Lahiri, Shubhankar in Texas Open on PGA Tour

Proven performer Anirban Lahiri and rising star Shubhankar Sharma will feature in the same PGA Tour event for the first time, when they tee off at the Valero Texas Open this week.

Lahiri, has now been a regular on PGA Tour for three seasons, but is still searching for his breakthrough win, though he has come close a few times, including tied 2nd at Memorial last year.

Meanwhile, Shubhankar, makes a second start in Texas he played on an invite at Houston Open.

He also played at the Masters on an invite but on both occasions missed the cut. Shubhankar hit global spotlight by leading after three rounds at the WGC-Mexico in his first PGA Tour event and ended ninth. At the WGC Matchplay, he lost all three matches.

Yet as Lahiri tries to find his form back, Shubhankar will hope to create a place on the PGA Tour.

Lahiri has been paired with JB Holmes and Whee Kim and tees off from the 10th hole while Shubhankar will have for company two young stars, Xinjun Zhang, first player from China along with Marty Dou - to secure a PGA Tour card.

He came through to the PGA through PGA Tour China and Web.com and finished tied 5th at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Champs.

German Stephan Jaeger, who has three wins on Web.com Tour, came to PGA through Web.com and two of his wins came in 2017.

So Shubhankar will have plenty to get inspired from.

The Texas Hill Country and TPC San Antonio (AT&T Oaks) take center stage this week for the Valero Texas Open, where Kevin Chappell will defend a PGA TOUR title for the first time as the Valero is the third of five tournaments in Texas.

Jimmy Walker, Jhonattan Vegas and Sergio Garcia (a part-time resident of Austin) will also get a lot of attention. A Chilean, former No. 1-ranked amateur Joaquin Niemann, will be in the news as well. The Valero marks his professional debut.

Si Woo Kim, who will defend his title at THE PLAYERS Championship next month, comes in hot after a playoff loss at the RBC Heritage last week.

But Garcia, who co-designed TPC San Antonio with Greg Norman, will get most of the attention. He hasn't played the Valero since its first year at AT&T Oaks, in 2010. He is coming off a wild Masters defense that included a record 13 at the 15th hole.

The AT&T Oaks Course is a 7,435-yard, par-72 that rewards exceptionally solid tee-to-green players, and those, like Chappell, who thrive on hard courses.