12 Apr 201919.33 EDTSo that’s your lot on a very strange but very exciting first day at the 2019 Masters. For a while we had nine players bunched in the lead at -3, but Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Ian Poulter, Dustin Johnson and the evergreen Phil Mickelson pulled ahead. Tomorrow promises to be another entertaining, if possibly a little wet, day at Augusta. Please join us. Thanks for reading today. Nighty night!
-6: DeChambeau, Koepka
-5: Mickelson
-4: Poulter, D Johnson
-3: Harding, Scott, Rahm, Kisner, Aphibarnrat
-2: Conners, Holmes, Bjerregaard, Woodland, Woods, Fowler, Smith, Kizzire, Molinari, Day
-1: Finau, Hoffman, Oosthuizen, Fleetwood, Na, Olesen, Langer, Kuchar
Koepka sends his second into 18 pin high. He’ll have an eight-foot look at a birdie that’d give him sole ownership of the first-round lead. But first some unwanted attention for Paul Casey, who trudges up the hole with a face like thunder, having hit a tree and then thinned his approach, his third shot, through the green. His putt coming back up the hill doesn’t make it. He ends with a double-bogey six, and that’s an 81, the second-worst score of the day. He’s +9, just one ahead of Angel Cabrera. Par for Jordan Spieth, whose troubled three-over 75 suddenly doesn’t seem so bad. And finally Koepka, who can’t make his birdie putt, but he’s back in 31 for a blemish-free 66!
12 Apr 201919.20 EDTMickelson rolls in his birdie putt! That’s a five-under-par 67, and the old boy is just one shot behind the twentysomethings DeChambeau and Koepka! With Tiger in the house after a 70, there are some fairytales waiting to be written this weekend. Meanwhile his partners both end the day over par: Justin Thomas with a 73, Justin Rose with a 75.
12 Apr 201919.16 EDTIt’s been a sensational late afternoon’s play at Augusta National. A penny for the pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy’s thoughts: having shot 73, his worst opening round since coming here as a 20-year-old in 2010, a year in which he missed the cut. He’ll be seven off the first-round lead at least. Here’s Andy Bull on his difficulties.
Phil up the last. He’s wedging in from the centre of the fairway. Straight at the flag. It spins eight feet short of the cup, a wonderful approach that only looks workaday given what DeChambeau got up to a few minutes earlier. He’ll have a look at birdie for a 67. He’s nearly 49 years old! This is why you’ve got to love golf.
12 Apr 201919.10 EDTDeChambeau takes off his trademark flat cap as he approaches the 18th. The gallery rises as one to give this amazing young man the acclaim he deserves. He’s come back in 31 strokes! And in what style! Six birdies in the last seven holes! A glorious 66. DJ putts up from the swale for his par; a fine up and down. That’s a 68. And back on 17, another great scramble, and it’s by ... who else? Quagmire . Brooks Koepka, who splashes delicately to four feet, a fine result from a downhill lie in the big bunker, and tidies up for par. Day pars the last for a two-under 70, incidentally.
-6: DeChambeau (F), Koepka (17)
-4: Poulter (F), D Johnson (F), Mickelson (17)
Bryson DeChambeau is an artist all right! He whips an iron into 18 from the best part of 200 yards. His ball lands on the green and makes its way towards the flagstick, rolling at speed. It hits that stick, bang in the centre. But it somehow doesn’t drop, bouncing back an inch or so. Really not sure how that didn’t fall into the cup! That would have been an eagle for the ages. But he’s more than happy to take the birdie that’ll give him a share of the lead at -6. Meanwhile DJ tugs his approach down the swale to the left and into the patrons, while back on 17, Koepka’s second finds the bunker guarding the green front right. Bryson DeChambeau, though! Shot of the day, no question. If it’s not shot of the tournament come the end of the week, we’ll have witnessed something pretty special.
11 Apr 201918.58 EDTDustin Johnson rips his driver down 18. Fairway split. DeChambeau takes a fairway wood and finds the first cut on the left. Day finds the short stuff but he’s well short of DJ having also forgone his big stick. Up on the green, Bubba knocks in a 12-foot par saver and the two-time winner signs for a first-round 72.
