Golf, Masters, 1st round: Rahm, Koepka and Hovland in the lead. Evil Tiger Woods

The score to beat in Augusta after the first day of competition is 65 (7 strokes under par on the course). Three signed it. With no wind, in humid and warm weather, the track showed its softer character but, as Jon Rahm said, “there’s never an easy day here”. First to return was Viktor Hovland, a 25-year-old Norwegian from Oslo, who scores the lowest personal result in a major. He played 12 of them, best amateur twice, fourth at St. Andrews last July. Three years of career on both sides of the Atlantic and already seven victories. Despite the pressure of playing Tiger, as he said, he started the day by moving high in the scoreboard with an eagle on hole 2 (drive and 6-iron for 526-yard hole) and three more birdies before starting the back nine. Then two more shots earned with a spectacular game: great long irons, perfect approaches and pocketed putts, 26 in all. With the weather worsening over the next few days, “it’s better to attack today and not be forced to do it in bad conditions, because this track can reserve extreme punishments”, underlined the Norwegian.

False start

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Spaniard Jon Rahm starts badly, four putts to one. But then he makes no mistakes and it’s a show. Seven birdies and an eagle 3 to 8, par 5 (“A great drive and then from 220 meters I played a 4 iron on a draw and the ball stopped a meter from the shaft”). The best birdie? “At 18, two perfect shots and the ball almost in the hole”. Powerful, solid and accurate around the green. There is number three in the world. “I’m super happy and proud of my round, I forgot the one playing 9 under par on the other 17.” This is his seventh Masters for him, four times in the top ten and no missed cuts. Brooks Koepka is also in the lead, the American pro capable of winning four majors in 23 months between 2017 and 2019, but not the Masters. He is second by one shot behind Tiger in 2019. Today he is one of the players in Liv’s strength, where he plays the events of the rich league wanted and financed by Saudi funds. With him in Augusta 17 other Liv players, because the Masters fields the best regardless of the legal battles.

molinari grain

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Meanwhile Francesco Molinari is satisfied after finishing par on 72. He starts and finishes well, three birdies and three bogeys on paper. Above all, he finds the fairway with the driver, a question mark until yesterday and throughout the season. He sweats, struggles and misses Tiger Woods in these first eighteen holes. And it’s not just the torrid heat of the day (30 degrees and 90 percent humidity), which forces him to bring a towel even on the green, but it’s a foul from the start. He doesn’t earn at 2 (par 5), not very precise with the drive and in the shot to the green; the approach is short at 3 and the ball almost returns to his feet for the first missed shot; then it’s three putts at 5 and so wrong. In short, almost nothing works until the last few holes. Birdie 15 and 16, then at 18 from the bunker a prohibitive position for his bad right leg (which he defines as “sore for the whole lap”). He ends up missing a shot, with a score of 74.