approaches and off the tee, moderate around the greens, decent on them. And then there's the most surprising winner here, one not yet mentioned. Steven Bowditch was the 64th-ranked putter out of 71 players when he took this title, although his anomalous around-the-green stats and some kind of movement in the force are the only things that really explain that. Still, another winner who hit it far and didn't really make much.

This trip down memory lane is a bit much, isn't it, but it has been a couple of years since Conners donned the cowboy boots, and I do only have one preview to write this week. More to the point, we can count ourselves a little unfortunate if the formula has changed in the interim. Here, in the Texas desert, the very best ball-strikers are at an enormous advantage, and with that made clear it might be a good event for a bet.

I had hoped for many weeks that Will Zalatoris would realise all this, and how good a chance this would be for a PGA Tour breakthrough like those won by the champions of 2017, 2018 and 2019, but he's a surprise absentee, and at the top of the market is a surprise entrant. Dustin Johnson, down the driving rankings but plainly among the best there's ever been when firing, comes here after an early exit at the Match Play in a sign that he feels a fraction short of Augusta-winning form.

Given that he's defending next week, I really do think it's a concern that Johnson feels the need to return to a course where he was sixth in a windy 2015 edition. Nevertheless, he's seldom all that far away and isn't one to turn down an opportunity. On the eve of the last Masters he was second in Houston, looking every inch the winner for much of the week, and he's a bigger price now than he was a few weeks ago for stronger events.

But it's Johnson's driving which is behind his dip in form and for that reason I'll look beyond him to one of those maidens who is playing at the right course, perhaps even at the right time. Step forward CAMERON DAVIS at 55/1.

Davis's last outing, at the Honda Classic, demonstrated what he's about and why San Antonio will be a good fit for him. He ranked eighth off the tee and 13th with his approach shots but, not for the first time lately, some clumsiness around the greens combined with the nature of that penal course saw him finish in the middle of the pack.

Nevertheless, it was an encouraging return to form from a player who was third in The American Express back in January. That's another desert event, it was won by past play-off loser Landry in 2020, and looks a decent pointer. Certainly, it's a better form guide than Davis's sole start here, when he missed the cut on the number at a time when he was best described as an out-of-form rookie.

Two years down the line and this sweet swinger has had a few looks and, having won the Australian Open and on the Korn Ferry Tour, he should be ready to stand up tall when next granted an opportunity, just as he did in California in fairness. That's the second time this season he's had a chance, and there was clear improvement from the first. Third time lucky could be the call come Sunday.