Day one of The Masters is in the books and it lived up to the billing with Augusta very getable and the scores ranging from 65 to, incredibly, a 90. For Rory McIlroy it was a horror show of a finish while Scottie Scheffler barely missed a beat.
1/ Rose off to a flyer
This is Justin Rose’s 20th Masters and, with two holes to go, he was in with a shout of breaking the course record of 63. The Englishman needed a birdie-birdie finish for a 62 but signed off with a closing bogey. However, his opening 65 was still good for a three-shot lead.
Rose, who also began with a 65 in 2021, was six under after just 10 holes – he started with a hat-trick of birdies and added another run of three from the 8th onwards. He missed a shortish one at the 13th for a seventh birdie. There would be more to come at 15 and 16 as the two-time runner-up here continued his love of Augusta National.
“I feel like I’ve played well enough to win this tournament. I just feel like I don’t have the jacket to prove it,” said Rose.
“I’ve played a lot of good rounds of golf here. Got a lot of crystal (for eagles), which is obviously always nice. But yeah, you know, ultimately, you want to be last man standing on Sunday, and I was a shot shy – I guess Sergio and I in 2017, that was a real 50/50. That could have gone any which way down the stretch. A little bit of Lady Luck here and there is always the difference here at times.
“But I’ve had my luck on occasion and been a champion. But you’ve got to be playing the golf to keep creating those opportunities, and obviously the only way to do that is to get your name on the leaderboard. I definitely don’t shy away from it.”
2/ Familiar story for Rory
For much of Thursday Rory McIlroy looked to be doing everything that most fans wanted him to do: play his way quietly and gradually into the tournament. He reached the turn in a blemish-free 33, added another birdie at 13, could have made it five at the next but then fell apart coming home.
After rifling a 4-iron through the back of the 15th his chip failed to grab and ended up in the drink. He would then make his way to the other side of the pond, run up a seven and then compound that with another double-bogey two holes later. From nowhere he was back to level par.
3/ Scheffler the clear favourite already
Scottie Scheffler made an ominous start to his defence as he looks to join an illustrious club of back-to-back winners. Scheffler didn’t drop a shot and holed two huge putts, one at the par-3 4th and later across the 16th green.
This was the ultimate Scheffler type of round, very rarely in trouble and making everything look so simple.
Even a divot on the 8th couldn’t get in his way as he notched another birdie.
“It was pretty challenging. I hit a really awesome shot to get it to about 15 feet,” he explained. “I had to put it in the back of my stance, stand close to it, make sure I got ball first and I hit this kind of low skipper. I was fortunate to be able to get some spin on it because it was sitting so deep in that grass, I was surprised it didn’t hit the front of the divot when it came out. That’s how deep it was. But I was able to get some spin, spun it to the right of that hill and gave myself a good look that I was able to knock it in.”
4/ The old boys still shining
Fred Couples is 65 and Bernhard Langer 67. Couples has played in 39 Masters, Langer one more. This will be the German’s final showing in the main tournament and there is a good chance that we might see one if not both men here over the weekend. The top 50 players and ties will get to tee it up on Saturday and Couples is in a great spot after an opening 71 which began with a putt that was holed from off the green while later he knocked in a 6-hybrid for an eagle two from 186 yards at the 14th.
“When I hit it, it was hit really, really well and it did just carry that ridge and spun back. I thought I had enough to get over there and then they went crazy. I don’t know if I’ve ever had an eagle on the par-4 here.”
Langer was also under par standing on the 12th tee before turning in a 74, which included 25 shots with a wood.
“The thought is more like where do I have to land it to maybe stop it on the green? And if it doesn’t stop on the green, where can I get it up-and-down from? That’s the constant battle. What’s the easier up-and-down? Left, right, short, long. You can’t control the 3-wood or a 2-hybrid. You don’t know how much it’s going to run when it hits the green.”
5/ Multiple PGA Tour winner fails to break 90
Nick Dunlap has already won twice on the Tour and is still only 21 but his Major record is a horrible one. And it got even worse when he opened up with a 90 that didn’t contain a single three-putt.
The American has missed his first five cuts in the big ones and that will be six come Friday. A treble-bogey at the 5th was the low point on the front nine before four double-bogeys in a back nine of 47. He only hit six of 18 greens and it is the first score in the 90s since Ben Crenshaw’s 91 in 2015.
6/ Nicklaus: Tiger will play on
There’s always a few good snippets from the honorary starters’ press conference and one notable comment from Jack Nicklaus gave Tiger Woods’ fans some hope for the future.
Woods is missing this week with a torn Achilles and his injury problems have blighted him for years but the Golden Bear suspects that Woods will be back on the Champions Tour.
“I think Tiger will get well. Tiger will be 50 next year, I believe he’ll probably play the Senior Tour and I believe he’ll probably dominate the Senior Tour. Tiger is too much of a competitor to not play. I don’t believe he will not play. I don’t think Tiger will play for money, he doesn’t need money, Tiger will play for competition. He loves competition, and he’s very good at it. Tiger has had his issues, and he’s overcome most all of them each time he’s had them. I fully expect him to do that again.”
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