April 1, 2026

Welcome to the twentieth edition of The Tee Sheet - your weekly read on what matters in the world of golf right now.

Gary Woodland just delivered one of the most emotional wins in recent PGA Tour history, running away with the Houston Open two and a half years after brain surgery and seven years since his last win. We've got the full breakdown below.

Meanwhile, the Tour stays in Texas this week for the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio — the final stop before Augusta, with the strongest field the event has seen in years and a Masters invitation still on the line for the winner.

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Let’s dive in!

Tourney Recap

Gary Woodland announced himself early at the Houston Open. A first-round 64 put him two off the lead after Thursday, then a 63 on Friday gave him the outright lead at 13-under, three clear of Nicolai Højgaard and Jackson Suber. Woodland hadn't held a 36-hole lead since his 2019 U.S. Open victory at Pebble Beach. He kept pressing on Saturday with a 65, trading birdies with Højgaard down the stretch, but Woodland's lead held at one heading into Sunday.

Højgaard's back-to-back rounds of 62-63 on Friday/Saturday were the best consecutive efforts in the tournament's 78-year history, and with Min Woo Lee and Michael Thorbjornsen sitting five back at 12-under, it looked like a two-man fight.

It wasn't, really. Højgaard bogeyed the first hole Sunday, then made double on the par-3 seventh, and it never got very close from that point on. Woodland, meanwhile, was flawless on the front — a bogey-free 31 — stretching his lead to six shots before the turn. He played the back nine conservatively at one over and it didn't matter. Woodland closed with a 67 to finish at 21-under 259, a tournament record at Memorial Park, winning by five over Højgaard.

The meaning is hard to overstate. Woodland, 41, had brain surgery in September 2023 to remove a lesion and has been battling PTSD since — something he revealed publicly in an emotional Golf Channel interview just two weeks prior to this tournament. He missed 11 cuts in 2024, started 2026 missing four of his first six weekends, and needed a win this week just to qualify for the Masters. He got it — his fifth career PGA Tour title, a move to No. 51 in the world rankings, 500 FedExCup points, and an invitation to Augusta in two weeks.

Seven years between wins. Thirty months since brain surgery. Two weeks since telling the world about his fight. And now, back to Augusta.

Johnny Keefer — last year's Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year — fired a closing 64 to tie for third with defending champion Min Woo Lee at 15-under. Sam Stevens finished fifth at 14-under, while Jake Knapp (who shot 62 on Sunday), Chris Gotterup, Sudarshan Yellamaraju (back from his excellent showing at The Players), and Jason Day shared sixth at 13-under.

For most of its existence, the Valero Texas Open had a problem: the best players in the world would skip it. Too close to the Masters, not enough incentive to grind in San Antonio when Augusta was seven days away.

But things have changed! With the WGC-Match Play in Austin gone from the schedule since 2023, the Texas swing funneled its star power into fewer stops — and the Valero is a beneficiary. This week's field at TPC San Antonio includes almost half of the OWGR Top 20 (detailed below).

The $9.8 million purse and 500 FedExCup points help, but the real draw is timing: this is the last competitive round anyone will play before the Masters, and a win by someone not already exempt is an automatic trip to Augusta.

It's the third-oldest event on the PGA Tour and the oldest professional tournament to have been held in the same city for its entire existence. Palmer won it three straight years. The event nearly died in 2001 when it lost its sponsor and needed a bailout from the Tour to survive, before Valero Energy stepped in and revived it.

For TPC San Antonio, tree-lined corridors, 64 bunkers, and relentless Hill Country wind hold the fairway hit rate well below the Tour average. Three of the four par 5s stretch past 591 yards, taking most eagle opportunities off the table and making wedge play the separator. When the wind picks up this is one of the ten toughest courses to par on Tour. The 54-hole leader has converted nine times since the event moved here in 2010. Front-runners tend to hold up.

Tommy Fleetwood (No. 4 in the world) headlines the top of the field. Hideki Matsuyama is making his sixth straight start here, with a best of T7 in 2024. J.J. Spaun, the 2022 Valero champion and reigning U.S. Open winner, has course history working in his favor. Ludvig Åberg, who lost The Players down the stretch, gets a chance to quiet that noise. Collin Morikawa was a late WD due to his back injury suffered during The Players - one to monitor as we near Augusta.

Last year, Brian Harman won the 2025 Valero at 9-under 279 — closing with a 3-over 75, the highest final-round score by a winner all season — in conditions that turned TPC San Antonio into a survival test. Harman returns to defend.

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What a week in Houston. Woodland's win is one you don't forget. An early frontrunner for a top moment this season, sometimes the Tour gives you exactly the story you didn't know you needed.

Now we're in San Antonio, next week we're at Augusta. The season has arrived at the part of the calendar where everything sharpens. Still a few guys fighting for a ticket to Georgia this week.

We'll be back next week with the Valero recap and a full Masters preview. It's almost time.

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See you next week (for The Masters…)