How to watch Sunday’s Valero Texas Open live online, TV schedule, radio and more

The PGA Tour hops to Texas this week for a quick two-week stay before the season’s first major at Augusta National. How to prep for the Masters varies from player to player. Some like to play a few events immediately preceding a major. Others prefer to have three or four weeks off, working on their game in a non-competitive environment.

Rory McIlroy, the world No. 1 and favorite at the 2015 Masters, decided to shut it down with the conclusion of the Florida swing. So he’ll be absent from Texas, a place he had played in the past when he was searching for his game before the Masters. Phil Mickelson, on the other hand, almost always prefers to play the event right before major championship. It’s just worked for him and always been his preference, especially before Augusta. Playing this week at the Valero Texas Open, however, means Phil will roll into Augusta after two straight tournaments. Before last year, he hadn’t shown up at the Texas Open since 1992. He withdrew with a muscle pull last year and then went off to watch the San Antonio Spurs. But he must have liked something about the TPC San Antonio setup because he’s back for more in 2015 and should be at the Shell Houston Open next week.

While Mickelson and fellow headliner Jordan Spieth already have their spot in the Masters reserved, those who don’t have just two ways left to get into the field. You can either win one of the two remaining tournaments in Texas, or you can play your way inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings by Monday. There are a handful of players trying to grind out a result that might bump them over the cut line and into the top 50 OWGR at the last minute. But the big one is Harris English, who is currently 53rd in the world and should need at least a T13 finish to get the rankings points and a late invite to Augusta.

English, who is from Georgia, is a supremely talented bomber who many expect to win often on the PGA Tour. At Bay Hill last week, he started the final round inside the top 10 and really just needed to stay there to move up enough in the world rankings. But instead he bombed out with a final round 75 and dropped more than 20 spots down the leaderboard. English should be a regular in the Masters field, but this is going to take some work on a course that always plays as one of the most difficult on the PGA Tour rota. In addition to English, Matt Jones, Marc Warren, Francesco Molinari, and Graham DeLaet are a few of the other notable names just outside the top 50 and desperately trying to play their way into the season’s first major.

The Texas Open doesn’t get the hype of Arnold Palmer’s tournament at Bay Hill, or the Honda Classic, or a WGC at Doral. It’s still a solid field on a course that can be difficult and which Zach Johnson called a great place to practice chipping and putting for Augusta.

But it falls in a difficult spot on the schedule. NBC will maintain its coverage over the next two weeks while CBS sticks to the NCAA tournament before switching over at the Masters. But Johnny Miller won’t even show up this week and the coverage is pretty basic with limited options compared to all the offerings on the Florida swing. Golf Channel will have their typical three-hour coverage windows for the first two rounds, and then split duties with their Comcast sister on the weekend. All the TV coverage will be simulcast online via their LiveExtra service, but there’s no PGATour.com featured groups stream this week.

Here are all your media options for the week:

3 to 6 p.m. -- Golf Channel

3 to 6 p.m. -- Golf Channel simulcast stream

3 to 6 p.m. -- Golf Channel simulcast stream

1 to 3 p.m. -- Golf Channel

3 to 6 p.m. -- NBC

1 to 6 p.m. -- Golf Channel/NBC Sports LiveExtra simulcast stream

1 to 3 p.m. -- Golf Channel

3 to 6 p.m. -- NBC

1 to 6 p.m. -- Golf Channel/NBC Sports LiveExtra simulcast stream