The last-chance saloon, in effect, comes for Séamus Power and also Pádraig Harrington in terms of getting a late, prized exemption into the Masters. As of now, 94 players have earned their places in next week’s field and the final spot will go to the winner of the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, only if the winner is not already exempt.
So, a case of win or bust.
Power’s missed cut in the Houston Open also impacted on his bid to get into the Aon Swing 5, a mini-order of merit that runs through to this week’s tour stop, where the leading five players will earn places in the Heritage Classic at Harbour Town, a Signature event on the PGA Tour, the week after the Masters. If Power doesn’t manage to gatecrash his way into that field, then Plan B – a trip to the Dominican Republic – will come into play.
Harrington – who has not played in the Masters since 2022, having earned his place following a tied-fourth finish in the previous year’s US PGA Championship – is playing on a sponsor’s invitation in the Texas Open.
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While Power and Harrington headed to San Antonio, Rory McIlroy departed Houston for home in Florida for a week’s work with coach Michael Bannon.
McIlroy admitted to some issue with his right elbow without seeming unduly concerned that it affect his build-up to the Masters. “I’ll get some treatment on that and make sure that that’s okay going into Augusta,” said the world number two, who believed the time spent on the range with Bannon this week will get his game fully tuned.
As he put it, “I still don’t think like my game is absolutely 100 per cent under the control I would want.”
McIlroy’s form this season has produced two wins (in the AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am and The Players), and the decision to add the Houston Open on to his scheduling – where he came from outside the cutline late in his second round on Friday with three birdies in his final four holes to survive into the weekend) ultimately proved a wise one as he moved up the leaderboard to finish tied-fifth behind winner Min Woo Lee.
What is interesting, though, is that McIlroy has continued to tweak equipment. On Saturday after his third round, he decided to do a “little tweak” to his driver to reduce spin so that tee shots would get through the wind better.
As for making the most of his time with coach Bannon in Florida before heading on to Augusta, McIlroy admitted much of it would be focused on the short game: “Obviously short game’s really, really important around Augusta as well. You know, work on those things over the next few days and hopefully I’m feeling good going in there ... I think my short game’s been very good [this year] and I’ve been able to scramble well when I’ve needed to.
“And my ability to sort of hit little knockdown shots. I feel like it’s been quite a windy year, I feel like there’s been quite a lot of wind when we’ve played, so my ability to hit those little three-quarter shots is definitely better than it has been and that’s been a big factor to why I’ve performed pretty consistently.”
While McIlroy and Shane Lowry do the prep work this week ahead of Augusta, one Irish player will get to the famed course ahead of them: Beth Coulter is one of 72 players competing in this week’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship, which features two rounds of strokeplay at Champions Retreat with the top-30 players and ties advancing to Saturday’s final round at Augusta National. All 72 players get to play a practice round on the Masters course on Friday.
Leona Maguire, meanwhile, is the only Irish player in the field at the T Mobile Match Play championship in Las Vegas. The Cavan golfer finished runner-up to world number one Nelly Korda in last year’s event.
So far this season, Maguire has not missed a cut – in six tournaments – but has managed only one top-10, in the season-opening Tournament of Champions.
On the Ladies European Tour, there are three Irish players – Lauren Walsh, Annabel Wilson and Sara Byrne – competing in the JoBurg Open in South Africa.
