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Defending champion Sergio Garcia set a Masters record he would dearly love to forget when he piled on a 13 at the par five 15th, visiting the water with five successive shots.
It was painful to watch, but to prove Garcia’s grit he birdied the 16th.
The Spaniard shot a first round 81 to be 15 shots off the Jordan Spieth pace.
This 82nd edition of the first major of the year promised plenty, and that’s exactly what it produced.
Spieth was mighty impressive with five successive birdies from the 13th to the 17th, and even though he bogeyed the last after duck hooking off the tee, his putting genius is back, and he’ll be hard to beat.
Spieth leads Tony Finau and Matt Kuchar by two shots.
It was amazing Finau was able to play after dislocating his left ankle acting the goat after his ace in the par-three tournament yesterday.
But he proved he’s one tough dude by snapping his ankle back in place.
Finau and Kuchar had six birdies and two bogeys apiece, but both left at least three shots on the course.
All the pre-tournament hype surrounded Tiger Woods, who carded a 73, seven shots off the pace.
He had three birdies, and four bogeys, but was quite happy with his form, explaining – “I didn’t score as well as I played”.
Despite the quote, Woods never looked like going low.
And there are a lot of quality golfers in front of him, so unless he fires in the low 60s at least twice, any chance of winning a fifth green jacket would be remote.
(Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
There’s far more chance of Henrik Stenson, who celebrated his 42nd birthday today, and Rory McIlroy putting the pressure on Spieth.
Both are three-under with Stenson carding five birdies and two bogeys, while McIlroy finished with four and one.
Both left shots on course that cost them, and they’d be expected to minimise them tomorrow, and beyond.
Veteran Phil Mickelson’s 70 with six birdies and four bogeys has the 46-year-old still in contention, but it was the 55-year-old Vijay Singh who jumped out of the blocks best.
The Fijian birdied three of the first four holes for the first time in his career to finish with a 71.
There was special interest in China’s 22-year-old Haotong Li, in his Masters debut.
He finished third in The Open last year to automatically qualify for Augusta, and celebrated with a three-under 69 that included six birdies and three bogeys.
Marc Leishman was the best of the four Australians, with the 15th also damaging his card, but not nearly to the Garcia extent.
Leishman was flawless with four birdies until the double at 15, to finish with a 70.
Cameron Smith fired in a 71, but Jason Day and Adam Scott both had three-over 75s.
The Masters Day 1 leaderboard (par 72)
66 – Jordan Spieth.
68 – Tony Finau, Matt Kuchar.
67 – Adam Hadwin, Charley Hoffman, Haoyong Li, Patrick Reed, Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy, Rafael Cabrera-Bello.