Published July 17, 2008 on April 6, 2018

Spieth Shines and Rory off to a Strong Start in Augusta

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The 82th edition of the Masters Tournament got off a dramatic start on Thursday at the Augusta National Golf Club. With many of the game’s top players in superb form, the build-up to the tournament throughout the week has been nothing short of  spectacular.

Golf’s legends Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player set the ball rolling by hitting the morning’s ceremonial tee shots in front of thousands of patrons excited at the prospect of watching top players battle it out at the first major of the year.

At the end of the first round, it was 24-year-old Jordan Spieth’s name that appeared at the top of the leaderboard with his opening 6-under 66.

Vying for his second Green Jacket, Spieth said, “If I look back on my highlights for the day, I’d say I had three of them. Two of them were bogeys and one was an eagle. My bogey save that I made on seven was a fantastic putt that kept it going, I saw a putt go in. It was a very difficult putt, and I could have dropped to over par, and it led to stepping on eight tee feeling regrouped.

“I hit two beautiful shots and made a three there, and then on 18 – unfortunately, I’ve had to do some interesting things on 18 in my career here. That was actually one of the more comfortable tee shots for me.

“I just wasn’t very on it with the driver today, and I was playing a fade and just kind of got it there early. But it was a beautiful chip shot. I probably couldn’t have gotten closer with a whole bucket of balls.”

Rory McIlroy opened with a three-under-par 69, leaving the Grand Slam-chasing Northern Irishman three shots off the lead of Jordan Spieth.

The four-time Major winner McIlroy would join an elite list of players to have claimed all four of the Major Championships if he were to earn a Green Jacket this week and, having won a first title in 18 months two weeks ago on the US PGA Tour, entered the week full of confidence.

Opening with a birdie, the 28-year-old from Holywood had a steady if unspectacular front nine before birdies at the 13^th and 15^th, along with three crucial par saves in the final three holes, moved him into a share of fourth position.

McIlroy said, “I made one mistake, the bogey on seven. But apart from that, I missed a couple of birdie chances early on, and I just told myself to stay patient out there. I think anything around 60 out there is a pretty good score.

“You look at it and not anyone is really getting away. Jordan had a pretty strong finish there. But this is my best start in a few years and it’s such a hard golf course to play catch up on. If you start to chase it around here, that’s when you start to make mistakes.

“But to be right up there and have the ability to stay patient, because of the position I’m in, that’s a nice luxury I have over the next few days.”

He was joined there by fellow European Tour Members Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain, Haotong Li of China, American Patrick Reed, and Swede Henrik Stenson, among others.

The performance of the day came from Matt Kuchar, who was just two shots off the pace on four under par alongside Tony Finau of the USA after a stunning back nine which included five birdies.

“I was just really excited to get the round going. I had some early nerves but played some good holes early. I actually got pretty fortunate on the fourth hole to walk away with bogey. I made about a 15‑footer for bogey, and I felt like that kind of made things okay. I was staring a double‑bogey in the face and thought, this is going to be a rotten beginning to my Masters.

“But to make that putt, I thought, I’m still in it and I haven’t kind of ruined a round. I played some pretty good golf, particularly from the eighth hole in,” said Kuchar.

Ten players shot in the 60s on Thursday. Twenty broke par. Phil Mickelson, trying to become the oldest Masters champion at 47, shot 70. A few top names lacked their best stuff. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson, a two-time champion who has won twice this season, joined Woods, who failed to birdie a par-5 hole, at 73.

Three of Woods’ 14 major championships have come after he shot over par in the first round. But Masters patrons didn’t mind what he shot; they were happy to have him back.

“I got a standing ovation coming onto the range,” Woods said. “The people, they’re really into it.”

Jon Rahm and Jason Day shot 75. And then there was last year’s champion, Sergio Garcia.

Garcia, who broke through to capture his first Masters, and first major championship, last year at age 37, stepped to the tee at No. 15 knowing that an eagle could get him back to level par. Instead, he walked off the green at 10-over after requiring two sleeves of golf balls to complete the hole in 13 strokes.

Facing 206 yards to the green on his second shot, Garcia struck a 6-iron that pitched past the flagstick, began trickling back toward the front of the green, picked up steam, ran down a bank into a pond. He then needed four wedge shots to get a ball to stay on the putting surface. Previously, the highest score made in the Masters on the 530-yard No. 15 was an 11.

“It’s the first time in my career where I make a 13 without missing a shot,” Garcia said. “Simple as that.”

China’s Li Haotong was the best Asian finisher of the day, carding a three-under 69 bunched together with six players including McIlroy, Stenson, and Reed.

Li said,“My first round was quite solid and I made a lot of putts over there. Actually, I thought I was going to be nervous on the first tee but it was all right. So I’m just quite happy to have such a great opening round.

“Actually, the U.S. Open was my first major ever in my whole career. I got a lot of experience from there and I’ve improved a lot since last year, since the U.S. Open. I got a lot of confidence from there and I think I just need to keep doing what I’m doing now.”

India’s Shubhankar Sharma and Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat who carded rounds of 77 and 79 respectively hope to improve their scores on Friday.

First Round Scores:

66 J Spieth (USA) ,
68 T Finau (USA) , M Kuchar (USA) ,
69 A Hadwin (Can) , H Stenson (Swe) , C Hoffman (USA) , R Cabrera Bello (Esp) , H Li (Chn) , R McIlroy (Nir) , P Reed (USA) ,
70 R Fowler (USA) , P Mickelson (USA) , Z Johnson (USA) , B Wiesberger (Aut) , M Leishman (Aus) ,
71 X Schauffele (USA) , S Kodaira (Jpn) , C Smith (Aus) , V Singh (Fij) , L Oosthuizen (RSA) ,
72 T Fleetwood (Eng) , F Molinari (Ita) , F Couples (USA) , J Rose (Eng) , K Stanley (USA) , C Schwartzel (RSA) , K Kisner (USA) , D Ghim (am) (USA) ,
73 H Matsuyama (Jpn) , D Johnson (USA) , B Grace (RSA) , T Woods (USA) , P Perez (USA) , D Berger (USA) , B Harman (USA) , B Watson (USA) , T Potter Jnr (USA) , J Dufner (USA) , T Pieters (Bel) , J Walker (USA) , R Henley (USA) ,
74 P Casey (Eng) , A Noren (Swe) , S Lyle (Sco) , J Thomas (USA) , M Kaymer (Ger) , I Poulter (Eng) , B Langer (Ger) , A Cook (USA) , B Dechambeau (USA) , J Olazábal (Esp) , R Moore (USA) , W Bryan (USA) , T Hatton (Eng) ,
75 M Fitzpatrick (Eng) , D Willett (Eng) , J Rahm (Esp) , S Kim (Kor) , P Cantlay (USA) , A Scott (Aus) , J Day (Aus) ,
76 B Horschel (USA) , R Cabrera Bello (Esp) , B Steele (USA) , L Mize (USA) , M Weir (Can) , W Simpson (USA) , Y Ikeda (Jpn) , C Reavie (USA) , P Kizzire (USA) , D Redman (am) (USA) , J Niemann (am) (Chi) ,
77 K Chappell (USA) , S Sharma (Ind) , Y Miyazato (Jpn) , D Frittelli (RSA) , J Vegas (Ven) ,
78 T Immelman (RSA) , G Woodland (USA) , R Fisher (Eng) , M O’Meara (USA) ,
79 K Aphibarnrat (Tha) , I Woosnam (Wal) , Y Lin (am) (Chn) ,
81 S Garcia (Esp) , M Parziale (am) (USA) ,
86 H Ellis (am) (Eng) ,