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Veteran Rose still feels sharp as he leads Masters
Rory McIlroy will try to salvage his bid to win the Masters on a crucial Friday at Augusta National after he fell apart towards the end of his first round to leave himself an uphill climb in pursuit of a first green jacket.
Justin Rose rolled back the years on Thursday to storm into a first-round lead but McIlroy’s pursuit of his Ryder Cup teammate unravelled in extraordinary fashion with four dropped shots on his final four holes to finish seven off the pace.
Rose, who came close to winning the green jacket in 2015 and 2017, carded a remarkable first-round score of 65 to mark his 20th appearance at Augusta, leaving the 44-year-old three clear at the top of the leaderboard. Rose made eight birdies, with a dropped shot at the 18th his only bogey of the day.
Earlier, Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion, made an ominous start with a calm and controlled bogey-free round of -4. But McIlroy, looking to complete a career grand slam, continued his excellent pre-tournament form as he caught the world No 1, joining him on -4 in a share of second place with four holes to play. However, McIlroy’s hopes of gaining further ground on Rose were thwarted when he found the water on the par-five 15th, with his chip across the green running over and down into Rae’s Creek. It was followed by another double bogey on the 17th as McIlroy somehow finished at even-par, and a tie for 26th.
Follow all the latest scores, updates and the evolving leaderboard from the Masters at Augusta below:
Here’s what Rose had to say about his opening round on Thursday
Luke Baker11 April 2025 11:24
Jose Luis Ballester admitted to urinating into Rae’s Creek during the opening round of the Masters at Augusta.
The Spanish amateur, who played alongside world No 1 Scottie Scheffler on Thursday, took a break as he played the 13th hole, with some spectators noticing what he was doing as he turned his back to the grandstand and relieved himself into the stream after forgetting that there were toilets available on the course.
The 21-year-old is the US Amateur champion and is playing at the Masters for the first time, where he carded an opening round of four-over-par. After his round, he admitted that he urinated into Rae’s Creek to reporters, but said he would “do it again” if he had to.
Luke Baker11 April 2025 11:02
The first round could hardly have gone better for Justin Rose, who leads the Masters by three strokes heading into round two.
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Luke Baker11 April 2025 10:45
The first players out for round two will be Cam Davis, Rafael Campos and Austin Eckroat at 12.40pm BST but it’s around an hour later that we start getting some interesting names hitting the course.
Leader Justin Rose will be out at 1.52pm BST and that starts a run of fascinating three-balls
1352: Max Homa, Justin Rose, J.J. Spaun
1403: Dustin Johnson, Nick Taylor, Justin Hastings (a)
1414: Sergio Garcia, Lucas Glover, Daniel Berger
1425: Patrick Cantlay, Rasmus Hojgaard, Matt Fitzpatrick
1436: Brooks Koepka, Russell Henley, Sungjae Im
1447: Adam Scott, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland
1458: Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Åberg, Akshay Bhatia
1515: Hideki Matsuyama, Bryson DeChambeau, Shane Lowry
1526: Jon Rahm, Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood
Luke Baker11 April 2025 10:23
Rory McIlroy was bogey-free and -4 as he crossed Rae’s Creek on the 15th, looking to nudge his chip close to the pin and set up a birdie chance in his pursuit of Justin Rose.
What followed was extraordinary. McIlroy was faced with a tough chip up the hill on 15th and down the slope towards the hole, and it trickled into the water.
But his double-bogey was followed by another at the 17th, leaving McIlroy seven shots off the pace after being within touching distance of the leader.
There’s still plenty of time, but it’s extraordinary that Ludvig Aberg (-4 on the back nine) ended up with the best score in McIlroy’s group. Even Akshay Bhatia (-2) finished with a lower score than McIlroy.
Luke Baker11 April 2025 10:06
Rory McIlroy will have to shake-off a poor finish to his opening round of the Masters as he looks to chase Justin Rose and Scottie Scheffler at Augusta National.
McIlroy was bogey-free and four-under-par heading into the 15th hole on Thursday, but made a costly double-bogey seven and then dropped further shots at the 17th to finish at even-par.
McIlroy had been in a share of second place with defending champion Scheffler, who made an ominous start, while Rose shot to the top of the leaderboard with an excellent opening round of seven-under.
After thunderstorms to start the week, the weather has brightened up in Augusta, though there is a chance of a few showers on Friday afternoon – here are the tee times for the second round and the race to make the cut:
Luke Baker11 April 2025 09:52
-4: Ludvig Aberg (Swe), Corey Conners (Can), Scottie Scheffler
-3: Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng)
-2: Akshay Bhatia, Jason Day (Aus), Harris English, Aaron Rai (Eng)
-1: Daniel Berger, Fred Couples, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Max Greyserman, Brian Harman, Viktor Hovland (Nor), Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Michael Kim, Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Shane Lowry (Ire), Denny McCarthy, Matt McCarty, Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith (Aus), Davis Thompson, Bubba Watson
E: Brian Campbell, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Tom Hoge, Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Zach Johnson, Rory McIlroy (NIR), Maverick McNealy, Collin Morikawa, Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Sahith Theegala, Cameron Young
Luke Baker11 April 2025 09:51
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.
Luke Baker11 April 2025 09:48
