Andrew Redington
It might be just me, but this is already shaping up to be a fantastic tournament.
The first day of The Masters can so often be "who was that again?" day. The best of the field know that it's a four-day marathon and often are kind of content to ease into things. It's not that often your first round leader is someone noteable.
In that respect the opening round was perfect. Of the major story lines in the buildup -- Tiger, Phil, the internationals and the youth movement -- three of them made themselves heard, and Woods, with an opening 71, remains in the picture.
Looking forward to the next 18, but here's seven to get you started.
1. As you might expect, in the UK they were quite happy to see Rory McIlroy on top:
The kid is special, and I certainly enjoyed the story about playing football -- US football -- on the street the night before the tournament and getting told off by the neighbours, but I'm not sure I'm ready to hand the future of the golf, let alone the tournament, to the guy based on one round. But they feel otherwise back 'ome: Dispense with guesswork and put away the crystal ball because every once in a while the future seems clear. The opening round of the 2011 Masters was one of those rare occasions: a beautiful day, a wonderful course, a pair of gifted young golfers.
Rory McIlroy, the 21-year-old prodigy from Holywood, Northern Ireland, was first to declare his talent with a Hollywood, California, performance at Augusta National, taking a mere 65 strokes to get round Alister MacKenzie's classic layout. It was a brilliant effort and it was unmatched until the last group of the day arrived at the 18th green and Alvaro Quirós rolled in a five-foot putt for a 65 of his own.
The 28-year-old Spaniard wore a grin as broad as an Augusta fairway. Leading the Masters does that for golfers, as does performing at such a peak on a stage such as this. In McIlroy's case there was the bonus of knowing there could be better to come.
Quirós's round was great but it had flaws - a few loose shots and a solitary bogey. The Irishman's effort, on the other hand, was one for the ages. It might also have been even better.
2. Did McIlroy leave a major championship record on the table?
He already has a share of the low-round for a major thanks to his opening round 63 at the British Open last summer, but as good as he played yesterday he might have left a few out there, which is a scary thought, this from The Devil's Ball, where they have very high standards: A fancy pick by some to contend in just his third Masters, McIlroy fired a 7-under 65, and with most we'd be gushing about the round, but with Rory, the only thing I could think when he tapped in for par on 18 was how low the round could have been. Just a few months ago, at St. Andrews, McIlroy stuck his second shot on the 17th hole in the first round of the British Open to just a couple of feet, but a miss there forced the Northern Irishman to "settle" for a 63, tying the lowest round in major championship history.
[His ability to go this low in majors just shows why people have talked about his potential since he was barely a teenager. On Thursday, McIlroy had short birdie putts on 10, 16 and 18 that could have gone in, and that doesn't even include his three-putt on 13. No, you can never be disappointed about a round like 65 at Augusta National, that would be silly, but Rory hit the ball so well in the opening round that a 61 or 62 was very much in the picture.
3. Alvaro Quiros can take it deep:
The latest Spanish golf star is more like Sergio than, say, Olazabal, but he was just one of the crowd in the final group, albeit the one who got home in seven-under-par: You could call them the bash brothers, the three bombers or whatever superlative defines drives that routinely pass the 330-yard mark. Alvaro Quiros, Gary Woodland and Jhonattan Vegas made themselves known Thursday during the first round of the Masters. Playing in the last group, the three young players put on a long-drive and shotmaking exhibition that was too impressive not to notice. Quiros, a regular on the European Tour who has never broken 75 at Augusta National, bombed and putted his way into a share of the lead with Rory McIlroy with a 7-under par 65. Quiros regularly blasted his drives past the 330-yard mark but all it did was keep him in the same zip code as Vegas and Woodland
4. No.10 at Augusta: before Amen Corner, say your prayers
It's perhaps the most overlooked hole on the course because it preceeds perhaps the three most famous holes in the sport, but the par-four 10th makes golfers pay. Just ask Martin Kaymer, as Bil Pennington of the New York Times reports: Kaymer, the world's top-ranked golfer, was walking through shrubs more than 50 yards to the left of the 10th fairway. He stepped into a clearing as if he was headed for the porch of one of the adjacent cabins at Augusta National Golf Club, as if he might snatch a burger off someone's barbecue.
And then Kaymer, a 26-year-old soft-spoken German, stopped. He had found his golf ball in a bigger, thicker and farther away cluster of bushes.
"That hole does not like me," Kaymer said about two hours after a double bogey on the 10th led to a six-over-par score of 78. "Nothing good ever happens there."
It is customary to say that the epic roars of golf fans echo through the stately pines. Near the quieter 10th hole, you would be more likely to hear a low whimper or wail. The next three holes are called Amen Corner. At the 10th hole - historically and statistically the hardest on the course - the players are not praying.
They are more likely muttering words you would not speak in church.
5. If I was playing with guys this slow, I'd hit them in the head with my 9-iron. I would.
It's not quite Watergate, but this is a great little bit of reporting to determing exactly who are the slowest and fasters players on the PGA Tour by the people at the Wall Street Journal: Anyone who plays golf can commiserate with Mark O'Meara, Anders Hansen and Heath Slocum's plight Thursday morning. They were the group forced to tee off directly behind Kevin Na during the opening round of the Masters. Na owns the unenviable reputation of being the slowest golfer on the PGA Tour. It turns out the numbers only confirm what everybody already suspected
We timed a minimum of three shots from the fairway and three putts for every player. We started the stopwatch when the player stood over the ball and began his pre-shot routine and stopped it the moment he hit. Na was the slowest putter (47.6 seconds on average) and second-slowest with the irons (38 seconds).
Both Na and Garcia have laborious rituals before putting. Na checks the line of each putt from every imaginable direction-multiple times. Garcia stands over the ball like he's going to shoot, only to back away and check the line again before actually putting. Fowler, who took just 13.9 seconds from the fairway and 12.3 seconds from the green, makes golf simple: walk up to the
ball and hit it.
6. Bringing some common sense to the Rules of Golf. Yes, you read that correctly:
It's the only sport on the planet where you can be watching at home, spot a player break a rule that even he has no idea about, somehow call the tournament (seriously, how do figure out how to call the tournament?) tell the relevant official of the rules violation that you saw because of the super slow-mo replay you watched on your 99-inch screen and maybe even get the guy disqualified. It's ridiculous, and for once the blazers who are in charge of the sport realized that and did something about it: In what could be considered a rare example of the governing bodies moving with the times, the R&A and USGA have relaxed the rule that infamously led to Padraig Harrington being disqualified from an event after his ball moved by a distance of a dimple and a half. Harrington was kicked out of the European Tour competition in Abu Dhabi in January after a television viewer, watching coverage in high definition, phoned in to complain about the movement of a ball as the Irishman removed his ball marker on a green.
The player himself knew nothing of the offence; when it came to light, he was disqualified for signing for the wrong score as penalty strokes had not been added. With increased and enhanced scrutiny afforded on account of broadcast coverage, the changing face of the game has been officially acknowledged. Now, players cannot be disqualified because of "facts that he didn't know and could not reasonably have discovered prior to returning his scorecard". Rather, applicable stroke penalties will be added to a score retrospectively.
7. The Masters on Twitter:
You can follow me on Twitter -- @michaelgrange -- and you can visit the Press Tent blog where they're gathering the best tweets of the day. Perhaps the best part of that is the best tweet I saw yesterday was from Dan Jenkins of Golf Digest, who was a personal friend of Ben Hogan's. His take on Rory McIlroy? One of the secrets to McIlroy's success may be his short haircut. He no longer looks like Barbara Streisand.