As the sun sets over the 18th hole at Augusta National all the players are back in the club house. Leading into the tournament many people believed that the wind and rain would cause havoc and chances were that not all the players would get through their round.
Instead we had the sun showing its face and apart from a little rain over the last hour we got to witness some wonderful golf. Swede Henrik Stenson got off to a flying start early in the day and was sitting at -6 after 8 holes. It was looking as though he was going to post a great score for everyone to chase. Unfortunately it all came undone when he was at -5 and standing on the 18th tee. He hit his drive into the left rough and from there it all went downhill. He went on to record a quadruple bogey and slide down the leaderboard to finish at -1.
Lee Westwood hit four straight birdies on the front 9 and went on to finish at -5 and claim the lead heading into round two. His iron play was sublime at times and it looks like he’s brought his A game this week.
2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen is in a share for second place along with Peter Hanson one shot back from Westwood. Both players were in great touch with Hanson producing some exciting golf.
A further shot back are a host of players who will be looking to further stamp their authority at Augusta tomorrow. They include Miguel Angel Jimenez, Francesco Molinari, Ben Crane, Jason Dufner and Bubba Watson.
Westwood will be looking over his shoulder tomorrow with the quality of the group chasing him.
Early favourite Tiger Woods had his fair share of problems with his driver today. He only managed to hit 6 of 14 greens and found himself playing out of the rough far to often. Luckily he brought his bag of tricks and managed to scrap together an even par round to be on a tie for 29th.
Rory McIlroy opened with a double bogie and only managed 6 of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens, yet still managed to put together a one under par 71 to sit at T14th. Judging by the way he played today we can expect to see him hit the ground running tomorrow.
Three time Masters Champ Phil Mickelson was another high profile player to have driver issues. He only managed 8 of 18 greens and 9 of 14 fairways and now finds himself with a lot of work to do tomorrow after opening up with a 3 over par 75.
Let’s hope the weather stays away again tomorrow so we can be treated to the same calibre of golf at this wonderful course. The grounds staff should be commended on the way the course has been presented after all the rain and wind leading up to the tournament.
Roll on round two, it’s about to get interesting!!
