It would seem that Rory McIlroy‘s propensity for thrilling and unnecessary dramas at Augusta National has survived his transition from chaser to champion. A year in a green jacket has clearly done nothing to cure this man.
That he finds himself back in the upper regions of a Masters leaderboard is not the only point to be made here, because that would overlook the how. The detail. The unique absurdities of how he came to sign for a 67 after the first round of his title defence.
For that, we should revisit his first eight holes, somehow completed in one under par. This was pre-ignition, when the challenge of hitting a fairway was miles beyond him. Of the six he faced in that stretch, zero were found.
Goodness, had you asked him in those two hours to take aim at a barndoor from five yards with driver in hand, chances are he would have missed.
Thankfully for McIlroy, they always say Augusta is a second-shot course and his second shots were better. They needed to be. Those punches, wedges and other acts of retrieval were immense, so too the putting, meaning he had a platform to build on when the big stick started to obey.
When it did, some of the doubts around McIlroy’s pre-tournament form were burnt off in a quite exceptional run of four birdies between the ninth and 15th holes, before the relative calm of three pars to finish. His final accounting at five under par was good enough for a share of the early clubhouse lead alongside Sam Burns.
Rory McIlroy carded a five-under 67 to begin the defence of his Masters title at Augusta
With so many players still on the course, including Scottie Scheffler on three under through seven, and Jon Rahm at four over through 12, it would be foolish to overreach on the implications of such a strong opening.
But in fast, firm and gusty conditions, a 67 was a superb way to commence the challenge of becoming only the fourth man to go back-to-back at Augusta. It will also be of huge reassurance to McIlroy that he did so when his favoured weapon fancied the scenic route.
‘It’s a great start, but there’s a long way to go,’ McIlroy said. ‘I’m right in the tournament. It’s a lot better than start from seven behind going into the second round like last year.
‘I’m not getting ahead of myself but I’m feeling good with where I’m at.’
If McIlroy can stabilise his driving, which is no easy fix given balls were being missed to both the left and right and he only hit five fairways all day, then the rest of his game can apparently be relied upon.
His wedge play was particularly was strong, shown by one exquisite floater over a bunker to set up a birdie after two poor strokes on the second and he followed it with pair of exceptional up-and-down fours from the wrong side of the water on the par fives at 13 and 15. Indeed, he actually birdied all four of the par fives, which is a key to success here.
Time will tell how well he can sustain the pace, but few golfers will grumble about a round featuring only one bogey. Having carded two doubles in his corresponding round of 72 in 2025, this was a significant upgrade, not that the last visit here ended too badly.
Naturally, with this being the Masters, there are big beasts all around. One of them, Patrick Reed, is nearby on three under par, which included two eagles. The latter, on the eighth, was drained from 56 feet, and illuminated a mind-boggling front nine score of 31.
As a former champion and a man who recently abandoned the LIV circuit, not to mention his various controversies, Reed will always be a person of interest at a major. Doubtless, he also has the experience of these green hills to know how to exploit it, but wilted slightly by dropping two strokes on the way in.
It was far from plain sailing for McIlroy, who struggled before recovering in a strange first round
He said: ‘This is one of those places that the more you think about it, the more you think ahead, the more it bites you. When I won in 2018, it was the first year I actually fully bought into just taking it day by day and shot by shot. I think that’s what my recipe is.’
Other fancied contenders are still searching for that same recipe. One of them, Bryson DeChambeau, has improved here of late but his 76 was a messy way to start and possibly terminal to his chances. The low point was firing into a fan on the sixth and taking three shots to escape a bunker on the 11th – golf’s mad scientist will need some productive time in the lab to fix it.
Meanwhile, Shane Lowry is well placed after a turbulent 70 that included a double bogey on the fourth and a 99-yard hole-out for eagle on the 13th. Tommy Fleetwood will have greater regrets – he made a combined 56-feet of putts in a run of three straight birdies from the second and was four under at the turn before dropping three on the back nine.
Xander Schauffele, resurgent after a year of injuries, shot a 70 to sit three behind the lead set by Burns and McIlroy. As the temperature soared in the late afternoon, making the ground even less forgiving under foot, their scores were ageing better by the hour.