AUGUSTA, Ga. — Thursday didn’t feel like a typical Masters Thursday. Perhaps that’s because it wasn’t one at all.
What happened to Masters reverence? The scores that landed atop the leaderboard after one day of play looked more like the ones following a typical Friday or even Saturday at Augusta, not the usually-muted opening round. After weeks’ worth of conjecture about Augusta National toughening its course in advance of this year’s tournament, the results on Thursday looked more like the record-breaking Covid Masters than the days of yore.
It seemed as though Viktor Hovland would have the round of the day when he capped off a bogey-free, 7-under 65 with a birdie on the newly renovated 13th. Those thoughts lasted for roughly 20 minutes, ’til Jon Rahm turned in an identical score that included a double on the opener.
Rahm’s round — with eight birdies and an eagle to just the one double — might be the best of the day, but he’ll have to wrestle with Brooks Koepka over the honor. In his first Masters round since last year’s hobbled MC, Koepka shot an easy, breezy 65 to tie both Hovland and Rahm atop the leaderboard after Thursday.
Those three were hardly alone in the scoring. The top of the leaderboard is loaded with top talent who fired scores in the 60s on Thursday — names like Young and Day, Burns and Lowry, Schauffele and Scott.
So what gives?
The weather, mostly.
A blisteringly hot, stunningly still morning rolled over Augusta National on Thursday, cascading a day’s worth of ideal scoring conditions upon the 88 players in the field (86 if you consider both Kevin Na and Will Zalatoris, who WD’d on Thursday). When it was all said and done, 36 players — nearly half the field — had finished in the red.
“The golf course is very gettable,” said the typically reserved Patrick Reed. “The winds aren’t blowing hard. The greens are very receptive, and because there’s a little moisture on them, they’re not as fiery and fast as you can get.”
“Today is the day to go out and shoot a low number,” he said. “I’m not surprised that someone is 7-under par, I can tell you that.”
In a lot of ways, Reed intimated, Thursday at the Masters more closely resembled a traditional Saturday, when the course is usually set up to encourage scoring conditions and leaderboard movement.
For those who didn’t find as much success on Thursday, the disappointment was palpable.
“Today was the opportune time to get the round under par, and I didn’t do that today,” said Tiger Woods, who shot 2-over 74 on Thursday. “Most of the guys are going low today. This was the day to do it. This is going to be an interesting finish to the tournament with the weather coming in. If I can just kind of hang in there, maybe kind of inch my way back, hopefully it will be positive towards the end.”
Tiger Woods struggles to worst Masters start in more than 15 years
“Interesting” is one word for what we could see the rest of this weekend, but a better one might be chaotic. The forecast is calling for close to an inch of rain in Augusta on Saturday and cold, rainy conditions throughout the weekend — a development that’s left the rest of the weekend in flux. It’s possible, as some suggested, that the conditions could be even better for scoring come Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s hard to say when is going to be the easiest day,” said Rahm, the first round co-leader. “When [the rain] comes, it softens up the golf course and it gets a little more scorable.”
It seems more likely, though, that conditions will be far worse — cold, rainy and very possibly windy. There seemed to be some disagreement about who that best suited. Hovland argued he would rather see tough conditions when he’s protecting a lead, while Rory McIlroy, who shot 1-under 71, disagreed.
“When you’re chasing, the harder, the better,” he said. “The more difficult the course is, I think that’s probably favorable conditions for chasing a little bit or trying to catch up.”
If nothing else, the uncertainty about how it’ll all play out speaks to the advantage gained by those who made a move on Thursday. In major championships, as in life, it’s always preferable to be dealing in known quantities.
“If there’s ever a good time to shoot a low score, obviously Sunday would be the best if you’re somewhat close,” Rahm said. “But knowing that we don’t know how the week is going to unfold, I’m definitely happy I started this way.”
Rahm knows, at the very least, he has a shot at the Masters. Those who stalled out on Thursday might learn the hard way that it’s already too late.
“Pressing around this place is ah … not a great idea,” said last year’s champ Scottie Scheffler. “You can get in trouble in a hurry out here, so just staying patient and just kind of plodding your way along is how I like to approach it.”
Could we have already witnessed Moving Day? That’s a strange reality for a Masters Thursday. But then again, it was a strange Thursday.