Jonas Blixt could not help but think what might have been after completing his first-ever round in the Masters.
And it went quite well, actually. His 2-under-par score of 70 was tied for the lead when he left the Augusta National Golf Club early Thursday afternoon. But a par on the par-5 second hole, a bogey on the par-5 15th and a lip-out for par on 18 kept it from being a stellar first round.
“That one was a little heart breaker,” Blixt said of the bogey on the last hole. “It looked like it was right in the middle but it moved a little left right at the end and caught the lip and came back. But I made a lot of putts today, too, so I can’t really be too angry.”
Blixt is from Sweden and is one of 24 first-timers in this year’s Masters. He and fellow rookie Kevin Stadler were early leaders.
Blixt could have had a big lead but he thinned a wedge approach on 15 and found himself left of No. 2 and had to scramble to make a pretty good par. He also barely missed an eagle putt on the 13th hole.
“I think I just relaxed a little bit,” Blixt said of his errors. “That’s Augusta. It’s going to punish you straight away when you don’t focus.”
Blixt, who lives in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., played college golf at Florida State and has been playing mostly on the mini-tours since turning pro in 2008.
He broke through on the PGA Tour in 2012 and has earned more than $4 million the last two years. He qualified for the Masters by winning the Greenbrier Classic last summer and also finishing fourth in the PGA Championship.
“Good player,” said two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, who played with him Thursday. “He hit some really pretty iron shots and made a couple of key saves. He played really well and it was fun to watch.”
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