AUGUSTA - The boys delivered Augusta National a fair whacking on Thursday. Now for nature’s revenge.
After taking a run at the first-round scoring record, Viktor Hovland “just kind of coasted in” while Spain’s Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka rushed to fill a four-shot gap, matching Hovland’s 7-under 65 as the trio takes a two-shot lead into the second round of the 87th Masters.
But after a calm opening day with receptive greens, the championship takes an atmospheric inversion into the weekend with projected heavy weather and that kind of scoring will not be feasible. A remarkable leaderboard includes Jason Day and Cameron Young two shots back at 67, while a septet of Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott, Gary Woodland, defending champion Scottie Scheffler, amateur Sam Bennett and Sam Burns all stood at 68.
Those anticipating upward transition will need more than their mukluks, even if the leaderboard is so stacked. The top 25, who are all within fours shots of the lead, account for 17 majors titles and a couple Olympic gold medals.
“Obviously we don’t know how bad it’s going to get, but I tend to think that it’s easier to make up some ground on the easier days,” said Hovland, a Norwegian by way of Oklahoma State. “So if you start with a really low round and it gets very difficult, it’s kind of easier to protect the score a little bit compared to if you’re five, six, seven shots back. It’s really difficult to make up that much ground if this place is playing very difficult.”
And it will. The weekend forecast ranges from ominous to inundation. Friday calls for a 90% chance of rain, with thunderstorms expected in midafternoon when most of the field is on the course. Saturday is worse: 100% chance of rain with up to two inches of precipitation and a high temperature of just 50, a 35-degree differential from Wednesday.
Second-round tee times have been moved up 30 minutes in compensation.
That does little for some big names with some ground to make up. 2022 runner-up Rory McIlroy, seeking his first Masters title, shot 72 just behind 2020 winner Dustin Johnson at 71. Tiger Woods shot 74.
Hovland made the turn at 31 and after playing Amen Corner at 2 under, had opened a four-shot lead. But there he stalled, parring out the last five holes -- two missed fairways and three missed greens in those final five did not help -- while the rest of the field closed in.
He saved par from a bunker on No. 18 with a tricky spinner off a downslope, giving him an eight-footer to maintain a piece of the lead. Greg Norman’s first-round 63 in 1996 remains the best opening round in Masters history.
“I like to gamble a little bit,” said Hovland, whose best finish in his 11 majors came in last summer’s Open Championship where he tied for 20th. “You probably shouldn’t find out and see if you can hit the shot or not at the Masters, but you’ve got to try them out somewhere. Today I pulled a lot of those shots off, so that’s fun.”
Rahm was having the precise opposite of fun when he four-putted from 14 feet to double-bogey No. 1. But he said he channeled Spainish hero Seve Ballesteros on his way to the second tee, repeating to himself Ballesteros’ celebrated description of his four-putt in the 1986 Masters. (“I miss, I miss, I miss, I make”) to put the disaster out of mind.
“If you’re going to make a double or four-putt or anything, it might as well be the first hole. Seventy-one holes to make it up,” he said. “After that, it was more (that) I was focused on the fact that all the strokes were good.”
He birdied the next two holes, eagled No. 8 and then finished birdie-birdie-par-birdie, dropping a three-footer on the finishing hole to leave him 9 under over the last 17 holes.
Koepka’s score was a toast to his recovery from surgery last year for a dislocated kneecap. Barely three weeks after that procedure, he exceeded doctors’ expectations by just making it to Augusta but was quickly dismissed after a painful 75-75 missed the cut. Thursday found him 2 under after three holes and performing so well that he missed four birdie putts inside 10 feet and still found a share of the lead after a birdie-birdie finish.
“I don’t think my score really gives me much of an advantage,” he said. “I think my (8:18 a.m.) tee time with the weather coming up, I think I might be able to squeak out a few more holes than everybody else before it starts dumping. I would say that’s probably the biggest advantage I’ve got going for me right now.”
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