AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A brief look at the first round Thursday of the Masters:
LEADING: Justin Rose shot 7-under 65. He also opened with 65 in 2021 and finished seventh.
CHASING: Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, Ludvig Aberg and Corey Conners were three shots back after rounds of 68.
IN THE HUNT: U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau and Tyrrell Hatton were at 3 under. Aaron Rai, Harris English, Jason Day and Akshay Bhatia were another shot back before a logjam at 1 under.
TIMELESS: Fred Couples holed out for eagle on his way to a 71. That made the 65-year-old Couples, the 1992 champ, the second-oldest player to shoot a subpar round at the Masters. Tom Watson was a month older when he shot 71 in 2015.
OUCH: Nick Dunlap shot 18-over 90, the highest score at the Masters since Ben Crenshaw shot 91 in his final appearance at the age of 63 in 2015. The 21-year-old Dunlap put four balls in the water on the second nine during his nightmarish day.
SHOT OF THE DAY: Nicolai Hojgaard hit his second shot to the par-5 15th to about 5 feet and made the eagle putt. It was part of a rollercoaster 76 that featured three double-bogeys, five bogeys, five birdies and just four pars.
BAD BREAK: Hideki Matsuyama clanked his approach from 67 yards at the par-5 13th off the flagstick, and the ball rolled all the way off the green and into Rae’s Creek. Matsuyama managed to get up and down to save bogey.
WHIZ KID: U.S. Amateur champion Jose Luis Ballester made waves Thursday when he couldn’t find a restroom and wound up taking a different kind of relief in Rae’s Creek. The patrons at the par-5 13th hole clapped for him afterward.
KEY STATISTIC: Rai did not miss a fairway in regulation while shooting 70.
NOTEWORTHY: Scheffler is the fourth defending champion in the last 30 years with a bogey-free opening round.
QUOTEWORTHY: “Do I like any golf course? It’s just so hard. It’s like, you love being here and it’s very special, but at any moment you can just hit a shot and it just does your head in.” — Hatton.
TELEVISION: Second-round coverage begins Friday at 2 p.m. EDT on ESPN.
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