It’s not quite last chance saloon, but there is a lot on the line for several of the players teeing it up at this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open on the PGA Tour.
With the Masters a fortnight away, any player outside the top 50 in the OWGR who is not already exempt into the field at Augusta National will have to win the Valero Texas Open the week after to earn a last-minute invite to the year’s first major.
While Shane Lowry is already safely assured of his place in the Masters, Séamus Power is not and as he’s ranked 159th in the world coming into the event, even finishing solo second wouldn’t be enough to lift him into the top 50. So, the equation is simple for Power – he must win either this week or next, and as he was relying on a series of late withdrawals to earn a tee time in Houston, there is no guarantee that he’ll even get the chance at the Valero.
The odds of that are slim – he’s available at 200/1 and longer – but, with limited status on Tour this year, each FedEx Cup point is crucial so his focus will be on making the cut and pushing his way as high as possible.
For others though, the top 50 OWGR cutoff will be very much in focus.
While Rasmus Højgaard is safely in the Masters field, his brother Nicolai is not. Last year, they made history by becoming the first twins to play in the same Masters Tournament by virtue of a special exemption awarded to Nicolai who finished tied for 16th on debut in 2024. This year, Nicolai enters the Houston Open ranked 47th in the world and on course to earn another invitation, but six of the 10 players directly behind him in the rankings are also competing, including his brother.
It’s not outside the realms of possibility that Rasmus and three others could overtake him this week, in which case his twin would effectively be knocking him out of a third straight Masters appearance.
American Pierceson Coody arrives in Houston as the man projected to miss out by the narrowest of margins. Ranked 51st, he’s ahead of Adam Scott, Rasmus Højgaard, Michael Kim and Sami Valimaki, who occupy places 52 through 55 respectively, but they’ve already punched their tickets to Augusta, as have Sam Stevens, Andrew Novak and Kristoffer Reitan who rank 50-48.
Of the three directly ahead of him, only Novak is taking the week out, and both Scott and Rasmus are breathing down his neck so it’s likely that he’ll have a nervous Sunday afternoon regardless.
At 56 in the OWGR, Michael Thorbjornsen could easily lift himself inside the top 50 with a good week. As a 17-year-old, he made the cut in the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach having qualified by winning the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur, but has yet to make an appearance at the Masters. He came close to winning his first PGA Tour event at the WM Phoenix Open earlier this year but finished tied for third, and has missed just three cuts in his last 21 PGA Tour starts.
Rickie Fowler finished solo second to Patrick Reed in the 2018 Masters, and has two other top-10 finishes at Augusta National, but despite a steady climb up the world rankings in 2026 – he started the year ranked 83rd – he needs to climb another 11 places with this week’s performance. This means that the Californian will likely need to finish inside the top 10 to have any chance of making it to this year’s Masters, while a top-five finish would almost certainly see him make his 12th start at Augusta National.
Other notable names such as Sahith Theegala, Billy Horschel and Matt Wallace are in Power’s camp, and they too need to win one of the following two events to get to Augusta.
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