While most eyes will be focused on a different Tiger, a pair of Clemson University representatives are just happy to get back into the Masters Tournament footlights.

D.J. Trahan is back at the Masters for the first time since 2001, when he was a 19-year-old amateur and the U.S. Public Links champion. (Jackie Ricciardi/Staff)

Jonathan Byrd and D.J. Trahan - whose college careers briefly overlapped - each won PGA Tour events to earn automatic invitations to Augusta National Golf Club, ending Masters exiles that both felt lasted forever.

"It was a long time coming for me," said Trahan, who first played in the Masters as an amateur in 2001. "I played in 2001, and now it's 2008. Of course it's a long time. I wanted to play the next year. When you have to wait seven more years to get back, obviously you're a little more anxious to play in the tournament again."

Byrd finished tied for eighth in his Masters debut in 2003, earning him a trip back the next year. But injuries temporarily derailed what he thought would be an annual routine.

"It's a hard tournament to get in," Byrd said. "I played in it in '03 and '04 and kind of felt like I could play in this tournament every year. Then I had a three-year drought. You can have a pretty decent year and still not get in if you're not in the top 50 and haven't won."

For Byrd, especially, sitting at home in Sea Island, Ga., during Masters Week was a difficult experience because he believes he has the game to contend in the closest thing he has to a hometown major.

"I grew up close to there, so there's a special connection," said Byrd, who earned his third tour victory at last year's John Deere Classic. "I've gone through two or three injuries, and that's probably the main reason for poor play and not being in there. When you're injured, you're always kind of fighting something. I played good the last two years and got back in that position. I look forward to getting back. I love that course and love the way it plays and all the different shots you've got to hit."

Trahan was a freshman at Clemson when he qualified for the Masters by winning the 2000 U.S. Public Links Championship. At 19, he went to Augusta the next spring, missing the cut but soaking in the full amateur experience.

"I stayed in the Crow's Nest, and that's another thing that took away from my possibility of playing good golf," Trahan said. "You stay up there because it's tradition and experience and all that. That's not an excuse for playing some bad golf, but you just get caught up in the whole deal of playing the Masters for the first time."

Trahan - who outdueled Justin Leonard to win the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in January to qualify - expects his second trip to be "100 percent different."

"It was my sophomore year in college, and I was a totally different person - my life, my game and everything about what I've got going on," he said.

While Byrd handled his first Masters experience and played good golf, Trahan has something to prove when he comes back.

"I truly don't think I was in awe the first time," Trahan said. "I call it respect for the place and not awe. If you go there and your mouth hangs down on the ground the whole time, how are you supposed to play golf? There's no point in going if all you're going to do is walk around and go, 'God, this place is amazing.' You've just got to treat it like any other week. It's a golf course and a golf tournament, and you have to prepare and do everything else the same."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.