11 Apr 201918.53 EDTThe Open champion Francisco Molinari has gone under the radar today. A steady round for most of it, not a great deal going on. But he’s finished with birdies at 15 and 18, and suddenly that’s a two-under 70. Four off the lead and he’s very well placed. Meanwhile a much-needed birdie for Jordan Spieth at 16, and he’s back up to +3.
11 Apr 201918.50 EDTBREAKING NEWS: Brooks Koepka is human. He sends his tee shot at 16 to eight feet, but doesn’t quite hit the birdie putt, leaving it a turn short of the cup. That would have been five birdies in a row. Four will have to do, and as leader he allows himself a rueful grin as he walks off the hole. Actually it’s not even that rueful, it’s a full on dazzling smile. He’s enjoying life at the moment, and whyever not. He stays at -6.
Bryson DeChambeau is an artist. He’s on the extreme back edge of 17, having forced his ball up there from the trees, much like Rory McIlroy did hours ago. McIlroy took three putts from that position; DeChambeau draws his wedge and strokes a chip into the cup for birdie! One of those you just knew was dropping, from quite a way out. Glorious. No wonder these things sometimes take their time. It’s some leader board, this!
-6: Koepka (15)
-5: DeChambeau (17)
-4: Poulter (F), D Johnson (16), Mickelson (16)
Yeah, Koepka specialises in tricky up and downs all right. He lobs softly from the bottom of the bank behind 15, and sends his ball gently rolling to three feet. Another birdie, and that’s four birdies in a row, and five in six holes. Meanwhile his partner Paul Casey’s nightmare continues. He’d pretty much stemmed the bleeding after the double at 5 that dropped him to +5, dropping only one more shot when he took two to escape from a bunker at the back of 12. But now he’s passed up his chance of a first birdie of the day, yipping from very close range at the final par-five. He’s a study in frustration.
11 Apr 201918.37 EDTMickelson’s tee shot at 16 is almost a carbon copy of DeChambeau’s. An inch or so away from an ace. He’ll move to -4, and those back-to-back bogeys at 10 and 11 seem a world away already. A par for Poulter up the last, and he signs for a fantastic 68. And Koepka’s drive wasn’t quite as far right as I’d thought ... I might have hallucinated some trees, do forgive me ... but he doesn’t take advantage of any lucky bounce he might have had. He sends his second over the back of 15; it’ll be a tricky up and down. Then again, Koepka specialises in tricky up and downs.
11 Apr 201918.32 EDTOn the last, Aphibarnrat wedges to 12 feet, and rolls in the putt. Given the waywardness of his drive, that was a fine par save. He signs for a three-under 69, as does Kisner, who adroitly got up and down from the back. Birdie for Mickelson at 15, and the three-time winner is just two off the lead at -3. And both Dustin Johnson and Jason Day make birdie at 16, having knocked their tee shots close ... just not as sensationally close as DeChambeau. Everyone very happy right now.
-5: Koepka (14)
-4: Poulter (17), D Johnson (16), DeChambeau (16)
Play’s slowed up a bit, and the final group is forced to wait for 15 minutes on the 15th tee. A few fingers may point a couple of groups ahead, as DeChambeau took an age over his eagle putt. The leader Koepka, who has spoken with some feeling about slow play in the past, is clearly a little irritated, and sends his drive into filth down the right in frustration. Thing is, though, you can’t knock DeChambeau too much, because the young man has oodles of talent. On 16, he lands his tee shot 20 feet to the right of the flag, using the slope of the green to gather his ball towards the hole. For a second, it looks like dropping for a hole-in-one, but the ball skims the right-hand edge and stays out. He’ll be tapping in for a birdie that’ll take him into a share of second at -4.
11 Apr 201918.21 EDTAphibarnrat sprays his tee shot at 18 into the trees on the right. The drive that cost Justin Rose the 2017 Masters. He does well to batter his ball out of the woods, despite his club crashing into branches on his backswing. He’ll have an up and down from 100 yards or so to save his par. Kisner will have a slightly less tricky up and down, but he’s gone over the back and there isn’t a whole lot of green to play with from there.
