Rob Schumacher, Rob Schumacher / USA TODAY NETWORK
The FedEx Cup leader had one heck of a day.
The 87th Masters is off to a fast start. The tournament has already seen plenty of surprises and lots of highs. It’s also easy to point to the leaders as being the most impressive on the day, but it’s how they got to lead after Round 1 that was impressive.
Here are the most impressive performances from the opening round at Augusta National.
Jon Rahm (-7)
The leader of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup standings started out the first hole in a way that looked like he would have a rough afternoon, but boy did he quickly turn things around. After finishing with a double bogey on the very first hole, Rahm followed that up with a birdie on the next two holes before finishing the front nine with another birdie at 7 and an eagle on 8. He then closed out Round 1 with four birdies on the back nine to finish the opening round with a 65.
Viktor Hovland (-7)
Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Network
The Norwegian golfer started out hot, then quickly cooled down. Hovland scored an eagle on the second hole of the opening round before finishing with three birdies in three of the last four holes of the front nine. As he led early on with a score of -5 into the 10th, Hovland slowed down with several bad shots out of the tee box that put him in bad positions. With just two birdies in the second half of the round, Hovland still did enough early on to end the day as the co-leader after Rahm caught up to him.
Brooks Koepka (-7)
Don’t look now, but LIV Golf has a golfer at the top of the leaderboard. After being -4 through 13 holes thanks to a bogey on the Par 5 13th, the 32-year-old LIV Golfer surged with birdies in three of the last four holes to close out his round of play and tying Rahm and Hovland for the lead after Round 1 at Augusta.
Honorable Mentions
Cameron Young (-5) – The 35th place player in the FedEx Cup standings had a good long game Thursday, but two bogeys set him back and could have easily been tied for the lead.
Xander Schauffele (-4) – He was consistent throughout the round with good green placement, but like Young two bogeys on Par 4 Holes 7 and 17 barely kept him in the Top 5 of the leaderboard.
Fred Couples (-1) – I know, he finished with a 71 and tied for 24th place after the first round. But how can you not give the 63-year-old a mention as he is playing among the best in the world and those half his age?!
