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By Melanie Hauser
PGATOUR.com Correspondent

HUMBLE, Texas -- Things you expect to hear players yapping about on the driving range this week at Redstone:

Augusta.

Swing planes.

Final Four trash talk.

Adam Scott is one of 34 international players playing in Houston this week. (Arnold/WireImage)

Augusta.

Roger Clemens -- should he, shouldn't he and if he does, where? -- discussions.

Opening day.

The water hazards on the course.

The speed of the greens.

NFL draft predictions.

Mexican food.

Augusta.

And what you did hear walking out there Wednesday:

Indian cricket.

Snow in Switzerland.

And, oh, Augusta.

Welcome to the Shell Houston International, er, Open. It's the perfect place to work on your Texas drawl and try out your Irish brogue, various Aussie twangs, a not-so-proper British Cockney or two, a little Kiwi Maori, some Korean and some Swedish.

And, talk a little cricket with Indian sportsman of the year Jeev M. Singh, currently ranked 44th in the world.

At last count there were 34 international players from 17 different countries in the field for the SHO. Shocking? Hardly.

It's a sign of the times. Just look at the world rankings. Or last week's World Golf Championships-CA Championship results. Yes, Tiger won, but 17 of the top 24 finishers were international players.

"It was really a foreign event,'' defending Shell Houston Open champ Stuart Appleby said of last week. "Hardly any Americans in there when you look at it. It should be more than half, but it wasn't close. That's the way it was all week.

"That might have been the conditions that played into the Euro's hands a little bit with that much wind.''

Wind is a staple in Houston too. It's been whipping for the past three days, making those Euros -- and the Texas and Florida boys who grew up hitting knockdown shots and Texas wedges -- start thinking it just might be their week.

There's certainly a precedent. Appleby isn't just the defending champ. He's won this thing twice -- the first time in 1999 at the TPC at The Woodlands. He also owns two legs of a seven-out-of-nine-year stretch of international winners in Houston. He was followed by Aussie mate Robert Allenby, then Vijay Singh won three of four Shell Houston Opens from 2002-2005.

The only U.S. winners in that stretch? Fred Couples in 2003 and Hal Sutton in 2001.

Houston, an international melting pot itself, has drawn top foreign players for years though. Greg Norman, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Mike Weir, Jose Maria Olazabal and Geoff Ogilvy have all played here; Gary Player, Roberto De Vicenzo, David Graham and Fulton Allem are a few more international Houston champs.

This, however, is the first time in 17 years the tournament has moved to the week prior to the Masters, ensuring even more of an international look. While Vijay and Tiger and Phil have, as is their custom, take the week off before Augusta, the international players in need of tuning up their games are here, ready to go.

Take Adam Scott. The highest ranked player in the field at fifth took five weeks off after the World Gold Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and is just now trying to play his way into the heart of golf's major schedule. Scott has a home in Crans Montana in Switzerland and spent time both there and in the UK on his break before coming back last week for his fourth event of the year. The man who was mentored by Greg Norman was hardly pleased with a closing 80 at Doral, but he said he's really not that far away from playing well.

"I was pretty rusty,'' he said. "I didn't hit a shot for five weeks, but I needed to do it. I don't think it's necessarily hurt me, but I just haven't gotten back into a rhythm on the course yet, which is a little frustrating, but I'm trying to keep the bigger picture in mind and everything I've done so far this year is kind of working towards next week.

"This week would be really great to get in there and get in the mix and just have that -- the competitive juices flowing a little bit and sort the nerves out before Augusta... I'd like to throw myself back up the top of the leaderboard and get those, you know, butterflies in the stomach feeling.''

Scott flew to Augusta for a practice round Monday with Geoff Ogilvy and Paul Casey and said that course was "in the best condition I've ever seen it.''

The course here is set up with fast greens, shaved edges and negligible rough to help simulate conditions at Augusta, save the elevations and bent grass greens. And Appleby said the greens are quicker than those at Augusta.

He too, is working on his form. "I haven't performed,'' he said. "I haven't moved with the herd, you know. Stuck out of the back with the dog nipping at the heels at the back of the herd... I've got a long way to go, but I know the quality of my game when it gets on a run is going to be very competitive.''

Harrington, ranked 10th in the world, wanted to play the week before Augusta. What he doesn't like is all the trouble on this course.

"I think it's a course you have to play with blinders on,'' he said. "I look out there and see the trouble. I'm not great at that.

"But the fairways are wide targets out there.''

Langer came off the course windblown and smiling Tuesday. He played here just after winning his first Masters in 1985 and prior to the 1989 Masters and wanted a week's more work on his way there this year.

"As windy as it is, you hit the bank and you know it's gone (in the water),'' he said. "You need to commit to your shots here.''

Scott and Harrington both laughed about all the European faces in this crowd, some with U.S. homes, some who are just passing through. Everyone from Harrington and Scott and Appleby to Michael Campbell, Thomas Levet, Singh, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Angel Cabrera and they're all here.

You may not know their names yet, but you will. And, while they might not be able to join the discussion on Clemens or Mexican food, they might just teach you something about cricket. Or the Haka.