11 Apr 201918.16 EDTDeChambeau very nearly guides in a long eagle putt across 15. Not quite, and he’s forced to check himself as he shapes to celebrate, but it was a fine effort nonetheless. He moves to -3. Day doesn’t quite hit his birdie putt from 18 feet and remains at -2; he’s holding his hip and back, wincing as he bends to pluck his ball from the hole. Plenty of time on the treatment table tonight. Par for DJ too, a result of flying his second over the back. He remains at -3.
11 Apr 201918.07 EDTKisner scrambles another par, this time at 17. He’d been up against it ever since sending his drive away to the left, but a fine pitch to five feet saved the day. His partner Aphibarnrat saw a birdie putt lip out. He was a couple of millimetres away from picking up five shots in five holes. Meanwhile on 14, the astonishing Brooks Koepka keeps on trucking, firing his second over the flag and steering in a right-to-left 20-footer for his fifth birdie of the day, and his fourth in the last five holes! The usual long-way-to-go caveats apply, but nevertheless ... are you beginning to wonder why Koepka wasn’t short-priced favourite, seeing he’d won two of the last three majors? Yes, me too.
-5: Koepka (14)
-4: Poulter (16)
-3: Harding (F), Scott (F), Rahm (F), Kisner (17), Aphibarnrat (17), D Johnson (14)
Bernhard Langer is off the back of 18 in three. He putts up the bank, curling a left-to-right 40-footer into the cup for par! He ends the day with a one-under 71. Bernhard Langer is 61 years old. Meanwhile the relatively youthful Ian Poulter, 43¼, makes his birdie putt at 16 to grab a share of Koepka’s lead. Meanwhile bogey for Bryson DeChambeau (25) at 14, and I didn’t tell you that Phil the Thrill (nearly 49) birdied 13, back-to-back birdies fully repairing the damage caused at 10 and 11. The latter two are -2. Hey, this leader board suddenly looks a little bit more normal.
-4: Poulter (17), Koepka (13)
-3: Harding (F), Scott (F), Rahm (F), Kisner (16), Aphibarnrat (16), D Johnson (14)
So here’s a stat: the highest number of players to have ever tied the 18-hole lead at the Masters is five. That happened in 1964 and 1993. But that’s a record that might still be standing come the end of the day, because Brooks Koepka, who has won two of the last three majors, is now leading this one alone. A fuss-free two-putt birdie at the par-five 13th, and he nips ahead of the pack at -4. He may soon be joined there by Ian Poulter, who creams his tee shot at 16 to six feet.
11 Apr 201917.46 EDTIt’s now a nine-way tie for the lead! Ian Poulter birdies 15, and this is gloriously daft. With DJ still to play the second par five on the back nine, and Koepka yet to travel down either of them. you’d expect someone to break out of this group and snatch the first-round lead. Wouldn’t you?
-3: Harding (F), Scott (F), Rahm (F), Kisner (16), Aphibarnrat (16), Poulter (15), D Johnson (13), DeChambeau (13), Koepka (12)
11 Apr 201917.43 EDTAphibarnrat joins the ever-expanding leading group at -3 by rolling in his birdie putt at 16. The big man’s four under for the last three! Easy to forget that he tied for 15th here on debut in 2016. Meanwhile a sensational escape by Kisner, who opts against trying to gently chip close, and sends his ball way past the hole, using the slope back towards the flag to gather the ball close. He leaves himself a three-footer to retain a share of the lead.
11 Apr 201917.39 EDTKisner pulls his tee shot at the par-three 16th. Disaster: the ball bounces off the bank to the left of the green and towards the drink. Just as he’d reached the top of the leader board as well. But a stroke of good fortune, as it snags in the thick grass and stays dry. He’s not left with an easy chip up - there’s little green in front of the flag - but at least he’s not wet. His playing partner Kiradech Aphibarnrat meanwhile lands his tee shot in the centre of the green, the ball gathered left and down towards the hole by the camber. He’ll have a look at birdie from ten feet or so. He’ll fancy his chances, too, having just eagled 13 and birdied 15 to move to -2. Meanwhile up on 18, Kevin Na bogeys to end his day with a 71.
