Rose rockets to Masters lead, safeguarding champ Scheffler in pursuit
England’s Justin Rose reacts after a birdie on the 16th hole on the way t the first-rund lead in the Masters at Augusta National (Andrew Redington) Justin Rose fired a scorching seven-under-par 65 on Thursday to take the first-round lead at
the Masters, 3 strokes clear of a trio led by defending champion Scottie Scheffler.Rose flirted with the Augusta National course record of 63, clenching his fist in celebration after draining pipes a 19-foot birdie putt at the 16th to reach eight-under.
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Wayward drives left him in the trees at 17 and 18 and after restoring one par, Rose closed with his first bogey of the day but still emerged as the first-round Masters leader for a fifth time.Rose, who has never handled to parlay the first-round lead into a green coat, was three strokes clear of world top Scheffler, in 2015’s runner-up Ludvig Aberg and Canadian Corey Conners.Rory McIlroy was four-under through 14 holes, but 2 double bogeys in the space of 3 holes saw the Northern Ireland star finish on even par 72– well adrift in his newest bid for a Masters title that would finish his career Grand Slam.Rose leapt out of the gate with birdies at the very first 3 holes.Advertisement “Whatever was going exactly where I was looking,” Rose said, adding
that his 25-foot birdie at the very first was”precisely what you need to settle yourself into the Masters
.”He then got 3 more birdies at the eighth, ninth and 10th.”That’s when the day felt a bit different, “Rose said.”That’s when I felt I was doing something possibly more on
the special side.”He included birdies at 15 and 16 before errant tee shots
left him in the trees at 17 and 18, however a bogey at the last was unworthy residence on, Rose stated.”It was a really excellent day’s golf on a golf course that was a stern test,”Rose said.” I believe if you take a look at the total leaderboard, few low ratings out there.
“Advertisement Scheffler, trying to join Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as the only players to win two straight Masters titles, was his typical unflappable self in producing a bogey-free four-under par 68.”Anytime you can keep a card clean out here, it’s an actually advantage,” Scheffler said.”I needed to make two actually excellent up-and-downs, however other than that, the golf course remained in front of me the majority of the day, kept the ball in play, did a great deal of actually advantages out there.”Scheffler’s birdies consisted of a 62-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole. After simply missing another long birdie putt at the sixth, Scheffler got up and down for par from a bunker at the seventh.- Remarkable shot-Ad He nabbed his
3rd birdie of the day at the par-five eighth, where his tee shot found the very first cut of rough and his second shot settled unpromisingly in a divot but he calmly rolled in a 14-foot putt.”Just among those deals,”
Scheffler stated of the
“quite deep”divot
.” I struck an actually awesome shot to get it to about 15 feet … spun it to the right of that hill and offered myself an excellent appearance that I was able to knock it in.” Scheffler ended a run of seven straight pars with a 42-foot birdie bomb at the par-three 16th. Sweden’s Aberg declared a share of second with a birdie at 18– one of his 4 birdies in the last seven holes.Advertisement Conners birdied three of the last 4 holes, snaking in a 24-foot birdie putt at 17 as part of a birdie-birdie finish.US Open champ Bryson DeChambeau and his LIV Golf colleague Tyrrell Hatton of England shared fifth on three-under-par 69
. Jason Day, Harris English, Aaron Rai and Akshay Bhatia were a further stroke back on 70. The 89th edition of the Masters opened in picture-perfect conditions, but it took an awful turn for McIlroy.It appeared like he would buck his trend for sluggish starts at the Masters when he reached four-under with a birdie at the par-five 13th. But after he saw a birdie attempt at 14 narrowly slide by, catastrophe struck at 15, where McIlroy’s approach was over the green and his chip returning raced past the hole and into the water for a double bogey.Advertisement In the rough at 17, McIlroy fired his technique over the green and after another disappointing chip was not able to make a six-foot bogey attempt.Spain’s 2023 Masters champ Jon Rahm was in even worse shape, posting a three-over-par 75. Xander Schauffele, winner of the PGA Champion and Open Championship last year, carded a 73. bb/rcw