To rest or not to rest. That's the decision those set to play The Masters must make when it comes to the two Texas stops on the PGA Tour calendar ahead of Augusta, those being the Texas Children's Houston Open and the Valero Texas Open.
While some choose not to visit the Lone Star State at all in order to rest up, others opt to play one or even both events with the goal of getting their game sharp going into the season's first major.
It's the latter that's more in play this year, as past PGA Tour winners and major champions have signed up to play one or both tourneys in what seems like record numbers.
For instance, this week's Houston Open field includes major winners Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, Jason Day, Zach Johnson, Danny Willett, Francesco Molinari, Gary Woodland, and Padraig Harrington.
In the up-and-comers and past winners group, we have Tony Finau, Thomas Detry, Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard (both winners in Europe), Austin Eckroat, Harris English, Maverick McNealy, Adam Hadwin, Jake Knapp, Si Woo Kim, Sungjae Im, Joel Dahmen, and Rickie Fowler.
That's some real firepower for a tourney that was yanked from the spring schedule in 2019 and moved to the fall. And just two years ago, the Houston Open wasn't even played as the PGA Tour was reconfiguring the calendar.
So getting such a strong field is nothing but a great thing for Houston, especially when that field features the top two players in the world.
Scheffler has been a frequent participant in this event already but perhaps was wanting some additional tournament reps after his season started late due to the hand injury he suffered in his kitchen on Christmas.
The world No. 1 firmly believes he's recovered 100 % from the accident and is thinking golf now—not can I still play golf.
“I think, with it being ryegrass in the fairways now, I think definitely improves the prep for The Masters. It's a similar grass to what we see at Augusta,” Scheffler explained. "It's also a big golf course. You've got to hit it far out here, so there is definitely some similarities and good preparation between here and Augusta.”
He said a good way to describe it was that he was getting numbers dialed in with his clubs, knowing precisely how far he hits each one with more certainty.
“I don't really think about missing any part of the season anymore,” he said. “Everything feels normal.”
Second-ranked McIlroy may be thinking ahead to Augusta, but that’s not what he said.
“It's not as if I'm playing here this week and thinking about two weeks' time. I'm here, I'm in the present, I'm trying to do my best this week and trying to win this golf tournament,” he explained.
Rory has been saying that he’s trying to be more like Scheffler, and that certainly sounds like something Scottie would say.
“I think it's generous, it's generous off the tee,” McIlroy said about Memorial Park. “Then second shots in, it really challenges you and challenges you to really think about where you want to place your ball after that.”
Sounds a lot like The Masters, really. And he would know, as he just did a reconnaissance trip to Augusta National.
McIlroy also mentioned wanting extra tournament reps and some of the things he has learned from playing alongside Scheffler.
“I think it's hard to not look at what Scottie's done the last couple years and not take notice and sort of try to dig in, OK, why has he been able to separate himself a little bit?” McIlroy questioned.
Perhaps that's the reason so many other high-profile players have joined Rory at Memorial Park this week. But whatever the reasons, the Houston Open is clearly getting a big boost from its spot on the schedule.