Key events
Matt Fitzpatrick has never seriously competed for a Green Jacket. His best finish in 11 starts here was a tie for seventh in 2016, but he wasn’t really in the race eventually won by fellow Sheffielder Danny Willett. He could finally get involved this year, though. A one-under 71 yesterday, and now he’s just wiped out an opening bogey this morning by rolling in a 35-foot eagle putt on 2. He’s -2, moving in the same direction this morning as Daniel Berger and 2020 runner-up Im Sung-jae.
-8: Rose (4)
-4: Conners, Scheffler, Åberg
-3: Hatton, DeChambeau
-2: Berger (3), Fitzpatrick (2), Im (1), Rai, English, Day, Bhatia
Rory McIlroy takes to the tee, and sends his opening drive into the first cut down the left of the hole. His partners Ludvig Åberg and Akshay Bhatia find the shortest stuff. Meanwhile up on 4, Rose responds to that comical tee shot by chipping crisply to five feet past the flag. In goes the putt and he remains at -8. A huge smile, as big as the One he’s just gotten away with.
Despite his decent start this morning, Justin Rose doesn’t quite have his A-game with him at the moment. A few loose shots already and this one is the worst of the lot. The flag’s at the front of the par-three 4th, but Rose isn’t getting anywhere near it. He skies his iron. Right under it. “Aw!” he cries, as the ball apologetically lands 50 yards short of the green. At least he can see the funny side. “A good lay-up!” he quips, to warm, gentle laughter from the gallery. He’s not left himself the easiest up and down, without too much green to work with.
Back to this millennium, and the leader Justin Rose seems to have replaced yesterday’s push with a pull. Having just bothered the trees down the left of 2, he does so again with his tee shot on 3, despite taking a fairway wood for safety. But he’s still got a route into the green, and finds the heart of it with his wedge. Two putts later, and he’s moving on having made par. He remains at -8.
You can perhaps understand why Craig Wood suffered such a shocker in the first round in 1936, still shaken no doubt by what had happened to him the year before. Allow me to explain / plagiarise myself. Wood had missed out on the inaugural title in 1934 by one stroke, but looked odds-on to win in 1935, in the clubhouse with a three-shot advantage over his only real challenger. But that challenger was Gene Sarazen, who was still out on the course, in the middle of the par-five 15th having clattered a 250-yard drive down the 485-yard hole. He was playing with Walter Hagen, who upon hearing the news of Wood’s clubhouse mark, cried: “Well, that’s that!” Sarazen shrugged and replied: “They might go in from anywhere.” Whereupon he drew his 4-wood back and landed his second on the front of the green, the ball rolling to the far-right corner and into the cup for an albatross (or a double eagle, as the locals would have it). Now level with Wood, he parred his way in, then breezed the 36-hole play-off. His albatross became known as The Shot Heard Round The World, and one which put the Augusta National Invitation Tournament on the map.
Poor old Nick Dunlap had a bit of a shocker yesterday. An 18-over round of 90 that featured four double bogeys and a triple. Seven bogeys, just six pars. “He’s a very talented chap,” begins Simon Thomas, “Golf is hard. He’s got a bit of ground to make up; by my reckoning he needs to find at least 16 shots today if he’s to make the weekend. A 56 today then.” Well, let’s see now. Craig Wood shot a first round of 88 in 1936, bouncing back with a 67 the next day. He finished in a tie for 20th, and went on to win the event in 1941. So there’s always hope I guess. Admittedly that still stands as the biggest contrasting start in Masters history, 89 years on, and Dunlap would have to better Jim Furyk’s all-time low PGA Tour score of 58 by two strokes to beat the cut. But let’s rule nothing out until it’s mathematically impossible.
Birdie for Justin Rose! He takes a little too much sand with his splash out of the bunker at 2, leaving himself a fast downhill 15-footer. But he rolls in the birdie putt. Perfect line, perfect weight, pretty much a perfect start. He restores the four-shot lead he held last evening before bogey at 18.
-8: Rose (2)
-4: Conners, Scheffler, Åberg
-3: Hatton, DeChambeau
-2: Rai, English, Day, Bhatia
A huge stroke of luck for Rose at 2. He pulls his long iron towards the trees, and he squats down to watch the result, narrowing his eyes anxiously. The ball pings off a branch and back into play, dribbling into the bunker guarding the front-left portion of the green. He’ll have a chance to get up and down for a sandy birdie. For a nanosecond there, he was worrying about running up a score.
Justin Rose at 2. He sends a gentle draw that threatens to flirt with the trees on the left but eventually behaves itself and rolls along that side of the fairway. Nothing wrong there, and the early signs are that he’s fixed the problem that got him into tree-based trouble down the right of 17 and 18 last night. Pink Dogwood was the second-easiest hole of the first round – another par five, the 8th, gave up most to the field yesterday – and an early birdie for Rose here would give everyone else still sitting on the veranda something extra to think about.
