2024 Masters: Five takeaways from Round 1 at Augusta National

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The first round of the 88th Masters Tournament is finally in the books, with nine groupings having returned first thing Friday to complete Round 1.

Bryson DeChambeau (65) and 2022 Masters champion Scottie Scheffler (66), who has won two of his last three starts on the PGA TOUR, completed their first rounds Thursday, and they had separated from the field, but perhaps not for long.

Max Homa birdied the 16th and 17th holes Friday and bogeyed 18 to sign for a 5-under 67. In four previous Masters starts he had never broken 70 and twice missed the cut.

Masters rookie Nicolai Højgaard also completed his round Friday, also carding a 67. He’ll try to become the first Masters first-timer to win since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

Here are five things to know about Round 1 at the Masters:

1. Scottie Scheffler is on baby watch

Scheffler is coming off victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and THE PLAYERS Championship, where he became the first to successfully defend his title. He fought to the end at the Texas Children’s Houston Open before finishing second by a shot.

He’s also about to become a dad for the first time.

Scheffler’s wife Meredith is resting at home, and the world No. 1 said that while they do not expect the baby to come this week, he would leave the tournament if she goes into labor.

“I wouldn't say I'm very concerned,” Scheffler said after going bogey-free in strong winds Thursday. “We haven't seen any of the early signs. But pregnancy is weird. It can happen at any time. (We have) open lines of communication and she can get ahold of me if she needs to.

“I'm ready to go at a moment's notice,” he added.

2. Max Homa seriously outperformed his record here

Homa has long been vocal about his underwhelming record in the majors, and nowhere has he struggled more than at Augusta National. In four previous starts he had failed to break 70 even once, missed the cut twice, and boasted a career best of T43 last year.

And yet there was Homa, playing alongside Tiger Woods (73) and Jason Day (75), making birdies on 16 and 17 in the resumption of his first round to reach 6-under par, tied with the world No. 1 Scheffler. A finishing bogey gave Homa a 5 under 67, two off the lead, but he given what he’d accomplished here over his career, he wasn’t complaining.

After getting off to a slow start this season, Homa has turned it around at a good time. He would be the third client of sports psychologist Julie Elion’s Center for Athletic Performance Enhancement (CAPE) to win on the PGA TOUR in the last three weeks (Akshay Bhatia, Stephan Jaeger).

3. Rory McIlroy’s 71 was better than it looked

McIlroy was not overly impressed with his first round, and that’s understandable given that he bogeyed the par-5 second hole, played the par 5s in even par, and was six behind DeChambeau.

“Yeah, it was OK,” McIlroy said. “I held it together well. It was a little scrappy.”

That said, it was McIlroy’s best opening round at the Masters since he shot a 3-under 69 in 2018. Those slow starts have been hard to overcome, although he shot a final-round 64 to finish second in 2022, and rallied with three scores in the 60s to tie for fifth place in 2020.

One theory is that the tournament has come to mean perhaps too much to him, a notion that McIlroy does not deny. It’s the only major he needs to complete the career Grand Slam.

His slow starts here have seen him average 73.8 strokes in Round 1 over the last five Masters, when he has failed to break par. He’s also shot second rounds of 77 (last year, missing the cut), 73 and 74 the last three years, so keep an eye on what he does Friday.

4. A healthy Will Zalatoris is contending again

A lot has happened since 2021, when Zalatoris finished second at the Masters to Hideki Matsuyama, but that’s probably an understatement.

The winner of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, Zalatoris has struggled with back issues ever since, missing out on some of the biggest tournaments in golf. Last year he withdrew from the Masters minutes before his opening-round tee time. Soon he was going in for surgery, a microdiscectomy on his back that shelved him for the rest of the PGA TOUR season.

“It just puts things into perspective,” Zalatoris said. “A year ago I could feel the disc slipping and I was kind of hiding it from everybody, including members of my team.

“It's hard not to be grateful being here,” he added, “but I'm even more grateful now.”

5. Tiger Woods is on pace to set another record

Given that he’s gotten in just one competitive round this season, an opening 72 before he withdrew with the flu at The Genesis Invitational, five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods could have been excused for not having anything close to his best in the difficult first round at the Masters.

Instead, despite strong gusts of roughly 20 mph on Thursday, the 48-year-old Woods fought the course to a draw, going 1-under though 13 holes. He returned Friday and made three pars and two bogeys for an opening-round 73. He stood tied for 35th place and will try to make the cut for a 24th consecutive time. That would break him out of a tie with Fred Couples and Gary Player for most all-time.

“The wind was all over the place,” he said of the conditions Thursday.

As for how he’s feeling, he said: “It’s there. The body is OK.”

Friday saw him walking with his hands in his pockets and otherwise looking cold, but the weather will warm up for his second round. Woods has said his surgically repaired body feels best in the heat.