Bryson DeChambeau shot a 7-under 65 to lead the Masters with two groups still needing to finish their first round on Friday.
Masters favorite Scottie Scheffler was one shot behind after his 66.
Tiger Woods was at 1-under through 13 holes before play was suspended just before 8 p.m. ET due to darkness. Weather delayed the start Thursday by two and a half hours.
Masters second-round tee times
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VSiN’s golf experts offered their first-round observations and second-round predictions . . .
Matt Youmans
Scheffler is now a stronger favorite to win this tournament and I’m not going to argue. You can’t win a major on Thursday, but you can lose it. The only popular player who’s out of it after one round is Hideki Matsuyama, who was tipped by several touts. I’m not crazy about the way the day turned out for my players, but it was ok and it’s way too soon to overreact. I’m not adding any bets on this until Friday night.
Kelley Bydlon
Well, it was certainly an exciting first round at the Masters… hopefully it’s not the only one, because that guy Scottie Scheffler’s back up on the leaderboard again.
Sure, Bryson DeChambeau sits one stroke better after Thursday’s play, but he also putted at a rate of success that you’d think can only go one way after gaining an incredible 3.64 strokes over the field (according to Datagolf.com). Meanwhile, Scheffler is continuing to look like a tee-to-green god with room to improve with his putter as the tournament goes on.
It will be interesting to see what Nicolai Hojgaard and Max Homa can do in the morning to close out their opening rounds, but it will be a tricky turnaround for them then going to have to play another 18 tomorrow in their second round.
The weather, or more like just the wind, will be interesting to monitor tomorrow. It was clear heavy gusts were affecting the golfers with later tee times today.
There are no bets that I will be adding tonight. I’ll likely reevaluate after the cut. With Scheffler near the lead, it’s tough to recommend much in the outright market. Live Top 20s for Tony Finau and Patrick Cantlay both stick out to me at +110 at DraftKings. They were excellent with their irons today, but struggled to find a rhythm putting. Corey Conners at -105 stands out as well. He is someone I have a few bets tied into. He came into the tournament in pretty good form and has three top 10 finishes at the Masters over the past four years.
Matt Brown
Despite all the rain, given the technology on this course, they’ll probably be playing a fairly dry course on Friday. The greens will be as dry and firm as they want them.