A solid start for Justin Rose. His second into 1 bumbles down the bank to the right of the green, but he nearly holes his chip and tidies up for an opening par. Rose is by far the earliest starter of the leading bunch, though we’ll see Ludvig Åberg and Akshay Bhatia within the hour, and Bryson DeChambeau not long after.
-7: Rose (1)
-4: Conners, Scheffler, Åberg
-3: Hatton, DeChambeau
-2: Rai, English, Day, Bhatia
The leader Justin Rose is out and about! He’s safely stroked his opening drive down the middle of Tea Olive. That’ll give him succour after carving a couple of worryingly wayward tee shots way right at 17 and 18 yesterday evening.
… so having said that, of the 18 players out there already, only five of them are under par for their round so far. Only one of those have carded more than one birdie. England’s Laurie Canter flew out of the blocks with birdies at 1 and 2, but he’s handed back one of those shots at 4. The 35-year-old debutant from Bath is currently +4 after a 77 yesterday that promised more, until he carded late double bogeys at 16 and 17. Rory, you are not alone.
Here we go, then, and the morning starters should have the best of the conditions today. There were rainstorms last night, and the greens should be nice and responsive as a result. Sound the low-scores klaxon! But will we hear the actual weather klaxon later? There’s a 30 percent change of a thunderstorm later in the afternoon. What’s certain is the temperature will rise as the day progresses, and so will the windspeeds. So yes, the guys out early will be the happiest. The weekend is expected to be dry and increasingly sunny and warm. Sunday should be a picture.
Preamble
Yesterday was all about 44-year-old Justin Rose’s wonderful 67, the first chapter of what could become the greatest romantic story ever written by anyone from north-east Hampshire (providing we leave Jane Austen out of this). Hartley Wintney’s finest couldn’t right the nearly-man wrongs of 2007, 2015 and 2017, could he? Perhaps. Fingers crossed. Let’s see. Three days still to go. I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control.
Yesterday was also about Rory McIlroy. Somebody shouted “hallelujah!” when Scottie Scheffler hit his opening drive. Other well-worn biblical exclamations may well have been barked by fans of McIlroy, with some feeling, as he melted down on the homeward stretch, carding careless, clumsy, needless double bogeys at 15 and 17. Oh Rory. If we loved you less, we might be able to talk about it more.
Anyway, here’s how the top of the leaderboard looks after an entertaining and dramatic opening day at Augusta National. Nobody on it is out of contention, so best to approach the task in hand calmly. Remember: angry people are not always wise.
-7: Rose
-4: Conners, Scheffler, Åberg
-3: Hatton, DeChambeau
-2: Rai, English, Day, Bhatia
-1: M Kim, Thompson, Smith, Couples, Harman, Reed, Greyserman, MW Lee, Watson, McCarty, McCarthy, Berger, Fitzpatrick, Im, Hovland, Lowry
E: Young, Z Johnson, Jaeger, Morikawa, Niemann, McNealy, Campbell, Hoge, Garcia, McIlroy, Theegala
Today’s tee times
(USA unless stated, all times BST)
12.40 Rafael Campos (Pur), Cameron Davis (Aus), Austin Eckroat
12.51 Angel Cabrera (Arg), Laurie Canter (Eng), Adam Schenk
13.02 Brian Campbell, Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa)
13.13 Evan Beck, Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Bubba Watson
13.24 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Tom Hoge, Matt McCarty
13.35 Denny McCarthy, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Hiroshi Tai (Sgp)
13.52 Max Homa, Justin Rose (Eng), JJ Spaun
14.03 Justin Hastings (Cay), Dustin Johnson, Nick Taylor (Can)
14.14 Daniel Berger, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Lucas Glover
14.25 Patrick Cantlay, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den)
14.36 Russell Henley, Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Brooks Koepka
14.47 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott (Aus)
14.58 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Akshay Bhatia, Rory McIlroy (NIrl)
15.15 Bryson DeChambeau, Shane Lowry (Irl), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
15.26 Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Jon Rahm (Spa)
15.37 Sam Burns, Sepp Straka (Aut), Sahith Theegala
15.48 Patton Kizzire, Davis Riley
15.59 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Chun-An Yu (Tai)
16.10 Michael Kim, Mike Weir (Can), Cameron Young
16.21 Joe Highsmith, Zach Johnson, Chris Kirk
16.38 Nicolas Echavarria (Col), Davis Thompson, Danny Willett (Eng)
16.49 Noah Kent, Bernhard Langer (Ger), Will Zalatoris
17.00 J. T. Poston, Aaron Rai (Eng), Cameron Smith (Aus)
17.11 Fred Couples, Harris English, Taylor Pendrith (Can)
17.22 Corey Conners (Can), Brian Harman, Stephan Jaeger (Ger)
17.33 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Max Greyserman, Patrick Reed
17.50 Nick Dunlap, Billy Horschel, Robert MacIntyre (Sco)
18.01 Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Collin Morikawa, Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
18.12 Keegan Bradley, Jason Day (Aus), Phil Mickelson
18.23 Jose Luis Ballester (Spa), Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas
18.34 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Jordan Spieth
18.45 Thomas Detry (Bel), Tony Finau, Maverick McNealy
