Justin Rose is back in contention at the Masters, one year after his playoff loss to Rory McIlroy.
Might be better off that he’s not back in the lead, too.
Rose has held at least a share of the first-round lead a record five times at Augusta National, including last year, but he’s never been able to carry it through the finish. So, Rose’s bogey-bogey conclusion to his opening round Thursday, which left the three-time runner-up with a 70 and three shots back of McIlroy and early leader Sam Burns, might not be the worst thing in the world.
Only trouble is there are a whole lot of big names in the same pack giving chase.
Former Masters champion Patrick Reed was joined by Jason Day and Kurt Kitayama at 3 under, while Rose was in the group another shot back, along with Scottie Scheffler, Shane Lowry and Xander Schauffele — all of them major champions.
“Every hole you’re just being patient through experience,” Rose said, “knowing that grinding out the pars is a good thing. Just eating up the holes is a good thing. You know, getting through Amen Corner is a good thing. All of these things — you just know how the golf course can play at times, yeah, so every little mini-victory you had out there was worth celebrating.”
Most of the best scores Thursday were posted by those with early tee times, who took advantage of a little less wind and much softer greens. By the afternoon, the breeze was swirling, the sun had baked the putting surfaces and many of them felt like concrete.
“Every player would say they would like it firm and fast,” Rose said, “but I think there’s, like, a boundary to that.”
The tough conditions left Schauffele pondering a slightly different approach to his second round Friday.
“Potentially attack less, to be honest,” he said. “You know, less attack and a little more conservative. I mean, there are some nice scores up there early from what I can see. … You just have to be driving it really far to have a shorter club in, or got to be hitting your spots.”
Rose and Scheffler were both able to hit their spots early in their rounds.
By the end of them, the course was at its toughest.
Rose started off with back-to-back birdies at the second and third, added another at the eighth and twice reached 4 under on the second nine before finishing with consecutive bogeys. Scheffler got off to a similarly hot start with an eagle at the par-5 second and a birdie after driving the green at the par-4 third, only to play a birdieless final 15 holes in 2 over.
That also ended Scheffler’s streak of four consecutive sub-70 opening rounds at the Masters.
But it left him very much in contention with 54 holes to play.
“I feel like I played really solid,” Scheffler said. “There were a few putts I felt like I made that lipped out or stayed right on the edge. But other than that, really, really a lot of good stuff. I hit it nice. Drove it well today. Hit some good iron shots.
“But you know, like you said, it got so firm late in the day. It was pretty challenging.”
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