11 Apr 201917.33 EDTSo having waited for nearly an hour to put up a fresh-looking leader board, then given in and posted one anyway, here’s what happens almost immediately. Brooks Koepka knocks in a putt from the fringe at the back of 12, and joins the co-leaders. Then Jason Day moves to -2 with birdie at 13, despite suffering from a pulled muscle in his left side for which he requires physio treatment. His playing partner Bryson DeChambeau birdies too, following a two at 12. Dustin Johnson makes it a trio of birdies in the third-last group. And finally a third birdie on the bounce at 15 for Kevin Kisner, who joins the pack at the top! So once more, with feeling ...
-3: Harding (F), Scott (F), Rahm (F), Kisner (15), D Johnson (13), DeChambeau (13), Koepka (12)
-2: Conners (F), Holmes (F), Bjerregaard (F), Woodland (F), Woods (F), Fowler (F), Smith (F), Kizzire (F), Na (17), Aphibarnrat (15), Poulter (14), Kuchar (14), Day (13)
There hasn’t been much movement at the top of the leader board for some time now. But let’s have a look at the thing anyway.
-3: Harding (F), Scott (F), Rahm (F)
-2: Conners (F), Holmes (F), Bjerregaard (F), Woodland (F), Woods (F), Fowler (F), Smith (F), Kizzire (F), Na (17), Kisner (14), Poulter (14), Kuchar (14), D Johnson (12), DeChambeau (12), Koepka (11)
Mickelson did indeed salvage his bogey at 11. And the salvage job continued. Given that he’d also bogeyed 10, he’d slipped to level par. But you don’t win three green jackets around here without a bit of moxie, and he bounces back with birdie at 12 to go into red figures again at -1. His partners aren’t so happy right now, though. Rose nearly misses another tiddler; in fact he was sure he’d pushed it to the right from three feet, but the hole snaffled his ball. He stays at +4 (having bogeyed 9, which I might have not mentioned, apologies). Justin Thomas meanwhile lands a fine 9-iron pin high, but misses the eight footer he’d left himself. He cocks his head back like a Pez dispenser, in high irritation, but he’s still level par, so it’s far from the end of the world.
11 Apr 201917.13 EDTA bulletin from our man Andy Bull, toiling away in Augusta. It regards one of today’s honorary starters, the three-time champion Gary Player, who has been holding court in typically rococo style.
Thought you might like a few highlights from what’s become one of my very favourite Masters traditions: the press conference after the honorary start, when Jack Nicklaus and everyone else sits down to listen to Gary Player deliver a series of rambling soliloquies about golf and everything else, today he touched on Tiger’s swing, why Byron Nelson’s overrated, his favourite Winston Churchill quotes, the benefits of having a cold shower every morning, nutrition, racism, gender equality, strategies for coping with jet lag, mobile phones, tai chi, life in the South African townships, table manners, and everything else that’s rattling around inside his head. My favourite bit of this year’s monologue was probably when he was asked, quite simply, how impressed he was by Jennifer Kupcho’s play in the inaugural women’s amateur last week. Here’s his full answer. Stick around for the pay off.
“It just goes to show, everybody talks about long hitting. I get so tired hearing about long hitting all the time, because if you look at two of the leading players ‑ I won’t mention their names - they were like 129th and 130th in accuracy, and they were 1 and 2 in the world. If you look at 1986 when Jack won at the age of 46, quite remarkable. He was on the 17th green with a plus, minus 20‑foot putt. Seve was down the fairway at 15 with a one‑shot lead, 5‑iron to the green, knocks it the in the water, that long drive didn’t mean anything. Every putt you hole over that distance means something.
