{"id":226505,"date":"2026-03-30T04:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T04:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/226505\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T04:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T04:18:25","slug":"last-stop-before-the-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/226505\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Stop Before the Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">Gary Woodland punched his ticket to Augusta National with a win at the Texas Children\u2019s Houston Open. Might someone else do the same this week?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">That\u2019s the biggest carrot up for grabs this week at the Valero Texas Open (well, besides a two-year exemption and $1,764,000), for players not already exempt for the season\u2019s first major\u2014which would be the majority of the 132 players in the field.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">A handful of the best players in the world are scheduled to compete, including world No. 4 Tommy Fleetwood, No. 8 Collin Morikawa (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/collin-morikawa-back-feels-positive-eyes-return-ahead-masters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">competing for the first time since withdrawing one hole into the Players Championship<\/a>) and No. 18 Ludvig \u00c5berg (who was last seen losing the Players down the stretch). Russell Henley, Sepp Straka, former champion J.J. Spaun and Alex Noren are also top-20 players on the field list.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">Brian Harman is the defending champion at TPC San Antonio, a 7,438-yard par-72 that can play difficult in the Texas winds. There have been 20 under winners (Corey Conners 2019, Akshay Bhatia 2024) but also 9 under winning scores like Harman\u2019s last year.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">The Texas Open is the third oldest event on the PGA Tour and the longest played in the same city.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>2026 Valero Texas Open Full Field<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">132 players<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">\u00c5berg, Ludvig<\/p>\n<p>Bauchou, Zach<\/p>\n<p>Berger, Daniel<\/p>\n<p>Bezuidenhout, Christiaan<\/p>\n<p>Blanchet, Chandler<\/p>\n<p>Brown, Dan<\/p>\n<p>Burgoon, Bronson<\/p>\n<p>Campos, Rafael<\/p>\n<p>Castillo, Ricky<\/p>\n<p>Cauley, Bud<\/p>\n<p>Chatfield, Davis<\/p>\n<p>Clanton, Luke<\/p>\n<p>Cole, Eric<\/p>\n<p>Coody, Pierceson<\/p>\n<p>Dou, Zecheng<\/p>\n<p>Dumont de Chassart, Adrien<\/p>\n<p>Dunlap, Nick<\/p>\n<p>Eckroat, Austin<\/p>\n<p>Ewart, A.J.