Good morning to everyone but especially to…
THE MASTERS LEADERBOARD
Sometimes, it takes a while for the world’s best to get comfortable at Augusta National. Not this time.
With ideal playing conditions, many of the brightest stars in the sport got off to terrific starts at the Masters on Thursday, leaving us with an absolutely loaded leaderboard:
T-1: Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Brooks Koepka (-7)T-4: Cameron Young, Jason Day (-5)T-6: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott, Shane Lowry, Gary Woodland, Sam Burns, Sam Bennett (-4)
Of those 12 players, 11 are either in the top 15 of the Official World Golf Rankings or have won at least one major. The only one who doesn’t fit the trend? Bennett, a fifth-year senior at Texas A&M whose 68 was the best opening round by an amateur at the Masters since 2001.
But that’s not all. Plenty of big names loom just behind, that top group including…
Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose, Tony Finau (-3)Justin Thomas, Cam Smith (-2)Dustin Johnson (-1)Rory McIlroy (even)
The three 65s — tied for the most ever in a single Masters round — came about differently. Rahm, for example, posted the lowest round after opening with double-bogey in Masters history. That’s right: He four-putted the first hole to drop two shots but then finished with seven birdies, an eagle and nine pars. The response was as good as we’ve ever seen from Rahm, even by the lofty standards he’s set, writes our Patrick McDonald.
By the way, Rahm is now the favorite to win.
However, it’s Koepka’s 65 — seemingly out of nowhere given his knee issues — that caught our Kyle Porter’s attention.
Porter: “I have a theory: Brooks Koepka is terribly scared of failure. Like the rest of us. It’s just that his fear of failure plays out on bigger stages and has higher historical stakes than our own. That’s a difficult concept with which to deal. … So now, sometimes what you see is somebody…..
