Early starters take advantage of conditions at Augusta National

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Players with early tee times for Thursday’s opening round of the Masters probably thought they were in for a doozy of a morning at Augusta National, where the overnight forecast called for heavy rain and miserable conditions.

Turns out they may have gotten an advantage.

After a rocky start with a weather delay that pushed back tee times for the first round of the Masters, the sun came out Thursday and patrons shed their rain jackets for sunglasses.

But in midafternoon, the gusts picked up and the wind kept steady, making for a tough day to play golf.

“I didn’t think they were going to play,” said patron David McKenzie from Athens, Ala.

Because of the more than two-hour weather delay in the morning, not everyone made it through the first round by the end of the day.

“Backed things and jammed things up because of that,” said Jerry Tennyson, a Masters patron since 1963.

But at least the sun came out.

“We got really fortunate the weather turned out like it did,” McKenzie said.

The worst of the weather missed the course — it only rained enough to soften the greens — and Ryan Fox, Bryson DeChambeau and Byeong Hun An capitalized on it.

Each of them made birdie on the first three holes, part of a morning wave that quickly got into red numbers in what turned out to be several hours of ideal scoring conditions.

Fox made the turn in 5 under and was setting the pace as the rest of the field teed off.

The start was delayed by 2 1/2 hours by the weather, and those with later times may end up getting the worst of it. By the time many got going in the afternoon, including defending champion Jon Rahm and top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, the wind was starting to whip through the Georgia pines with gusts predicted to reach 45 mph.

Rahm and Scheffler nevertheless got off to good starts in their pursuit of a second green jacket. Rahm was 1-under par through six holes, and Scheffler, the champion in 2022, had reached 2 under through six.

Scheffler began as the 4-1 favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, the biggest since Tiger Woods nearly two decades ago.

Those excellent early conditions figured to get worse as the day pressed on. And latest groups will have to return Friday to complete them and then begin their second rounds after a short break.

Erik van Rooyen and Jake Knapp were the first competitors off, while the heavy hitters from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf were scattered in featured groups throughout the day.

Early starters avoid ‘rubbishy side’ of weather

Danny Willett is one of the players who got through the first round Thursday after many people thought conditions would be rough after overnight and morning storms.

Because of a more than two-hour delay this morning, not everyone made it through.

“Yeah, you always talk about draws and side of the draw. For a moment it looked like we were going to get a bit of a rubbishy side, but luckily it was actually thundering this morning, so no one could actually play in the bad weather,” he said.

“We knew the wind was always going to be up this afternoon, so everyone is going to have to play in it for at least a little bit. But by the same token, because the greens are soft, they’re going to obviously spike up a little bit and they’re still firm, they’re still fast, they’re still tricky. But yeah, I think with the shoulder, not having to play 27 definitely helps.”

Here’s how some of the other early starters felt they did under the conditions:

• Stephan Jaeger: “I mean, honestly, I felt like we played the golf course pretty well. You know, there is just – the winds just bounce, right, and you’ve got to sometimes get the right gust. You know, I could have made maybe a couple more putts. I had a couple long ones that I felt like that was nice two putts. Overall, like I said, I’m pretty happy.”
• Jake Knapp: “Yeah, it was kind of a bummer having to set an alarm for 5, then set an alarm for 6, then set an alarm for 7, just kind of see what we were going to do. But we’re used to just going when we have to go. Once we got the notification, we were ready to go at it.”
• José María Olazábal: “A little tough with the wind. Apart from that the golf course was playing a little bit easier in the sense that greens were softer, more receptive. The wind obviously you know around here the wind is a huge factor and very difficult to control the direction of the wind. That makes this day a little bit more complicated.”
• Erik van Rooyen: “There’s a lot of guys that will probably not finish today. Early in the week, I was a bit bummed seeing the weather and I’m going to have to play in the rain, so now that I played in sunshine, it was great. I don’t know. Hopefully, it kind of turns out my way. But it doesn’t matter.”

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