Justin Rose leads as Rory McIlroy suffers nightmare finish at Masters

Two-time runner-up Justin Rose equalled his lowest round at Augusta National as Rory McIlroy suffered a nightmare finish on day one of the 89th Masters.

McIlroy ran up double bogeys on the 15th and 17th as he stumbled to a potentially ruinous 72 in his 11th attempt to claim a green jacket and complete the career grand slam.

In stark contrast, Rose had the course record of 63 in his sights after picking up his eighth birdie of the day on the 16th, but had to scramble for par on the next and bogeyed the last to card an opening seven-under-par 65.

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That gave the former US Open winner a three-shot lead over defending champion Scottie Scheffler, 2024 runner-up Ludvig Aberg and Canada’s Corey Conners, with Tyrrell Hatton and Bryson DeChambeau another shot back.

It also ensured the 44-year-old ended the first round in the lead for the fifth time in his career, breaking the record he had shared with six-time champion Jack Nicklaus since also shooting 65 in 2021.

“Typically day one they set the course up quite difficult so I went out there trying to be patient and just got off to a flyer,” said Rose, who birdied the first three holes, made another hat-trick of gains from the eighth and also birdied the 15th and 16th.

“From that moment I felt I was definitely on the front foot. The ball was going exactly where I was looking and began to feel there was a good round in me. Just 18 I guess came unstuck but for the most part it was a great day.”

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Rose, who lost a play-off to Sergio Garcia in 2017, will be well aware that Scheffler had earlier made an ominous start to his bid for a third Masters title in four years courtesy of a bogey-free 68.

“I would have felt pretty good about it,” Scheffler said when asked if he would have taken a 68 before teeing off.

“I had a feeling the golf course was going to get pretty firm. The areas to hit your irons out here are pretty small and they get even smaller when the greens are firm.”

McIlroy looked on course to at least match Scheffler’s score when he reached four under par with a two-putt birdie on the 13th, but missed from short range for another on the next and then ran up a double bogey on the 15th after chipping from over the green into the water at the front.

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That was precisely what Nicklaus had warned was keeping McIlroy from winning more major titles when he had revealed earlier that he had approved the Northern Irishman’s plan to tackle Augusta National over lunch last week.

“We went through it shot for shot, he got done with the round, I didn’t open my mouth and I said ‘I wouldn’t change a thing’,” Nicklaus said in a press conference following the honorary starters ceremony.

“The discipline to do that is what Rory has lacked in my opinion. He’s got all the shots, he’s got all the game.

“He certainly is as talented as anybody in the game, but if you go back through his history, in the last few years he gets to a place and all of a sudden a seven or an eight pops up and that keeps him from getting where he needs to go.”

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McIlroy also double-bogeyed the 17th after hitting his approach over the green and three-putting from 20 feet, but at least saved par on the 18th after a wayward drive.

Hatton, who recorded four birdies and a solitary bogey on the 17th in a 69, branded Augusta National “unfair at times” after weekend rounds of 79 and 80 in 2022, but was ninth last year and was asked if he was starting to warm to the course.

“Do I like any golf course?” he joked. “It’s just so hard. It’s like, you love being here and it’s very special, but at any moment you can just hit a shot and it just does your head in. I just need to keep hitting perfect shots.”