So golf really is a game of putting today, of short game. It’s not long driving. And it’s the mind. We haven’t scratched the surface of the mind. These women are coming into golf now, and these young people are coming into golf now, realizing that if they shoot par, it doesn’t mean a thing. So they’re adjusting their mind according to the conditions. And also the equipment is improving so much. It’s quite remarkable. If you really take clubs, we had a - one of my charity days in England, and we had all the clubs from, I don’t know, 1920, and we had Tom Watson hit them. He couldn’t hit them very well, and then Charl Schwartzel came, and it was remarkable. He had the same ball, and to see the difference. The ball was going 200 yards, and then it was going 360 yards. And to see the difference in the grooves and everything.
So the mind adjusts to time and sometimes it adjusts to the future, and that’s what’s happening. And so we know now, if you’re just an ordinary player or do an ordinary score, you might as well not be a pro. And certainly people are going to turn pro, and they are not going to make it because they all think it’s a bed of roses and don’t realize it’s a very lonely life, traveling with time changes, away from your dear ones and country and etc. But the mind, I’m so convinced the mind is such a valuable asset, and I’m going to be repetitive and say we haven’t scratched the surface yet.
So I’m not surprised they did that, but it’s remarkable to see a woman, and the putting ‑ and the greens are so good today. When I think of the greens we played on, the spike marks and old bermuda grass, if you look at a green today, honestly, this is why ‑ how can you compare Tiger Woods to Jack Nicklaus? It’s not fair. Let him play today with these greens and raked bunkers or bunkers all the same width, and with a driver and a ball that goes 50 yards further. This man finished second in 19 major championships, 19. This is what people forget when they want to make a comparison. So it’s very hard to make comparisons, but the greens are just like a snooker table today. If you’ve got any sort of a putting stroke and you hit it on line, it goes in and it doesn’t bounce off. And also, people also don’t realize, Bobby Jones, when you talk about Bobby Jones ‑ I think when I played in my first Open Championship, they never changed the pin one day. The pin was there in the practice round and stayed there in the tournament. Can you imagine that?
I remember people getting in bunkers, and they couldn’t get out at Lytham & St Annes. I couldn’t get out, put it in the bunker there. And I went to Brigadier Brickman, and I made the biggest error. I said, ‘May I have an appointment.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ So I went in, and I said, ‘You know, just being in America, and I love The Open, in America they have got rakes all over at every hole, I love The Open; may I buy 18 rakes for this tournament?’ He says, ‘You little insolent bastard, get out of my office.’”
11 Apr 201917.07 EDTIan Poulter has been going along very nicely all day. Birdies at 1 and 6. A bogey at 9, but a very unfortunate one: in the bunker at the back of the green, he set his ball out on the big u-shaped route it needed to take to reach the hole. It looked perfectly paced en route, but the margins between success and failure at Augusta are so slim, and his ball snagged the apron at the apex of the curve, and like Frank Costanza, stopped short. He’s not let that affect him, though, and has just birdied 13 to get back to -2.
11 Apr 201917.03 EDTMickelson sends his drive into the pine trees down the right of 11. He tries to whip a low hook onto the green, but skims a branch and the ball sails straight into the water to the front-left of the putting surface. No matter! He sends his fourth, from the dropzone, screeching to a halt by the hole. Unless he messes up big-time, he’ll be escaping with a bogey and will hang on in there at level par. Meanwhile birdies at 13 and 15 for Kevin Na, who has finished in the top dozen here on a couple of occasions, in 2012 and 2015. He’s -2. And back-to-back birdies for Kevin Kisner, at 13 and 14, who has in the past come close at the Open, the PGA and the Players, without ever landing a big one. He’s -2 as well.
Updated at 17.14 EDT11 Apr 201916.57 EDTEagle for Matt Kuchar at 13, having crashed a splendid second to eight feet. He’s -2. Dustin Johnson responds to a dropped shot at 10 with a 25-foot left-to-right curler across 11, a birdie that takes him back to -2. Birdie for Brooks Koepka at 10, after a second shot arrowed straight at the flag, 12 feet close, no mean feat on a treacherous hole. A good few minutes for the USA.
