In the first round of the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National on Thursday, Justin Rose took the lead with an impressive seven-under-par 65, marking his fifth time leading after the opening round at Augusta. His bogey-free round included eight birdies, putting him three strokes ahead of the field. Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion, and Corey Conners tied for second at four-under-par 68, with Scheffler also going bogey-free, highlighted by a 62-foot birdie putt on the fourth. Bryson DeChambeau and Tyrrell Hatton finished at three-under-par, rounding out the top five.
Rory McIlroy struggled late with double bogeys on the 15th and 17th, finishing even-par at 72, seven shots off the lead. Collin Morikawa had a strong moment with an eagle on the 13th but ended at one-under-par.
Masters second-round tee times
VSiN’s golf experts offered their first-round observations and second-round predictions . . .
Wes Reynolds
In my Masters A to Z player profile column, the following was written regarding Justin Rose:
The Englishman is still a threat to be a first-round leader considering he has done it four times here at Augusta.
Make it five times now that Rose has been a leader or co-leader at the end of the first round at the Masters. Rose, 44, shot a 7-under 65 (courtesy of leading the field for Strokes Gained: Putting at +5.27 strokes!) to lead by three strokes over defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, Corey Conners, and Ludvig Åberg.
However, the bloom has come off the Rose all four times he has held the lead outright or at least a share after Thursday. Here are Rose’s finishes in those years of being the First Round Leader:
- 2004: T-22
- 2007: T-5
- 2008: T-36
- 2021: 7th
- 2025: ???
That is a good reason why Rose (7/1) is just the third choice on the odds board.
Currently, the first choice is one in the same as the pre-tournament first choice: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (2/1).
Scheffler shot a bogey-free 68 and gained nearly three strokes putting on Thursday as he attempts to become the first player to defend his title at The Masters since Tiger Woods in 2002 and the first to win three green jackets in four years since Jack Nicklaus in 1966.
Ludvig Åberg (6/1) led the field for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee (+2.08). The Swede was last year’s runner-up.
Bryson DeChambeau (+850) posted his best Masters finish last year with a T-6 and stayed patient to finish with a round of 69.
Then, there’s Rory McIlroy (12/1), who was cruising along and in the fairway on the Par 5 15th looking to birdie and go 5-under on his round. Instead, McIlroy flew the green and then his chip could not hold the fast green and went into the water. McIlroy carded a double-bogey 7 and then compounded the damage with another double on the Par 4 17th. He was finally set to be in a rare, good position after the first round, but now finds himself seven off the lead.
Recent history has not been kind to McIlroy when he trails by such a margin after the first round at the Masters.
- 2019: 7 strokes back (T-21 finish)
- 2020: 10 strokes back (T-5)
- 2021: 11 strokes back (MC)
- 2022: 6 strokes back (2nd)
- 2023: 7 strokes back (MC)
- 2024: 6 strokes back (T-22)
He was third in the field today for Strokes Gained: Ball Striking (Off The Tee + Approach), so he could still make a run to at least get on the periphery of contention (still -130 to -140 for a Top 10), but odds are that the career Grand Slam will have to wait until 2026 and it has now been waiting since 2015.
The biggest threat to Scheffler currently looks to be Åberg, who ranked 4th in round 1 for Strokes Gained: Ball Striking.
If looking to go a bit down the board, Tyrrell Hatton (25/1) is four strokes back at 3-under and Akshay Bhatia (45/1) is five back at 2-under, but finished his Thursday with birdies at 16, 17, and 18 and could carry that momentum into Friday.
Kelley Bydlon
Round 1 of the Masters is in the books, and everyone is staring up on the leaderboard at a former major champ… just not one I was expecting: Justin Rose.
Although, maybe I should have. This is now Rose’s fifth time leading at the Masters after the opening round. Congrats to everyone out their who cashed nice FRL tickets on him.
While I do not think Rose will be able to gain over 5 strokes on the field putting each round, I don’t think you can look very far down the board to a live outright bet. In 19 of the last 20 years, the winner of the Masters has been in the top 10 after the opening round. And one of those guys is Scottie Scheffler (-4). So at best, you should only be considering golfers currently under par.
