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To play or not to play the week before the Masters. That is a question, although maybe not the question, golf’s stars and superstars asked themselves this year (and every year). 

This year, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Jason Day skipped the week before Augusta National. Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott played. Nobody knows what the proper way is to get ready, but mental confidence is of utmost importance. 

Of the last 11 winners at Augusta, six played the week before and five did not. 

Danny Willett did not play, Spieth did, Bubba Watson did not (twice), Adam Scott did not, Charl Schwartzel did, Mickelson did (twice), Angel Cabrera did (and missed the cut), Trevor Immelman did (and missed the cut) and Zach Johnson did not.

It’s a complete mixed bag, although beware of the pre-Masters winner. Since 1960, only two golfers have won the week before Masters and gone on to win Masters. Mickelson did it in 2006 and Sandy Lyle in 1988.

There have been more golfers who have missed the cut the week before in the last 10 years and won the Masters than golfers who have won the week before and won the Masters. 

“You’re always trying to figure out the best way to peak for tournaments ... it’s a very inexact science,” McIlroy said recently. “Certain things I’ve worked on in the past and sometimes you try to ... replicate those and they don’t work and you mix it up and you do something else. 

“You can do as much preparation as you want for a golf tournament, but if you don’t execute the shots when you’re there when you need to under the gun, it doesn’t really matter. So, going into Augusta or going into the U.S. Open or whatever, you know the shots that you’re going to need and you practice those, and you try to make yourself as comfortable as possible with those shots. When you do that and you’re a hundred percent confident in practice, it usually translates on to the golf course. 

“I’ve tried many things, I’ve played the week before Augusta, I haven’t. I played the week before majors that I’ve won, I haven’t played the week before majors that I’ve won, it really is just, I mean, you can do a lot of different things to prepare and I’ve done it a few different ways and been successful. So, I don’t know if that’s been a good thing or a bad thing, because I’m always trying to mix it up and change.”

That’s a good summary of how most PGA Tour pros feel. There are also innumerable variables that go into the decision-making process. Adam Scott skipped the WGC-Dell Match Play and played the Shell Houston Open instead. It’s a tournament he hasn’t played since 2010.

“This year the schedule is a little bit funny with my wife being pregnant, where she can and can’t travel to,” Scott said this week. “A few logistical things like that. That also made this become very easy for me to put on the schedule and change things up, and it’s part of my plan for the rest of the year to play the week before the majors and do something a little different than I have the past few years.

“But there are lots of different things to consider, too. I have two caddies on the bag, and I got to make sure that where my game is at before going to the toughest test in golf. It’s important that Steve sees me play this week and doesn’t come in blind going to Augusta.”

Rookie Jon Rahm has no idea how to prep for Augusta because he’s never played the Masters before. He’ll be coming off his second tournament in as many weeks after losing in the WGC-Dell Match Play finals to Dustin Johnson and playing Houston.

“My first year on tour so I’m really trying to learn what I’m supposed to do, right?” Rahm said. “I’ve heard many different things of how to get ready for Augusta or any other major, and I’ve heard people playing the week before, other players not playing the week before. I’m trying to figure out what is best for me. This time I decided that I’m going to play the week before.

“When I was at Farmers I played a week before. I’ve played three tournaments in a row before and I’ve always done good on the second and third one. Obviously I did pretty good on the first one, too (the Match Play). I’m just trying to learn. What I didn’t want to do was fly early to Augusta and spend too much time in Augusta and give -- make it more important in my mind than it already is, right?”

The 2015 Masters champion, Spieth, who played Houston and missed the cut, has a formula and he’s sticking to it.

“I’ve historically played better golf second, third, fourth week in a row just after playing the week before,” Spieth said. “Really I think the third week in a row might be my -- historically my best, I don’t know, scoring average or finish, average finish. You get some kinks out.

“I like doing that. I’ve done it for two out of the four majors. I’ve had the week off before the U.S. Open the past few years and we won one there. So ... it’s not a tell-all, but it’s been successful this time leading into the Masters so I keep doing it.”

At the end of the day, this is all about confidence. What puts golfers in the right frame of mind? What gets their creative juices flowing so that when they hit that first tee shot on Thursday at the Masters, they’re 100 percent locked in? For some, that means going to Houston and getting 72 (or 36) holes in. For others, it means chilling for a week before firing up the jet for north Georgia.

Whatever the case, you know whoever wins this year will do the exact same thing next year in hopes that he might catch magic twice (or in Spieth’s case, potentially three times).