Apr5 Jock’sblog

Golf World Senior Writer highlights some of the stories that caught his eye on the first day’s play of the 2007 Masters.

Justin Rose’s stunning bogey-free opener of 69 was good enough for the first round lead, but it was not his best start to an Augusta campaign. The Englishman began with a five under 67 three years ago, but then blew out in the third round with an 81. David Howell was under par again with his excellent opening 70. Howell has only missed recording red figures twice in his nine rounds at Augusta. Ian Poulter’s score of 75 was one better than the average for the day, but it still meant that he is yet to break par at the Masters after nine rounds.

                                 Rnds     Score    Best           Rnds to par

                                                         1st rnd         –        0       +

Justin Rose                9          69         67 (04)        5       0       4

David Howell               9          70         69 (05)        5       2       2

Luke Donald               9          73         68 (05)        3       1       5

Ken Ferrie                  1          75         75 (07)        0       0       1

Bradley Dredge           1          75         75 (07)        0       0       1

Ian Poulter                  9          75         72 (05)        0       2       7

Colin Montgomerie      47         76         67 (97)        18      5       24

Padraig Harrington      25         77         68 (04)        9       4       12

Lee Westwood            23         79         68 (99)        5       3       15

Paul Casey                7          79         68 (04)        2       0       5

Sandy Lyle                 75         79         65 (85)        18      5       52

Darren Clarke             33         83         66 (03)        10      7       16

We’re off. I saw Arnie do his bit at 7.42 a.m. It was emotional stuff, with him hitting it a lot further than some of us had expected. The guy who picked his ball up in the rough, jumped up and down in ecstasy, high-fiving his friends, until someone official ran across the fairway and demanded he hand it over. It will presumably find it’s way into the museum here rather than ebay.

I watched Poulter play the first five holes, first out with Billy Mayfair. Poulter put on Augusta green trousers with a TC Chen-like pork pie hat. He looked the part until the difficult 5th, where he three-putted from about six feet from a double-bogey. Which only goes to prove that if your concentration goes just for a second here, you can end up having a train-crash.

Another Englishman who had a bad day was Casey, who was another in a long line of players who say they love playing with Tiger Woods, but who seem to perform rather badly when they do. Casey also seemed to be having a furious row with his caddie as they left the 12th tee, and from then on they said nothing to each other for the rest of the round.

The scoring average is 76 today. High. Fast greens will do that. Chances are the Green Jackets will be a touch more lenient with pin placements tomorrow. If not, the winning score might well be level par come Sunday night. Frost is forecast tonight. Let’s hope that doesn’t mean a delayed start tomorrow.