<\/p>\n<p>Finau, Tony<\/p>\n<p>Fishburn, Patrick<\/p>\n<p>Fisk, Steven<\/p>\n<p>Fleetwood, Tommy<\/p>\n<p>Ford, David<\/p>\n<p>Fowler, Rickie<\/p>\n<p>Garnett, Brice<\/p>\n<p>Ghim, Doug<\/p>\n<p>Glover, Lucas<\/p>\n<p>Grillo, Emiliano<\/p>\n<p>Harman, Brian<\/p>\n<p>Henley, Russell<\/p>\n<p>Higgo, Garrick<\/p>\n<p>Highsmith, Joe<\/p>\n<p>Hirata, Kensei<\/p>\n<p>Hisatsune, Ryo<\/p>\n<p>Hodges, Lee<\/p>\n<p>Hoey, Rico<\/p>\n<p>Hoffman, Charley<\/p>\n<p>Hoge, Tom<\/p>\n<p>H\u00f8jgaard, Nicolai<\/p>\n<p>Homa, Max<\/p>\n<p>Horschel, Billy<\/p>\n<p>Hossler, Beau<\/p>\n<p>Hubbard, Mark<\/p>\n<p>Hughes, Mackenzie<\/p>\n<p>Jaeger, Stephan<\/p>\n<p>Kanaya, Takumi<\/p>\n<p>Kang, Jeffrey<\/p>\n<p>Keefer, Johnny<\/p>\n<p>Kim, Michael<\/p>\n<p>Kim, S.H.<\/p>\n<p>Kim, Si Woo<\/p>\n<p>Kim, Tom<\/p>\n<p>Kirk, Chris<\/p>\n<p>Kizzire, Patton<\/p>\n<p>Kuchar, Matt<\/p>\n<p>Lamprecht, Christo<\/p>\n<p>Lebioda, Hank<\/p>\n<p>Lee, K.H.<\/p>\n<p>Li, Haotong<\/p>\n<p>Lipsky, David<\/p>\n<p>Lower, Justin<\/p>\n<p>MacIntyre, Robert<\/p>\n<p>Malnati, Peter<\/p>\n<p>Matsuyama, Hideki<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy, Denny<\/p>\n<p>McCarty, Matt<\/p>\n<p>McGreevy, Max<\/p>\n<p>McNealy, Maverick<\/p>\n<p>Meissner, Mac<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell, Keith<\/p>\n<p>Moore, Taylor<\/p>\n<p>Morikawa, Collin<\/p>\n<p>Mouw, William<\/p>\n<p>Noren, Alex<\/p>\n<p>Novak, Andrew<\/p>\n<p>Nyholm, Pontus<\/p>\n<p>Olesen, Thorbj\u00f8rn<\/p>\n<p>Palmer, Ryan +<\/p>\n<p>Parry, John<\/p>\n<p>Pavon, Matthieu<\/p>\n<p>Penge, Marco<\/p>\n<p>Phillips, Chandler<\/p>\n<p>Poston, J.T.<\/p>\n<p>Power, Seamus<\/p>\n<p>Putnam, Andrew<\/p>\n<p>Ramey, Chad<\/p>\n<p>Reitan, Kristoffer<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers, Patrick<\/p>\n<p>Roy, Kevin<\/p>\n<p>Rozo, Marcelo<\/p>\n<p>Saddier, Adrien<\/p>\n<p>Sargent, Gordon<\/p>\n<p>Schenk, Adam<\/p>\n<p>Schmid, Matti<\/p>\n<p>Shipley, Neal<\/p>\n<p>Simpson, Webb<\/p>\n<p>Smalley, Alex<\/p>\n<p>Smith, Jordan<\/p>\n<p>Smotherman, Austin<\/p>\n<p>Snedeker, Brandt +<\/p>\n<p>Spaun, J.J.<\/p>\n<p>Spieth, Jordan<\/p>\n<p>Stanger, Jimmy<\/p>\n<p>Straka, Sepp<\/p>\n<p>Streelman, Kevin<\/p>\n<p>Svensson, Adam<\/p>\n<p>Svensson, Jesper<\/p>\n<p>Taylor, Nick<\/p>\n<p>Thompson, Davis<\/p>\n<p>Thorbjornsen, Michael<\/p>\n<p>Todd, Brendon<\/p>\n<p>Tosti, Alejandro<\/p>\n<p>Valimaki, Sami<\/p>\n<p>van Rooyen, Erik<\/p>\n<p>VanDerLaan, John<\/p>\n<p>Vegas, Jhonattan<\/p>\n<p>Ventura, Kris<\/p>\n<p>Vilips, Karl<\/p>\n<p>Villegas, Camilo +<\/p>\n<p>Walker, Danny<\/p>\n<p>Walker, Jimmy +<\/p>\n<p>Wallace, Matt<\/p>\n<p>Waring, Paul<\/p>\n<p>Whaley, Vince<\/p>\n<p>Woodland, Gary<\/p>\n<p>Wu, Dylan<\/p>\n<p>Wylie, Austin #<\/p>\n<p>Yellamaraju, Sudarshan<\/p>\n<p>Yu, Kevin<\/p>\n<p>Zalatoris, Will<\/p>\n<p>+ &#8211; Sponsor exemption<br \/># &#8211; Section champion <\/p>\n<p>More Golf from Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gary Woodland punched his ticket to Augusta National with a win at the Texas Children\u2019s Houston Open. Might&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-226505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}