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… so having said that, of the 18 players out there already, only five of them are under par for their round so far. Only one of those have carded more than one birdie. England’s Laurie Canter flew out of the blocks with birdies at 1 and 2, but he’s handed back one of those shots at 4. The 35-year-old debutant from Bath is currently +4 after a 77 yesterday that promised more, until he carded late double bogeys at 16 and 17. Rory, you are not alone.
Here we go, then, and the morning starters should have the best of the conditions today. There were rainstorms last night, and the greens should be nice and responsive as a result. Sound the low-scores klaxon! But will we hear the actual weather klaxon later? There’s a 30 percent change of a thunderstorm later in the afternoon. What’s certain is the temperature will rise as the day progresses, and so will the windspeeds. So yes, the guys out early will be the happiest. The weekend is expected to be dry and increasingly sunny and warm. Sunday should be a picture.
Yesterday was all about 44-year-old Justin Rose’s wonderful 67, the first chapter of what could become the greatest romantic story ever written by anyone from north-east Hampshire (providing we leave Jane Austen out of this). Hartley Wintney’s finest couldn’t right the nearly-man wrongs of 2007, 2015 and 2017, could he? Perhaps. Fingers crossed. Let’s see. Three days still to go. I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control.
Yesterday was also about Rory McIlroy. Somebody shouted “hallelujah!” when Scottie Scheffler hit his opening drive. Other well-worn biblical exclamations may well have been barked by fans of McIlroy, with some feeling, as he melted down on the homeward stretch, carding careless, clumsy, needless double bogeys at 15 and 17. Oh Rory. If we loved you less, we might be able to talk about it more.
Anyway, here’s how the top of the leaderboard looks after an entertaining and dramatic opening day at Augusta National. Nobody on it is out of contention, so best to approach the task in hand calmly. Remember: angry people are not always wise.
-7: Rose
-4: Conners, Scheffler, Åberg
-3: Hatton, DeChambeau
-2: Rai, English, Day, Bhatia
-1: M Kim, Thompson, Smith, Couples, Harman, Reed, Greyserman, MW Lee, Watson, McCarty, McCarthy, Berger, Fitzpatrick, Im, Hovland, Lowry
E: Young, Z Johnson, Jaeger, Morikawa, Niemann, McNealy, Campbell, Hoge, Garcia, McIlroy, Theegala
Today’s tee times
(USA unless stated, all times BST)
12.40 Rafael Campos (Pur), Cameron Davis (Aus), Austin Eckroat
12.51 Angel Cabrera (Arg), Laurie Canter (Eng), Adam Schenk
13.02 Brian Campbell, Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa)
13.13 Evan Beck, Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Bubba Watson
13.24 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Tom Hoge, Matt McCarty
13.35 Denny McCarthy, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Hiroshi Tai (Sgp)
13.52 Max Homa, Justin Rose (Eng), JJ Spaun
14.03 Justin Hastings (Cay), Dustin Johnson, Nick Taylor (Can)
14.14 Daniel Berger, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Lucas Glover
14.25 Patrick Cantlay, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den)
14.36 Russell Henley, Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Brooks Koepka
14.47 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott (Aus)
14.58 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Akshay Bhatia, Rory McIlroy (NIrl)
15.15 Bryson DeChambeau, Shane Lowry (Irl), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
15.26 Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Jon Rahm (Spa)
15.37 Sam Burns, Sepp Straka (Aut), Sahith Theegala
15.48 Patton Kizzire, Davis Riley
15.59 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Chun-An Yu (Tai)
16.10 Michael Kim, Mike Weir (Can), Cameron Young
16.21 Joe Highsmith, Zach Johnson, Chris Kirk
16.38 Nicolas Echavarria (Col), Davis Thompson, Danny Willett (Eng)
16.49 Noah Kent, Bernhard Langer (Ger), Will Zalatoris
17.00 J. T. Poston, Aaron Rai (Eng), Cameron Smith (Aus)
17.11 Fred Couples, Harris English, Taylor Pendrith (Can)
17.22 Corey Conners (Can), Brian Harman, Stephan Jaeger (Ger)
17.33 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Max Greyserman, Patrick Reed
17.50 Nick Dunlap, Billy Horschel, Robert MacIntyre (Sco)
18.01 Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Collin Morikawa, Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
18.12 Keegan Bradley, Jason Day (Aus), Phil Mickelson
18.23 Jose Luis Ballester (Spa), Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas
18.34 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Jordan Spieth
18.45 Thomas Detry (Bel), Tony Finau, Maverick McNealy
