12:30 PM
Jimmy Walker and Brian Gay bogey the first
How does 1987 champion Larry Mize start his day? With a bogey as well, leaving him an unlucky +13 after 19 holes…
12:20 PM
Larry Mize, on +12, does not have a good start to the day
Finds the greenside bunker in two after a half-decent drive. Partner Brian Gay finds the green in two, though does have a 60ft putt to deal with.
12:13 PM
Singh nailed his shot out of the bunker
Sticks it to 11ft from the pin. Martin Laird was on in two as well but has just missed his birdie putt. Can Singh 2000 Masters winner Singh make his to get back to +6 for the tournament? The answer is no, so it is a straight par for both men in the opening group.
12:07 PM
Vijay Singh and Martin Laird to get day two going, then
Singh has, unfortunately, found the fairway bunker with his drive off the first. He was +7 after round one with Laird +2.
11:58 AM
Tee times for the first couple of hours: Leader Rose off at 2.36pm
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13:00 V Singh (Fij), M Laird (Sco)
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13:12 L Mize, J Walker, B Gay
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13:24 C Ortiz (Mex), M Hughes (Can), B Wiesberger (Aut)
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13:36 M Weir (Can), CT Pan (Tai), R MacIntyre (Sco)
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13:48 J M Olazabal (Esp), M Wallace (Eng), L Griffin
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14:00 V Perez (Fra), J Kokrak, M Leishman (Aus)
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14:12 F Couples, F Molinari (Ita), (x) C Osborne
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14:24 Z Johnson, K Na, G Woodland
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14:36 S Lowry (Irl), J Rose (Eng), M Kuchar
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14:48 B Horschel, T Hatton (Eng), R Palmer
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15:06 P Mickelson, T Fleetwood (Eng), S Scheffler
Want to know all of them? No worries, click here.
11:46 AM
Round one report: Brilliant Justin Rose leads by four as fellow big names struggle
Justin Rose had not played for five weeks because of a back injury and, instead of competitive golf, prepared by sitting in his trophy room at home, visualising how he would play Augusta National.
Yet even in his wildest fantasies, he would never have envisaged shooting a seven-under 65 to take a four-shot lead.
And Rose would surely have required industrial strength hallucinogenics to picture playing the last 11 holes in nine-under on a day when the Masters did not so much as bite back as gleefully devour so many big names.
Dustin Johnson a 74, Rory McIlroy a 76, Bryson DeChambeau a 76, Lee Westwood a 78. It verged on carnage. But Rose hit the treacherous fast-and-firm layout running and by the end was in full sprint, with one of the greatest stretches in British golf history.
Yes, it was only Thursday, but that closing three hours should always be recalled. The 40 year-old was two-over after seven holes and seemingly highly unlikely to trouble the clubhouse leaders – American Brian Harmon and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. But then Rose emerged in full and outrageous bloom.
The 2013 US Open champion caught a break on the par-five eighth, when his approach bounced kindly off the bank on the left before coming to rest within 15 feet. Rose holed for an eagle and proceeded to soar.
His tee shot to four feet on the famous par-three 12th was class, his approach to kick-in distance on the 17th probably even better. Rose was in the zone, a zone nobody else came close to entering all day.
Alister MacKenzie’s creation munched huge chunks out of some of the game’s biggest names on a first day when a US Open broke out in Georgia. McIlroy’s worst opening to this major featured him hitting his father with an errant shot on the seventh. And golf says that Pa is your friend?!
The consolation for McIlroy was that he was not alone in his Masters mediocrity. Dustin Johnson, trying to become just the fourth reigning champion to defend the title successfully, double-bogeyed the last. “Obviously, that stings, but I’ll go to the range and hit a few balls,” Johnson said. “The conditions are definitely different from November.”
By James Corrigan, Golf Correspondent