Rose Steady at Augusta Despite Late Bogeys as McIlroy, Burns Lead
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Justin Rose is back at Augusta National, one year after his playoff loss to Rory McIlroy, sitting three shots off the lead after Thursday’s opening round.
And maybe that’s not such a bad position for him.
Rose has held at least a share of the first-round lead a record five times at the Masters, including last year, but he’s never converted those hot starts into a green jacket. So his bogey-bogey finish for a 2-under 70 might actually work in his favor as he chases that elusive title.
McIlroy and Sam Burns share the early lead at 5 under, while a pack of major champions lurk right behind them.
Former Masters champion Patrick Reed sits at 3 under alongside Jason Day and Kurt Kitayama. Rose is in the group at 2 under with Scottie Scheffler, Shane Lowry, and Xander Schauffele — all major winners themselves.
“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. Getting through Amen Corner is a good thing. All of these things — you just know how the golf course can play at times, so every little mini-victory you had out there was worth celebrating.”
The morning groups definitely had the advantage Thursday. They faced less wind and much softer greens before the Georgia sun baked the putting surfaces to near-concrete firmness by afternoon.
“Every player would say they’d like it firm and fast,” Rose said, “but I think there’s, like, a boundary to that.”
The challenging conditions have Schauffele rethinking his Friday strategy.
“Potentially attack less, to be honest,” he said. “Less attack and a little more conservative. 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.”
Both Rose and Scheffler started strong before the course showed its teeth.
Rose opened with back-to-back birdies at the second and third, added another at the eighth and twice reached 4 under on the back nine before those consecutive closing bogeys. Scheffler eagled the par-5 second and birdied the third after driving the green, but then played his final 15 holes in 2 over without another birdie.
That ended Scheffler’s streak of four consecutive sub-70 opening rounds at the Masters. But at just three shots back, he’s firmly in contention.
“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 a lot of good stuff. I hit it nice. Drove it well today. Hit some good iron shots.”
“But it got so firm late in the day. It was pretty challenging.”
