Augusta (United States) (AFP) – English veteran Justin Rose used a pair of birdie bursts to build an early lead in the first round of the Masters Thursday, with defending champion Scottie Scheffler leading the chase two strokes back. All eyes were on top-ranked Scheffler and world number two Rory McIlroy to start the first major of the year, but Rose is no stranger to the Masters leaderboard.
The 44-year-old has had at least a share of the first-round lead at Augusta National four times, most recently in 2021, and he wasted no time in heading up with birdies at the first three holes. Rose grabbed three more at the eighth, ninth, and 10th to put some daylight between himself and his closest rivals. Scheffler, trying to join Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods as the only players to win two straight Masters titles, was his usual unflappable self in producing a bogey-free four-under par 68 that put him tied in the clubhouse with Canadian Corey Conners.
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England’s Tyrrell Hatton was four-under through 16, but he bogeyed the 17th and signed for a three-under par 69. Scheffler opened his birdie account with a four-footer at the par-five second. He then rattled in a 62-foot birdie putt at the fourth. After just missing another long birdie putt at the sixth, Scheffler got up and down for par from a bunker at the seventh. He nabbed his third birdie of the day at the par-five eighth, where his tee shot found the first cut of rough and his second shot settled unpromisingly in a divot but he calmly rolled in a 14-foot putt.
Scheffler ended a run of seven straight pars with another birdie bomb at the par-three 16th, where he rolled in a 42-foot putt. He got up and down for par at 17, then saw his nine-foot birdie attempt at 18 slide by. First-round action started in picture-perfect morning conditions with barely a breath of wind stirring the Georgia pine trees. England’s Aaron Rai and Germany’s Stephan Jaeger had both reached four-under par with four front-nine birdies.
But with the back nine playing significantly tougher than the front, they couldn’t maintain the pace, and Amen Corner, Augusta National’s demanding stretch of 11, 12, and 13, proved the undoing of both. Rai bogeyed all three holes, and Jaeger hit the bank of Rae’s Creek with his third shot at the 13th. It rolled into the hazard, and he made a double bogey.
American Michael Kim was the first player in the clubhouse under par, posting a one-under 71. “It’s pretty tricky,” Kim said, noting that the course had dried out since the rain that halted Monday’s practice round, so that some greens were “noticeably firm on the first bounce.” McIlroy, trying for the 11th time to become just the sixth player to claim a career Grand Slam, was finding it frustrating going in the afternoon, just missing a birdie to open. He picked up his first stroke of the day at the third and moved to two-under with a birdie at the eighth.
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