Augusta National was flailed by an incessant hard breeze Thursday, with gusts out of the west at up to 30 mph.
Which meant the first round of the 80th Masters was played with, at times, a three-club wind that changed hole to hole, swing to swing and all points in between.
Which meant that greens slowed by overnight rain dried out throughout the day, though at different rates depending on exposure and time of day.
Which seemed to mean little to Jordan Spieth.
The 22-year-old defending champion will take a two-shot advantage into Friday’s second round after his bogey-free, 6-under 66. He will be holding a lead for the seventh consecutive round over the past three Masters, holding off Danny Lee and Shane Lowry, who both shot 68s.
“Yeah, I would have signed for 2 under today and not even played the round, knowing the conditions that were coming up,” Spieth said.
Three shots back at 69 was a fivesome of Paul Casey, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Soren Kjeldsen, and Sergio Garcia, who shot himself into contention with a string of four consecutive birdies late in the round. In at 70 were Billy Horschel, Scott Piercy, Danny Willet and Rory McIlroy, who bogeyed No. 18.
Expect the leaderboard to be turning over like a Keno board over the next two rounds, as gusty conditions are forecast through Saturday. The day took the full measure of former champions Bubba Watson (75, after a 41 on the backside) and Adam Scott (76).
“I mean, it was tough out there,” said Lee, who is playing in his second Masters after a seven-year absence. “It’s blowing 25 miles per hour all day. There’s a lot of times, it felt like 50 miles per hour.”
That is what distinguished Spieth’s round. He felt he played better than when he opened the tournament last year with a 64. After he posted his score around 3:15 p.m., Casey, Lowry and Jason Day all pulled to within one shot of the lead before falling back. Day’s stumble was the most precipitous; a triple-bogey 6 on the par-3 16th dropped him to even par.
Casey, Spieth’s playing partner who also had six birdies could manage no better than 3 under, marveled: “I was impressed by everything (Spieth did) today. That was a flawless round of golf.”
Spieth was just 2 under on the par 5s but averted trouble on a day that will filled with it. He settled for a lay-up par on the par-5 15th, saved par with a 15 footer on No. 16 and closed out with a six-foot birdie on No. 18. He has yet to turn in an over-par score in nine competition rounds, but understands that conditions over the next 48 hours make for different challenges than in his first two Masters.
“As long as we recognize as a team … that it’s one round and through the course of the four, there’s going to be a lot of different changes,” he said. “There are going to be a lot of different birdies, bogeys and everything in between.”
That may set up well for Lowry, the 29-year-old Irishman — “It’s not like I haven’t played in the wind before” — who is playing in his second Masters. He churned up the front nine with four consecutive birdies on Nos. 2-5 and five in seven holes to turn in a 31, the lowest front-side score of the day. And while others slipped around the back, he closed out the round with six consecutive pars in his most promising round in a major.
In 12 appearances in all four major championships, Lowry has managed to finish tied for ninth in both the British Open (2014) and U.S. Open (2015). But he has also missed the cut six times
"I'm sure I'm going to be sitting back tonight thinking at some stage about wearing a green jacket," he said. "I'm only human. I'm going to do that. But I've got to kind of slap myself in the face and get myself back into reality and try to get down to business and keep hitting good shots and see where that leaves me at the end of the week."
The week appears destined to early for Rickie Fowler, who lost control of his round on the back nine — triple bogey-bogey-par-double bogey on Nos. 13-16 — and shot 80, his second-highest round in a major. Two-time U.S. Open champion Ernie Els opened the tournament with a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par-4 first hole — hello, six-putt — for the highest score ever recorded on No. 1 and also wound up with 80.
Others will surely follow them on more days like this.
“But that’s the challenge of this place,” said Scott, who bogeyed two of his first holes, never recovered and hits the second round 10 shots back. “You’ve got to really be on-point.”
And wind-proof.
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