Thursday 15 October 2015 16:30, UK
Rory McIlroy and Jusin Rose are among an unusually strong field for this week's Frys.com Open in Napa, California (live on Sky Sports 4).
The event kicks off the new PGA Tour season but does not always attract such a powerful line-up due to its position in the calendar, coming soon after the season-ending Tour Championship.
However, World No 3 McIlroy and the seventh-ranked Rose were among eight players who entered a non-sanctioned match play event called the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final in October 2012, which was staged at the same time as the Frys.com Open.
In return for being granted a release to play in Turkey - where Rose defeated Lee Westwood in the final - all eight players had to agree to play in Napa at least once during the next three years.
And McIlroy and Rose, plus former Masters champ Charl Schwartzel and 2012 US Open winner Webb Simpson, will all be fulfilling their obligation this week.
"Since I've come back from the injury, I've had a couple of good finishes but not really been in contention," McIlroy told reporters ahead of the new season. "So I want to get back into contention, have chances to win tournaments.
"That's really my focus until the end of the year. I've got four opportunities to do that from now until Dubai. I would say it was a good season, it wasn't a great season.
"My major championship performances this year were solid but they weren't what I wanted them to be. So it was a lost year in the fact that I didn't win a major and didn't add to that tally."
Former World No 1 Tiger Woods was also due to compete at Silverado but has been ruled out until 2016 due to a second back operation.
Another American, Scott Stallings, will return to action this week, having served a three-month suspension for violating the PGA Tour's anti-drug policy.
Stallings reported himself to the Tour after he realised that a supplement he had been taking to combat chronic fatigue was prohibited.
Consistent American Brooks Koepka and Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama are other notable names in this week's field.
