Former Duke golfer Kevin Streelman playing at the Masters

For just the second time in his career, former Blue Devil Kevin Streelman will be teeing it up Thursday at The Masters Invitational in Augusta, Ga. Streelman earned an automatic invitation to Augusta National with his first career victory at the Tampa Bay Championship last month.

The 2001 graduate missed the cut at the 2011 Masters while offering up his rented house as a home base for the friends and family who had come to watch him play. This time around, Streelman hopes that a quieter house rented for just his wife and him will translate into fewer distractions off the course and more success on it.

"I'm a lot more comfortable this time," he said. "It's an overwhelming week, especially the first time you go. You just get pulled in a lot of directions.... This time we kind of planned accordingly."

Streelman said he expects a number of family members and friends to come out to support him, including some of his fraternity brothers from his time in Delta Sigma Phi at Duke.

After a two-month stretch that included seven tournaments and ended with a win in Tampa Bay and a top-25 finish at the Bay Hill Invitational, Streelman will enter the Masters having not played competitively since March 24. He did not touch a club after Bay Hill for almost a week to relax and savor the previous week's victory, but says the confidence he gained from closing out last month's win will prove invaluable in the future.

"The fact that I know I've got a job out there for the next two years is great," Streelman said, referring to the automatic PGA Tour exemption for winners. "But being in the heat of the moment out there is what's it's all about.... Next time I'm in that situation, to kind of call back on the fact that I was able to pull off the shots I need to to win a PGA Tour event will definitely be a confidence boost."

Streelman, who turned pro in 2003 and has been on tour since 2008, played in 152 PGA Tour events before finally winning his first.

Streelman tees off at 8:44am EST in a group with two fan favorites: 63-year-old Tom Watson and two-time winner Ryan Moore.