2016 Shell Houston Open: Tee times, pairings for Sunday’s final round

Sunday is the first day of the week so, technically, this is already Masters week, the most important and hyped event of the golf year. But there’s still some business at the Shell Houston Open before we completely turn our attention to Augusta National, where the field may grow by one if things go a certain way in the final round at Houston.

The Masters has its own very unique way of building its field. It is the most exclusive invite of all four majors, with the field sometimes 70 players smaller than the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship. There are no alternates -- if someone drops out, like Tiger Woods, there’s not another person waiting on the sidelines to grab his spot. It’s not easy to get to Augusta but one way to do it is to win a PGA Tour event in the 12 months between last year’s Masters and this year’s Masters. Sunday’s Shell Houston Open is that last chance.

This exemption has not been put to much use this year. Many of the winners on the PGA Tour in 2016 were already exempt for Augusta -- for example, former champions with lifetime invites like Bubba Watson, Adam Scott (2-time winner) and Charl Schwartzel. The final pairing on Sunday at Golf Club of Houston, however, is made up of two guys with no competitive plans for next week.

Jim Herman and Jamie Lovemark have never played in the Masters, but they share the 54-hole lead and are one round away from getting that final last-minute invite. It’s not just the Masters either -- the duo’s entire major championship history is just one U.S. Open start each. Herman has one Nationwide Tour win back in 2010, and Lovemark has two Web.com Tour (formerly the Nationwide Tour) wins. Lovemark was hailed as one of the top prospects for the big boy tour, but major injury issues, including some of the back trouble that Tiger has encountered, derailed that ascendance. The Masters invite would be an incredible perk, but just getting a PGA Tour win would obviously be career altering for both.

That final pairing will go at 1:45 p.m. ET with an estimated finish right around 6 p.m. ET on NBC, which is broadcasting its last event of a six-week consecutive stretch (now back to Mr. Nantz). There are some big guns in contention, like Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson, that will make this worth watching. But the better story is the final tee time aiming for that Masters invite and pushing the field to an even 90 players.

Here’s the full tee sheet for the final round:

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