The Valero Texas Open finally has a coveted slot on the PGA Tour spring calendar.

Now the historic tournament will work on bringing in some coveted players.

Tony Piazzi, head of Golf San Antonio, confirmed Monday that the event will shift from its current October spot to May 14-17 in 2009, out of the lightly regarded Fall Series and into the high-profile FedEx Cup points chase.

While the PGA Tour has not unveiled its complete schedule for next season, Piazzi will officially announce the Texas Open move today at a sponsor outing at La Cantera Resort.

“We're absolutely thrilled,” Piazzi said. “This is fun.”

The fun may be just beginning.

The San Antonio stop, which raked in a PGA Tour-record $8.4 million in charity dollars in 2007, will be held Oct. 9-12 this year at the Resort Course at La Cantera, then again seven months later on the same site. In 2010, the Texas Open will relocate to the AT&T Oaks Course at the TPC complex under construction in far north Bexar County.

The tournament, part of the PGA Tour since 1922, will hike its purse from $4.5 million to $6.1 million as the kickoff of a “Texas Swing” that also will include, in successive weeks in May, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship in Irving and the Crowne Plaza Invitational in Fort Worth.

Additionally, the Texas Open will shift from being televised exclusively on cable by the Golf Channel to being picked up by CBS-TV for its weekend rounds.

Austin's Joe Ogilvie, one of four players on the tour's nine-member policy board, said the move pays immediate dividends.

“I can guarantee you that Tiger Woods is not going to play in the Fall Series,” said Ogilvie, who has two top-20 finishes in eight appearances at the Texas Open. “But I can also guarantee you that Tiger Woods is going to play a lot of FedEx Cup tournaments next year. It's just a question of when.

“You don't know, heck, San Antonio could be his first week back next year.”

Piazzi would be pleased to entice the superstar Woods, currently recuperating from knee surgery, back to the Resort Course at La Cantera for the first time since 1996. But in the meantime, he'd be satisfied with simply ratcheting up the quality of his field with mere stars.

Last year's Open, which featured a scintillating final-round battle between eventual winner Justin Leonard and Jesper Parnevik, attracted only one player ranked in the top 50 of the world rankings.

La Cantera is considered a rugged walk for golfers, caddies and fans, but players and officials say the prospect of higher pay, better exposure, the FedEx Cup points and the ballyhooed Greg Norman-designed TPC layout may hike San Antonio's profile quickly.

“It's spectacular,” said tour veteran Cameron Beckman, a San Antonio resident. “It's going to be awesome, especially when the new course opens. You just can't do any better.”

Valero Energy Corp., which has signed on as title sponsor for the Texas Open through 2012, is counting on it. The company, which salvaged the floundering tournament in 2002, sees the expansion of the event as working in concert with its own plans for increasing nationwide exposure.

“The reason we sponsored the tournament to begin with,” Valero spokesman Bill Day said, “was because we are expanding our brand across the country.”

In late May, the tour announced the demise of the AT&T Classic, which has occupied the same May slot the Texas Open will own in 2009. The financially troubled tournament dropped off the tour when AT&T announced earlier this year that it was pulling its sponsorship.

In accepting a move two years ago from September into a Fall Series berth in October, Valero Texas Open officials had negotiated a contract with PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem that guaranteed the San Antonio stop a spring date when it became available.

“Something opened up,” said Gene Edwards, Valero's senior vice president for business development, “and it was a great fit for us and them.”

Ogilvie, who as part of the policy board was in on the discussion regarding the Texas Open, said the true catalyst was not the construction of the TPC complex, to be managed by the PGA Tour, but the event's amazing fundraising muscle.

Since Valero's arrival as sponsor, the Texas Open has seen its charity haul go from $1.8 million in 2002 to more than $8 million. In that span, the event has generated nearly $30 million in fundraising.

“I think, first and foremost, it went from a tournament that really was on death's door to a tournament that raised $8.4 million last year,” Ogilvie said. “I can tell you that in board meetings, whenever you see a tournament that does it like that, it kind of gets your attention.”

As a result, the Texas Open will return to a spring date for the first time in roughly four decades. It will be situated a week after the $9.5 million Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass — but in the middle of the FedEx Cup scramble.