Compleat Golfer takes a look at the highs and lows of round one at the Masters following the start of the year’s first Major.
Winners
Rory McIlroy
The defending champion didn’t have the ideal lead up to Thursday with his previous few tournaments hampered with injury. Now, he’s back at the famed course where he exorcised his demons and he’s loving life. You can’t win the Masters on Thursday but you can lose it … well, Rory didn’t lose anything instead he’s put himself in line for a proper run at defending his title.
Major Golf
Even with it being only Thursday, round one action marked the start of Major golf season. The spectacle of Augusta National never disappoints with the course looking and playing to it’s optimum level. Enjoy the next few days of golf because it’ll be over before you know it and then comes another year of yearning for the Masters. There’s no tournament like it.
The Old Guard
Shane Lowry, Justin Rose and Jason Day … they all have their demons around this course but all began well on Thursday. The three often rank in the most picked when it comes to “who would you like to see win the Green Jacket” conversations. There’s a long way to to go still but they’ve started in the manner than leads you to believe they could be around in contention on Sunday.
Losers
The South Africans
Unfortunately, it’s not the bit we want to write but Aldrich Potgieter got off to a horrendous start and things never improved. Potgieter is +12 and in last place while Charl Schwartzel is +3 and Casey Jarvis is +5 respectively. It’s going to need something special for Schwartzel and Jarvis to make the cut.
Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm
Wow, both were right near the top of the pre-tournament favourites and now both could be watching from TV. The LIV Golf headliners were off the pace and were unable to rally during round one. DeChambeau is +4 and Rahm is +6 and this comes off some very good play during the recent LIV Golf events.
LIV Golf in the field
Sergio Garcia is the closest player to the lead and he ended with a level par round. It was a bad day at the office for the league’s top players at the biggest event of the year.
Article Link: The Masters: Winners and losers from round one