Masters Notebook

MICKELSON ARRIVES EARLY: The lateness of this year’s Masters Tournament forced some golfers to alter their schedules leading into this week at Augusta National Golf Club. Phil Mickelson, for one, wasn’t happy about it.

Because the Masters is played the first full week after the first Sunday in April each year, the 2013 event – which starts April 11 – is the latest it could possibly be.

For that reason, there was an extra PGA Tour event in the first leg of the season leading into the Masters. It was the Texas Open, which is normally played after the Masters. Instead, it was moved to the week before, ending Sunday with Martin Laird prevailing.

The Houston Open, which is normally the tournament preceding the Masters, was played two weeks ago instead of last week because the Texas Open’s contract with the PGA Tour says it can’t end on Easter Sunday.

The Houston Open will be back as the prelude to the Masters next year, but that didn’t help Mickelson now. He likes to play the week leading into the Masters. He’s a former champion at the Houston Open, which is played at Redstone Golf Club, a course he enjoys. He didn’t want to play at TPC San Antonio, the site of the Texas Open, so he sat it out and was at Augusta National for a rare Sunday appearance.

“I haven’t taken a week off before the Masters in, I don’t know, a couple decades, I think, and the same thing with the U.S. Open,” Mickelson said.

At the Houston Open two weeks ago, Mickelson said the week off would be “a good opportunity for me to work on getting prepared properly in another spot outside of a tournament.”

The effects of the extra week won’t be known until play starts Thursday.

“That’s going to be interesting,” Justin Rose said.

Rose normally plays two weeks before the Masters, then skips the prelude. This year, he took two weeks off leading into Augusta.

"I will have played a lot of golf," Rose said. "Played five in a row through the Florida Swing, then take two weeks off. It’s a slightly different rhythm. …"

TIANLANG’S DREAM PAIRINGS: China’s Tianlang Guan, who at age 14 will become the youngest Masters participant ever, has practice rounds lined up with golfers who have combined to win seven green jackets.

Today, he plans to play with two-time champion Ben Crenshaw around 9 a.m. On Tuesday, Tianlang will play with two-time winner Tom Watson, the captain of the 2014 U.S. Ryder Cup team. And on Wednesday, he’ll play in the Par-3 Contest with Nick Faldo, a three-time champion who no longer competes in the tournament but can play practice rounds and in the Par-3 Contest.

Today’s pairing came about because Crenshaw is friends with the general manager of Tianlang’s home course, Lion Lake Country Club.

Crenshaw played in his first Masters when he was 18 years old. He was asked Sunday what he was doing when he was 14.

“I had a girlfriend, and I was playing golf, too. It’s hard to believe that he’s 14. Fourteen,” Crenshaw said with wonder.

FALL SERIES INVITES: Billy Payne, the Augusta National and Masters chairman, is expected to announce at his news conference Wednesday that the club will invite winners of the PGA Tour’s Fall Series events to the 2014 Masters, according to an Associated Press report earlier this year.

In the past, the Fall Series participants did not receive full FedEx Cup points and were not recognized for invitations to the Masters. Starting with the PGA Tour’s 2014 wraparound season, which starts in late 2013 with six events, the Fall Series fields will get full FedEx Cup points. The Fall Series will run from Oct. 7 through Nov. 17.

“I think anybody who wins a tournament out on tour, and now those tournaments are part of the FedEx Cup, should get in the Masters,” said John Merrick, who won the Northern Trust Open at Riviera in mid-February. ”Every field on the tour is a tough field. You’ve got to play great golf to win.

“No field is easy. No tournament is ever going to hand over a win. You have to play great golf to win. It’s very tough to win a tournament.”