Thursday At The 2024 Masters
Weather delay prevents round one conclusion. But it could have been worse. DeChambeau posts 65 to lead Scheffler by one. Plus, the Honorary Starters, This, That, Out, About and Friday's wind watch.
Masters Thursday By The Numbers
2 hours, 30 minutes - Thursday morning’s weather delay.
1.05” - Overnight and morning rainfall total.
10:10 a.m. - The revised Honorary Starter time.
81 - High temperature.
8 - Birdies by Bryson DeChambeau in his opening 65
0 - Bogeys by Scottie Scheffler in his opening 66.
7:51 p.m - When first round play was suspended due to darkness.
31 - Players under par when play was suspended.
62 - Number of players who completed round one.
20 - Number of under par rounds posted.
71 - Round by Neal Shipley to take the low amateur lead.
1-under - Tiger Woods score through 13 holes.
7:45 a.m. ET Friday: Round one resumes live on ESPN and Masters.com.
The Lords of Augusta must have secured the Golf Gods a coveted garden gnome. Or two. Or kindly reminded them of their recent shoddy weather work dating to 2019’s whole mishegoss saved by Tiger taking his fifth. Who knows. Who cares?
The 2024 Masters should be back on track by Saturday, setting the world up for an old-school, red-blooded, Masters finale where the First World can sleep in and roll into this vast Edwardian garden party with ingredients in place for a classic.
A shorter-than-feared Thursday morning delay meant Honorary Starters Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson kicked off the 2024 Masters about two hours earlier than feared. The whole Savannah River-bubble-thing should receive an honorary Green Jacket. It pushed the worst stuff south of Augusta National where the radar featured gobs of red and not enough Masters Pantone 342.
Thursday’s extra two hours of play should be the difference between finishing up round two Friday instead of Saturday morning. Another round of Double Azaleas for everyone at the USGA party!
This optimism assumes Friday winds will fail to jack with play to the point a horn sounds while the sun is shining and the concession stands have not run out of Peach Ice Cream Sandwiches (a tragic sight late Thursday). But based on round one’s generous course setup, the Cup and Tee Marker Placement Committee prepared for round one’s 30 m.p.h. gusts that turned Jason Day’s puffy Malbon pants into sails capable of powering Jeff Bezo’s super sailboat/overcompensating yacht thingy.
Down at Amen Corner it was the usual madness: huge pines behind the tiny green teetered while the flag cut 14 back and 10 from the left stayed perfectly still down below. The crazy conditions had players taking way more than the allotted time to hit. Yet only three balls found Rae’s Creek and one of those was Tyrrell Hatton’s tee shot banking off the flagstick into the water.
A look at the scoreboard suggest an amazing number of players were largely unphased by what looked like hellish winds at times: 41 contestants finished at par or better when the horn sounded at 7:51 p.m. ET.
A manageable 27 players will restart at 7:45 a.m. ET. while round two commences at 8:00 a.m.
First round leader Bryson DeChambeau battled some of the worst conditions while recording birdies on five of his final seven holes. The 65 makes him the fourth player in Masters history to record more than one first round score of 66 or lower. His other strong opener came in 2019 when he posted 66 but ultimately finished T29.
DeChambeau has yet to record a top 20 Masters finish in seven appearances. But he’s killing it on Snapchat and taking cross-platforming inspiration from Jynxzi and Sketch. More on those key details later.
Scottie Scheffler continued his remarkable run of bogey-free rounds, recording his 46th as a professional en route to a 66 played in five straight hours of nasty gusts. The 2022 champion birdied the second, sixth, 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th holes. He hit 13 of 18 greens and only missed two fairways. He’s kind of ridiculous.
“He's just so efficient with everything,” said playing partner Rory McIlroy (71). “If you look at Scottie compared to the rest of the field, the amount of bogey-free rounds he plays and he shoots is phenomenal, and that's the secret to winning major championships and winning big-time golf tournaments, is more limiting the mistakes rather than making a ton of birdies.
“I made three bogeys today, which is fine out there in these conditions, but just need to tidy it up a little bit to try to keep up with him.”
Recent Ryder Cup rookie Nicolai Hojgaard is 5-under-par with three holes to go after chipping in at the seventh and 12th.
The 2017 Masters Champion, Danny Willett, is at four-under-par in his first official start since September’s BMW PGA at Wentworth. So much for the importance of playing the West Coast Swing. Though he did get the all-important Seminole Pro Member bounce.
But only one thing matters from this opening Thursday: the Masters will be back on schedule sooner than expected.
The Quote Machine
After an eight-birdie, one-bogey 65, Bryson DeChambeau churned out his share of lively lines.
He was (naturally) asked about a 2020 remark suggesting Augusta National was a par-67 in his bacon-fueled phase.
“You're trying to pigeonhole me into saying that again, aren't you (laughter)?” he said. “I'm not going to comment on that.”
DeChambeau then broke down like Mumbles. Only Dick Tracy isn’t credentialed this week.
“I'm going to go out and try to shoot the best score I possibly can,” he said. “Sure, if you want to line the math up that way, that is a perspective you can take. It was a perspective I had, and it cost me a lot of slack, I guess you could say.”
Other Bryson answers of note:
On his second into 15 from the pines to set up a two-putt birdie. “I was just trying to get to the back right section of the green, and I pushed it a little bit. It clipped the tree. I hit four pine needles rather than five, and it worked out perfectly. But it was a little scary of a shot. I shouldn't have probably done it, but I took a risk.”
Asked why he’s struggled at Augusta National. “Why have I struggled? I don't know. Only God knows that.”
On the positive state of this game after less tinkering. “I feel like it's just ingraining consistently over the course of time. I'm not trying new things, not doing new things. I'm just doing more of the same. That's what's been different from a couple years ago to now.”
On improved perspective thanks to his content YouTube commenters. “What's been really nice and helpful for me is doing a lot of content on YouTube, as crazy as it sounds, it's been really awesome to see how I can affect a lot of people's lives, junior golfers' lives, middle-aged men, even, they are coming out shouting: ‘Thanks for the content. Appreciate what you do online.’”
On growing the game via “content” and his inspirations in the, uh, space. “You look at what MrBeast has done, and there’s a few other super famous people right now, Jynxzi and Sketch, and they are growing their avenues and their aspects, and it's cool to see the cross-platforming capabilities. Like these individuals coming and playing golf and seeing how much influence they have is really cool. It's just another avenue.”
Speaking of people who have grown their avenues and aspects, let’s move on to those cross-platformers with 11 Green Jackets.
The Honorary Starters
Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson kicked off the Masters via the traditional honorary starters ceremony. Given the delayed start, Chairman Fred Ridley wasted little time introducing the players in a return to classic Masters brevity.
So much so that as Tom Watson started needling Nicklaus about never having driven left off the first tee, only to have the Chairman deliver a gentle, “Tom, please play away.”
There’s some Cliff Roberts in this one, after all.
(Honorary Starter connoisseurs will recall that Watson broke out into an unexpected speech during his first appearance in 2022. The sermon ended well but we weren’t sure what path he was taking.)