11 Apr 201916.53 EDTA sorry end to Patton Kizzire’s round. The 33-year-old from Montgomery, Alabama, found the centre of the 18th fairway with his tee shot, but then pushed a short iron wide right and couldn’t get up and down to save his par. He nevertheless ends with a most acceptable 70, one off the lead.
11 Apr 201916.48 EDTJordan Spieth’s travails continue apace. From the front of the steep-faced 9th green, he fails to get his ball up onto the top and it comes rolling back to his feet. Spieth does incredibly well to bump his next shot up to four feet, limiting the damage to bogey. He’s out in 40. Tiger took 40 on the front nine in the first round in 1997, of course, and ended up cantering home by 12 strokes. Mind you, Tiger came back in 30 that day, and a similar turnaround for Spieth would be quite a story the way he’s been playing of late.
11 Apr 201916.42 EDTCameron Smith finished in a tie for fifth place last year. He’s coming at Augusta again: a fine 70, birdies at 13, 15 and 16 salvaging an average performance and launching the young Australian up the leader board to -2. As for his playing partners? Rickie Fowler also signs his name to a 70. But it’s a dispiriting 73 for Rory McIlroy, who ends bogey-bogey after hooking big into the trees down the left of 18, then missing a short par saver up on the green just as it looked a successful scramble was on the cards. He’s +1, and far from out of it, just four off the lead right now, the early predictions of low scoring having failed to materialise. But he’ll need to ignore this stat: 77% of the previous 82 tournaments here have been won by folk in the top ten after round one. And that’s been the outcome for the last 12 tournaments in a row. Lucky 13 for McIlroy? He’ll need to up his game if that’s to be the case.
Pars for Tiger and Rahm up 18. Both will be happy, both having missed the green in regulation. Tiger ends with a 70, Rahm a fine 69 and a share of the current lead. Tiger will be more than happy with that 70: it’s his joint-second lowest first-round score, and from there he won in 1997, 2001 and 2002. His lowest, for the record, was a 68 in 2010, but he could only finish in a tie for fourth that year.
-3: Harding (F), Scott (F), Rahm (F), Kizzire (17)
-2: Conners (F), Holmes (F), Bjerregaard (F), Woodland (F), Woods (F), Fowler (17), Smith (17), Olesen (14), D Johnson (9), Mickelson (9)
Speaking of miserable starts by one of England’s pre-tournament hot picks ... Paul Casey is +5 through the first seven holes. The nadir came with a double bogey at 5, the result of taking two to get out of a fairway bunker. Elsewhere, Brooks Koepka finds the 8th green easily in two, then takes three putts to spurn a fine birdie chance. An overly aggressive eagle attempt the root cause of that. The US Open and PGA champion is -1. And a double for Xander Schauffele up the last; a decent opening round suddenly turns into a 73: he’s +1.
11 Apr 201916.20 EDTRory’s in trouble again, this time at 17. A drive sent into the Tiger trees down the right. Like Woods before him, there’s no route to the flag. He’s forced to send a low scuttler up towards the green. His ball squirts onto the putting surface, but he’s left with a 60-foot uphill monster along the back of the green. He leaves that one a good 12 feet short, and it leads to a three-putt bogey. He’s back to level par again. Meanwhile Tommy Fleetwood pars the last to sign for a first-round 71. And the 2017 runner-up Justin Rose has started appallingly. Bogeys at 5 and 7, followed by a missed tiddler at 8. Another dropped shot, and he’s +3 already.
11 Apr 201916.12 EDTTiger falls out of the lead with bogey at 17. It’s mainly the fault of a drive whistled into the trees down the right, though letting a six-foot par saver slip by the hole didn’t help matters either. He’s -2. And so is his old sparring partner Phil Mickelson: the three-time Masters champion follows birdie at 2 with another at the next par-five, the 8th.
11 Apr 201916.05 EDTSpieth’s woes continue with a double at 6, the result of a wayward tee shot pushed right. His tee shot at 7 sails off to the right as well, but he extricates himself from bother with a fine second to the back of the green. He can’t quite make the birdie putt coming back from 20 feet, but par will suffice after that tee shot. He’s +3. Last year’s opening round of 66 seems an awfully long time ago right now.
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