1. Dealing with back woes
Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but back issues seem to be at the forefront of many golfer problems these days.
Jason Day just won the WGC-Match Play after nearly withdrawing due to the bulging disk in his back; Tiger Woods is still on hiatus after a third back surgery last fall; Nick Watney announced last week he is taking the rest of the year off to deal with his back problems.
And then there is Louis Oosthuizen. The South African who won the 2010 Open, lost in a Masters playoff in 2012 as well as an Open playoff last year and was runner-up at last year's U.S. Open, has been dealing with disk issues for several years, specifically in 2013, when he withdrew from two majors and didn't play in a third.
To help with the issues, Oosthuizen travels with a mattress. He puts it on the truck each week that many tour players use to transport their clubs from site to site. "If it's a mattress at the hotel I'm not comfortable when, then I'll use my mattress," said Oosthuizen, who prefers a "quite firm" mattress.
Getting it in and out of the room each week can be interesting. "It's a big process," he said.
2. Daunting schedule
Despite his back problems, Oosthuizen is on an amazing run of tournaments heading into the Masters and including this week's Shell Houston Open. It started in Malaysia at the European Tour's Maybank Championship in February, where he tied for 12th.
From there, he went to Perth, Australia, where he won the Perth International. Then he flew all the way to Miami for the WGC-Cadillac Championship, where he tied for 14th, followed by a tie for seventh at the Valspar Championship. The only tournament he has missed in this stretch is the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which preceded his runner-up finish at the WGC-Dell Match Play. That's seven tournaments in eight weeks.
"I'm pushing to see how my back is doing," he said. "I'm feeling great and I'm doing the stuff I need to do, I want to play. If I'm playing well, I want to play more events. So I'm forgetting about the past with injuries and just trying to push forward."
3. Masters prep
The top three players in the world are taking a different approach to preparing for the Masters. Day plans to arrive in Augusta on Thursday and play practice rounds through the weekend; No. 2 Jordan Spieth is playing the Shell Houston Open. And No. 3 Rory McIlroy is at his home in Florida, and won't arrive at Augusta until Sunday night.
There are 33 players in the Houston field who are playing in the Masters. That means 111 players have the final chance to get to Augusta by winning.
4. Welcome back
After five years away, Davis Love III is returning to Augusta National and the Masters. At 51, he made it back by winning the Wyndham Championship in August. Love, who twice finished second, said he has resisted the urge to go back just to attend the tournament -- he could have played the Par-3 Contest as a past major winner.
"It's disappointing not to get in, and to go there might make it worse," Love said. ""I'm walking 18 holes going, I can hit it like that, why aren't I playing a tournament this week? So going to the Masters would have been tough. Now down the road, I'd love to be invited and hang out under the tree and see guys. But I didn't have any interest in going recently."
But there is no question he missed the tournament.
"Oh, God yeah," he said. "I always say at the beginning of the week that I'm not going to watch the Masters. It's not going to be fun for me to watch it. Then on Sunday afternoon I'm always watching it, it's so cool to see the end of it. It's definitely disappointing. And it's a big thrill to get to go back."
6. Invited, won't attend
Sang-moon Bae is eligible to compete in the Masters because he finished among the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings last season. But he won't be at Augusta National because of a mandatory military commitment in South Korea. Bae, 29, had tried to postpone it, but a court ruling in his native country required him to return at the end of last year.
K.J. Choi knows all about it. Choi, 45, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, served his 21-month military stint prior to his golfing career taking off.
"It's really unfortunate that he needs to do this while he is on tour," Choi said. "But if you are born a Korean, it is obviously mandatory. His responsibility is to do the service as a Korean man. It's not an issue. It's something he needs to complete."
Choi said he has a foundation in South Korea at which he stresses to boys to fulfill their obligation as quickly as they can. "I believe that hurt him," Choi said of Bae. "It is better to go early and get it out of the way."
Bae will be serving well into 2017, which means he will miss the Masters twice -- although the PGA Tour will grant him a temporary exemption when he returns. Choi would like to see the Masters grant Bae one of its international invitations if he is not eligible otherwise. "I really hope that can happen," he said.
7. No problems after Match Play
Austin ain't so bad #thanksmrabdmrscrenshaw #captainrick pic.twitter.com/CkOJpSRnG3
— Jordan Spieth (@JordanSpieth) March 26, 2016
Spieth wasn't pleased with being eliminated from the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship on Saturday morning, losing to Oosthuizen in the round of 16. But he seemed to get over it rather quickly, as he tweeted later in the day. Rickie Fowler was along as well.
8. Finchem's finale
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said he has a few projects he would like to complete but that he likely will step down by the end of the year, even though his contract was renewed until June 1, 2017. Finchem, 68, has presided over the PGA Tour since 1994, and took over for Deane Beman, who had been in the job for 20 years. A former tour player, Beman set up the non-for-profit tournament model that exists today; Finchem sought to enrich the players. And he did. Among many accolades -- and there are negatives, too -- Finchem might best be remembered for weathering the financial storm of 2007-09. The PGA Tour didn't lose tournaments; if it lost sponsors, it replaced them. Players actually saw an increase in purses.
9. Management change
Buried in the announcement that the Tiger Woods Foundation is taking over running the PGA Tour event at Riviera was some news that the PGA Tour's management arm, Championship Management, will take over the Deutsche Bank Championship in 2017. That there will even be a 2017 tournament is interesting in that Deutsche Bank's sponsorship is set to end after this year. The PGA Tour will apparently look for a stopgap to keep the event for another year, per the FedEx Cup contract. Then there exists the strong possibility that the playoff system will be reduced from four events to three.