Key events
Ryan Fox is making just his second appearance at the Masters at the age of 37. He’s making up for an awful lot of lost time, replicating Bryson DeChambeau’s birdie-birdie-birdie opening blitz. Meanwhile DeChambeau drains a putt from 25 feet to save par at 5, while Danny Willett makes a magnificent left-to-right breaker from off the back of 7, around the shoulder of a bunker, to regain the shot he dropped at 5. It’s all happening!
-3: DeChambeau (5), Fox (3)
-2: Van Rooyen (8), Willett (7), Lamprecht -a- (6), An (2)
-1: Knapp (8), Olesen (5), Finau (2)
Here’s a reminder of how Jon Rahm won the Masters last year. He ended the week four strokes clear of Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, the latter having played the back nine in 31 strokes, one of the great Sunday charges, albeit ultimately futile. You can bet your bottom dollar Lefty will still back himself for a fourth green jacket, even if he’s now 53 years old, though he’s not started well this time round. Bogey at the opening hole, after failing to get up and down from just off the front of the green. Still, there are slow starts and slow starts: Rahm four-putted the 1st last year. So all is not yet lost.
As for the weather that caused this morning’s delayed start, there’s much more in the way of good news than bad. The really horrible stuff has come and gone, though there could be more rain later this afternoon. A chance of isolated thunderstorms, too, but fingers crossed they’ll give the area the swerve. The 40mph winds that were forecast never arrived, though it is breezy now and the gusts could further pick up later. The rest of the week, though, is all good. Sunny and windy tomorrow; sunny and warm over the weekend. Arnold Palmers all round!
There are 13 LIV golfers at Augusta National this week. The reigning champion Jon Rahm heads a list of talent that also includes former winners in Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel and Bubba Watson. That’s a lot of green wool. The first of the big LIV names out this morning is Bryson DeChambeau, and he’s absolutely flown out of the traps with birdies on the first three holes. Darts thrown into 1 and 3, a chip up to kick-in distance from the back of 2. He’s our new leader. Danny Willett meanwhile bogeys 5 and from a share of the lead, slips to two behind in the blink of an eye.
-3: DeChambeau (3)
-2: Van Rooyen (7)
-1: Willett (5), Lamprecht -a- (4), Olesen (3), Stubbs -a- (2), Fox (1), An (1)
(For the record II: the other LIV golfers here this week are Tyrrell Hatton, Brooks Koepka, Adrian Meronk, Joaquin Niemann and Cameron Smith.)
Austin Eckroat is one of 20 players making their Masters debut this week. The 25-year-old from Oklahoma, who won his first PGA Tour event at Palm Beach Gardens last month, will have dreamt of teeing off at Tea Olive all his life. And when he finally gets to live that dream … he hooks one into the pines down the left. A double to start, and it won’t get any easier.
For the record, the 19 other debutants are: Ludvig Aberg, Akshay Bhatia, Wyndham Clark, Eric Cole, Santiago de la Fuente, Nick Dunlap, Ryo Hisatsune, Lee Hodges, Nicolai Hojgaard, Stephan Jaeger, Jake Knapp, Christo Lamprecht, Peter Malnati, Denny McCarthy, Grayson Murray, Matthieu Pavon, Adam Schenk, Neal Shipley and Jasper Stubbs. There are nine PGA Tour winners among that lot.
Here we go then, fellow golf friends and lovers. Time to unwrap the green paper from a pimento cheese sandwich, pour yourself a long cool glass of iced tea, suck absent mindedly on a Georgia Peach Ice Cream Sandwich, and settle down on the porch. It’s on!
… and Thursday morning’s big news is a fast start for the surprise 2016 champion Danny Willett. Out in the second group, he carded the first birdie of the week at 1, then added a second after knocking his approach at 3 from 130 yards to five feet. He’s joined at the top of our first leader board by Erik van Rooyen, who follows birdie at 3 with another at 6.
-2: Van Rooyen (6), Willett (4)
-1: Moore (4), Lamprecht -a- (2), DeChambeau (1)
Preamble
Welcome, patrons, to the 88th edition of the Masters Tournament. Cellphones and other devices with recording and/or transmission capabilities are prohibited, no autograph requests on the course, do not run.
So will Jon Rahm become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2002, and only the fourth in history, to win back-to-back tournaments? Will hot favourite Scottie Scheffler pull on the Green Jacket for a second time? Will Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth or Dustin Johnson do it again? Will Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry or Viktor Hovland break through? Will Rickie Fowler become the first winner of the par-three contest to go on to win the main event? Will Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark or Akshay Bhatia become the first debutant to win since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979? Will Zalatoris?
Other players are also available, but there’s little point in talking about all of that right now. You see, Erik van Rooyen was due to hit the first shot in anger this morning at 8am local time, 1pm in the UK. But the weather’s closed in on Augusta National, and play has been delayed until 10.30am (3.30pm BST). You can find the updated tee times here. This hole-by-hole report will get rolling at 5pm BST, after which we’ll be blogging ♫♪ all day looooooonng ♫♪ ; until then, here’s the famous CBS theme on a one-hour loop and a retro report to get you in the mood. See you soon!
