The first quarter of the golf year has been a wild ride, punctuated by a bonkers Players Championship a few weeks ago that included a Monday finish and a new world No. 1 in Scottie Scheffler that seemed to come out of nowhere. With the Masters on deck next week, all of that comes to an end this week in San Antonio with the last opportunity for somebody to receive an invite to Augusta National and the first major of the year. While much of the golf world is already dreaming about pimiento cheese and the second nine at Augusta National, this event remains both surprisingly strong — see the field below — as well as a great intro into the big one next weekend.
Let’s take a closer look at this week’s contest with odds provided via Caesars Sportsbook.
Event information
Event: Texas Open | Dates: March 31 – April 3
Location: TPC San Antonio – San Antonio, Texas
Par: 72 | Purse: $8.6 million
Three things to know
1. State of Rory’s game (and Spieth’s): After skipping the WGC-Dell Match Play last week, Rory McIlroy will play just his fourth PGA Tour event so far this year. His game has been low-key pretty good so far, and his only appearance at this tournament (in 2013) resulted in a runner-up finish. He will obviously be a primary storyline next week when he goes for the career grand slam for the eighth time, and this week — especially in terms of how he hits his shorter irons — will be a decent tell for what we could see at Augusta National. Spieth, too, will be intriguing. He’s the defending champion here and one of the top favorites for the Masters next week, but his game has fallen off a bit and he quietly has just one top 10 so far this season in nine worldwide starts. Will he straighten out an iron game that has plagued him, or will he go to a course next week that he has traditionally dominated with myriad question marks?
2. One final spot: Last week’s match play event offered several opportunities for players to play their way into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings and earn an invite to the Masters. This week, there’s only one spot available, and it goes to the winner of the event (if he’s not already in the Masters). Richard Bland would be the best story of the bunch. He played his way into the Round of 16 at Austin Country Club a week ago and needed just one more win to jump into the top 50. Instead, he lost to Dustin Johnson, is ranked No. 53 and now needs to win at TPC San Antonio to get an invite to the first Masters of his career.
3. Back-to-back Bryson: We saw Bryson DeChambeau last week on the PGA Tour for the first time since the end of January, and he did not look sharp. However, it’s always difficult to parse through some of the nuance of match play, so this week should provide better foreshadowing for what we’re getting at Augusta National. This is not a tournament DeChambeau traditionally plays, which indicates that he’s also concerned about getting some reps in ahead of the Masters. While I’m dubious that somebody who has been struggling with multiple injuries can win at a golf course next week that he has historically struggled at, like McIlroy and Spieth this week, this will likely be telling for where his game is at.
Grading the field
The field strength doesn’t look great, but its rife with major winners, including Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley, McIlroy, Spieth and DeChambeau. Tony Finau, Abraham Ancer and Corey Conners will also be there to get some last-minute Masters prep work in, and all of those names, combined with the golfers vying for that last Augusta spot, should make for a tremendous tournament. Grade: A
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