I won’t have any adds in the outright market… although Corey Conners at 22-1 is tempting. But Conners rarely wins unfortunately. I already have him as a top 20 bet, but will consider adding a top 10 bet here on him overnight. He entered the tournament in incredible form and has shown he can finish well at the Masters before.
One golfer I’ll be looking to target for a second round matchup bet is Sergio Garcia. He’s been one of the best players on LIV this season and opened the Masters with an impressive
Tee-to-Green performance, finishing 5th in strokes gained.
If you have bets on Rory McIlroy or Collin Morikawa, I feel for you. I’m right there with you. Good rounds went south real quick.
One second-round matchup: Ludvig Aberg -115 > Xander Schauffele.
Matt Youmans
If the Masters ended now, I would be thrilled. About a month ago, I bet Justin Rose at 125-1 based on his outstanding track record at Augusta. Rose is off to another fast start with a 7-under 65, but a three-stroke lead means little with three rounds to go. I’ve also got two futures plays (+450 and +500) on Scottie Scheffler in addition to plays on Scheffler to finish top 5 (-101) and top 10 (-177). Shane Lowry (45-1) still has a shot. However, a few of my other futures — Collin Morikawa (17-1), Joaquin Niemann (42-1) and Russell Henley (55-1) — are turning into toilet paper.
I’ll recommend Corey Conners and Bryson DeChambeau as players worth betting prior to Friday’s second round. DraftKings is offering the best price (18-1) on Conners, and Circa has the best price (+800) on DeChambeau. Conners was No. 2 in the field in driving accuracy (92.9 percent). DeChambeau ranked No. 2 in driving distance and can clean up some of his sloppy play around the greens. Rose is the leader due to his red-hot putter that will surely cool off.
Matt Brown
The story of the opening day of the 2025 Masters should be Justin Rose coming out and shooting 7-under, three shots clear of the next closest competitors. Or maybe the feel-good story of a 71-year-old Freddy Couples coming out and shooting 1-under par, good for T11. Or maybe it would be us talking about how difficult it is to try and tame Augusta National in your first Masters, pointing to uber talented Nick Dunlap shooting a 90 in his maiden round.
But instead, it’s Rory McIllory. For all the wrong reasons. Rory stepped up to the Par 5, 15th hole tied for second place at 4-under par. He left with a double bogey. The 15th was one of only five holes that played under par on Thursday. To compound the problems, he doubled 17 as well (one of only four players to double the 17th) and finished the day at even par. Not terrible…it’s still T27. But he was right there. Again. And blew it. Again. I fell for the banana in the tailpipe and put in an outright ticket on him, so I’ll be praying for a monsterous three days.
Some additional notes from Thursday:
- Taking nothing away from Justin Rose’s round…but he did gain over 5 strokes putting, a full 1.5 strokes better than the next closest player. Friday may be a little tougher for Mr. Rose.
- Scottie Scheffler gained across the board and started to look like last year’s version of Scottie. He’s down to 2/1 so it’s not a bet for me, but sure feels like he’s gonna be there again on Sunday.
- Sergio Garcia crushed on approach and was fifth in the field in SG: Tee to Green. He just couldn’t putt it in the ocean, losing a whopping 2.86 strokes to the field. I expect some positive regression there and took him an a second round H2H versus Lucas Glover.
- Same can be said for Tommy Fleetwood who lost even more strokes putting (-2.98) than Sergio. I’ll back that he won’t be this bad again and take him in a second round H2H against Wyndham Clark.
- Day 1 favored accurate drivers and did not favor bombers at all according to DataGolf. We’ll see how it plays on day 2, but if this holds, we can target some of the straight-ballers to back on the weekend.
- We valued SG: Around the Green very heavily on Long Shots this week as we anticipated firm greens that would be difficult to hold with even good shots. Every player in the top 10 gained ARG with 8 of the 10 gaining at least 1.2 strokes.
- Fun fact, Sam Burns had six birdies and only one bogey to shoot a +1. Yes, you math’d that correctly. Three doubles on his card on Thursday.
Reminder: top 50 and ties will make the weekend.
Enjoy your Friday Masters.
