Masters first round recap

The first round of the 2011 Masters is in the books, and scoring conditions were ideal and some players went quite low. The bright skies, little wind and soft greens all contributed to the idea conditions. Players that went out earlier in the day did have a slim advantage as the wind did start to pick up in little in the afternoon. Here are a few tidbits from round one:

– Rory McIlroy was the story on day one as he went out early and fired a 7 under 65. He did not record a bogey on his card, and if it wasn’t for a few short putt misses, McIlroy could have gone even lower. He is no stranger to having a solid first round in a major as he shot a 63 in last years first round of the British Open. He followed that up with a 2nd round 80. I don’t think he will go that high tomorrow, but it will be interesting to see how he responds to playing in the lead.

– The young-bomber Alvaro Quiros went out in the afternoon and tied McIlroy’s 65. The young Spaniard absolutely smokes the ball off the  tee. If he can keep the ball in play and putt well he could be a factor come the weekend. Tomorrow is a big day for him and he lacks the major championship experience.

–  Defending champion Phil Mickelson shot a 2-under 70. It was an up and down round for Phil as he was inconsistent off the tee which forced him to scramble more than he would have liked. But as usual Mickelson was up for the task and played some great recovery shots. He will go out in the morning tomorrow and has a chance to post a low score and rise his way up the leader board.

– Tiger Woods finished with a one-under 71. It was a pretty solid round for Tiger, who missed a few short putts and had some tough breaks. Afterwards he said it should have been a 68 or 69. As he sits 6 shots off the lead tomorrow is a big day for Tiger as he needs to go fairly low to work his way up the leader board and set himself up for the weekend. Tiger tees off a little before 2 tomorrow, just an hour before ESPN goes on the air so the whole audience will get to see the majority of Tiger’s round live.

– A total of 24 players out of the 99 players in the field were under par for the day. Despite the ideal playing conditions Augusta National is still a very tough golf course and punishes players for missing in the wrong spots. The course should start to firm up and get harder the next three days which should lead to higher scores, but as always at Augusta there is the opportunity there for someone to go very low.

 

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