The rain may have delayed the start of the 88th Masters by a few hours, but it certainly didn’t extinguish the fireworks.
A major champion with a mixed history at Augusta National had the best Masters round of his career on Thursday. Meanwhile, golf’s most successful player continued his streak of dominant games.
Here are the main figures and notes to know from the first day of the Masters.
1. Brazen and boundary-pushing, Bryson DeChambeau once made a comment that ruffled green jackets all over Georgia, saying Augusta National “played like a par 67” to him thanks to its enormous distance. The following Sunday, DeChambeau found himself humiliated, 13 shots behind leader Dustin Johnson, and by his par standard that he set, 12 shots back.
He was grouped in this final round with Bernhard Langer, then aged 63, then the oldest man to reach a Masters. DeChambeau outscored Langer that week by an average of 64 yards, but the two-time Masters champion gained the upper hand, beating him that Sunday (71 to 73) and in the standings (by one stroke).
That DeChambeau didn’t look much like the guy who shot 65 at Augusta National on Thursday, the lowest round he’s shot here in 25 tries. DeChambeau had already been flummoxed by the greens here, losing nearly half a putting stroke per round. On Thursday, he gained 3.71 strokes with his putter, the most of any player. His 15 greens in regulation today were also four more than his career average heading into the week.
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2. Barring a charge from someone Friday morning, DeChambeau will hold the lead for the first time after one round of the Masters. He shared the first-round lead in 2019 with rival Brooks Koepka after an opening score of 66, but a second-round 75 made him secondary as Tiger Woods scored a historic victory that Sunday.
Can he maintain his momentum into the second round? This is the fourth time DeChambeau has opened a major with a round in the 60s since winning the US Open at Winged Foot in 2020. In subsequent second rounds, he has shot a combined score of 5 over of s.
3. Just one shot back is golf ball-killing smiling machine Scottie Scheffler, who dissected Augusta National with a bogey-free 66 on Thursday. Since the rankings began in 1986, Scheffler is the third reigning world number one to start a Masters with a round of 66 or lower. The previous two both had historic endings: in 2020, Dustin Johnson set the Masters Tournament goals record (-20). In 1996, Greg Norman blew the largest 54-hole lead in men’s history (six shots).
Scheffler’s short game is arguably his most underrated trait. He entered the week ranked fifth on the PGA Tour this season in strokes gained around the green per round, well over half a stroke per 18 holes. He was even better than Thursday, shooting a team-best 2.8 shots in that metric. Entering the week, Scheffler had a 62.7 percent mark in his young Masters career. Thursday he was 5 out of 5.
4. There is, however, a more worrying trend: not everyone who works in the field is named Scheffler. He’s statistically been the best ball striker at the Masters since his debut in 2020 – and he’s getting better. In his first appearance at Augusta National, Scheffler lost 0.72 strokes with his approaches per round. Each year that number increases, leading to a career-high 1.71 per round in 2023. On Thursday, he gained 2.09 shots with his approach shots.
On Thursday, Scheffler had his first career bogey-free round at the Masters. He has beaten the field scoring average in 20 of his last 21 PGA Tour rounds and hasn’t scored above par since Aug. 26. He’s now 68 under par at major championships since the start of 2020, eight shots ahead of anyone else in that span.
5. Earlier this week, two particularly accomplished Masters rookies – both of whom competed in the Ryder Cup last year – were receiving deserved attention as potential contenders. Wyndham Clark is the first player to make his Masters debut as the reigning US Open champion since 1970. Ludvig Åberg propelled himself into the world’s top 10 and is the only man to have competed in a Ryder Cup before to play his first major tournament. The hype was justified.
But another member of that winning European team – a phenom in his own right, who won the DP World Tour Championship last fall – didn’t have his name on the starters list before the tournament. Nicolai Højgaard, 23, entered on Thursday. When play was suspended (darkness), Højgaard was 5 under with three holes to play. Although he has not yet completed his round, Højgaard placed in the top 10 on Thursday in both approach shots gained and around the green.
Højgaard is a three-time DP World Tour winner, with some notable names in his rearview mirror from those victories. Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland were among the finalists last fall in Dubai. Fleetwood and Adrian Meronk finished T-2 ahead of him at the 2021 Italian Open. His best finish so far in 2024 was a second-place finish at Torrey Pines in January.
6. Danny Willett wasn’t supposed to play in this year’s Masters. Doctors told him he would be out for 12 to 18 months after undergoing surgery on his left shoulder last year. But Willett also wasn’t supposed to win a green jacket in 2016. He wasn’t supposed to unseat Jordan Spieth, a player looking for back-to-back green jackets.
Willett is making a habit of exceeding expectations at this location. In his first competitive round in 207 days, Willett shot 68, one of the most remarkable opening rounds in recent Masters memory. Last year, the Englishman lost more than 3.3 strokes in rounds 1 and 2 combined. Today he gained 2.67, the sixth highest in the standings.
Since his improbable victory here in 2016, Willett’s best major finish is a tie for sixth at the 2019 Open.
7. Max Homa is 4 under through 13 holes, easily the best start he’s ever had at the Masters. Before Thursday, Homa had never broken par on the front nine at Augusta National in any tournament round. In the first round, he was bogey-free at 4 under on the turn, within striking distance of the top of the board.
One of the game’s most popular characters, Homa has continued to rise through the ranks of professional golf over the past decade. The 2013 NCAA Division I champion won on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2014 and 2016. After winning once in his first 109 career PGA Tour starts, he has won five times since 2021. During the ‘Open Championship 2023, he landed his first career high. -10 finish in a major. He confirmed this with his first appearance for the United States in a Ryder Cup a few weeks later.
His rise has been deserved on the course, as he has improved significantly in almost every key stat over the past five years. His next logical step? In contention on Sunday in a major championship. Will it be this week?
8. Defending champion Jon Rahm stumbled out of the gates, as many defending Masters winners have done in recent years. Rahm is one of the last eight players defending their title here to shoot over par in the first round. The Spaniard was not himself with the driver on Thursday: from his debut in 2017 until 2023, he led all qualified players in strokes gained on the field. tee per round at the Masters. In the first round, he lost almost a stroke and a half in this category.
Only three men have won consecutive Masters titles: Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02). All three began their winning streak with a first-round score under par. Rahm is eight behind DeChambeau – no one has trailed by more than seven after 18 holes and won the Masters.
9. Rory McIlroy opened with 71, his best score in the first round of the Masters in six years. In the five intermediate tournaments, McIlroy averaged 73.8 in the first round at Augusta National, playing par 4s in a total of 15 overs. McIlroy posted a red number despite playing the par 5s in an even par, the first time he has failed to break par on this quartet of holes in 15 tries.
Woods was 1 under through 13 holes when play was suspended, a promising start for the five-time champion. Woods birdied No. 1, a calamitous hole for him during his career. It was the first time Tiger had birdied the hole to start a Masters since 1998. If he finishes his first round under par, it will be the 52nd round in the red of Woods’ Masters career, breaking the Tied with Gary Player for sixth all-time. .
ten. Patrick Cantlay made an eagle on the 17th hole Thursday, the first time that has happened at the Masters since Davis Love III in 1998, and only the fourth time in tournament history. The hole has been played more than 7,200 times during the Masters tournament between players signing for a deuce.
Since 2000, 90.5 percent of men’s major champions have been five shots or less out of the lead after the first round. Twenty-six of the last 30 Masters winners were five strokes or less heading into the second round.
(Top photo of Scottie Scheffler, left, and Ted Scott: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)