Justin Rose’s chances of doubling his tally of major wins shortened considerably yesterday after the 41-year-old shot a stunning seven-under-par 65 in testing conditions at Augusta National that propelled him into a four-shot lead with 54 holes still to play.
Almost unconsidered by the bookies after only playing four times this year, and only two rounds in the last seven weeks, Rose spent his downtime in his trophy room at home visualising his way around Augusta’s twists and turns, imagining how he’d play every shot and every hole. Yet, even in his wildest dreams, Rose probably didn’t see himself playing Augusta’s back nine in just 30 strokes and being nine under par for his last 10 holes.
After dropping a shot at the first hole and the seventh, Rose was two-over0par when he teed it up at the par-five 8th, and seemingly treading water at best in challenging conditions. But an eagle there – set up by a stunning 3-wood to ten feet from 273 yards – signalled the start of an incredible run of scores – 3, 3, 4, 2, 4, 4, 4, 2, 3, 4 – that saw him pull four shots clear over Brian Harman and Hideki Matsuyama, both of whom shot 69s.
On a tough opening day, during which only 12 players broke par, Rose’s round was a class apart, and has seen his odds of bagging the coveted green jacket slashed from an opening 70-1 to as low as 4-1.
Rose, who lost out in a play-off here against Sergio Garcia in 2017, said: “I’ve had some situations in my career that should stand me in good stead. But keeping the expectations relatively low, even in this situation, is not a bad thing for me for the remainder of the week. I just need to keep it one shot at a time and keep committing to the golf course. You can never get ahead of yourself – we’ve seen it many times around here.”
While Rose bloomed among the Azaleas, a good many of the more favoured players found the conditions less conducive to low scoring, with the speedy greens coupled with a freshening breeze causing problems for many of the early starters.
Brooks Koepka, who opened up with a 74, was one of several players to suggest Augusta’s greens committee might have erred on the side of silly when it came to preparing the putting surfaces for this week. “There’s not much grass on a couple of those greens,” he said. “On the back of 6 there’s no grass, and 9, I don’t know if there is grass.”
Sergio García, who shot 76, was a little more forthright, throwing out a slightly dated boxing analogy. “I feel like I just came out of the 12-round fight with Evander Holyfield. I need to go home and rest,” he said.
Those that fared better include 2018 champion Patrick Reed, who sits alongside Will Zalatoris, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Webb Simpson in a share of fourth place after shooting 70s. Shane Lowry, playing in Rose’s company, is a shot further back in tied 8th after making a birdie at the last for a hard-fought 71, a score matched by Tyrrell Hatton.
Defending Masters champion Dustin Johnson was level par before a double bogey on the last saw him register a 74, while Jon Rahm, fresh from the weekend birth of his first child, signed for a 72.
Bryson DeChambeau once again proved that talk was cheap when it comes to taming Augusta, and a 76, featuring numerous wayward drives, was all he had to show for his efforts. A score, incidently, that was matched by 63-year-old Ian Woosnam, hero of 1991, who played the back nine in level par despite playing with a groin injury that almost caused him to walk off after 11 holes. It was also a score matched by the out-of-sorts Rory McIlroy, who had to suffer the ignomy of hitting his father with an errant tee shot en route to another disappointing first round at Augusta.
Lee Westwood’s hopes of becoming the oldest ever Masters’ winner look rather unlikely after the 47-year-old slumped to a 78, that leaves him 13 shots behind his Ryder Cup compatriot, while Tommy Fleetwood’s afternoon didn’t look like yielding much at all until he aced the par-3 16th to see him finish the day on two over.
The day had opened with a key moment in Augusta’s history, with 86-year-old Lee Elder, the first black man to compete here in 1974, joined Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player for ceremonial tee shot duties. The only shame was that having waited all that time to be invited, Elder was too frail to swing a club.
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