Justin Rose leads The Masters after day one at Augusta National, but Scottie Scheffler is in hot pursuit.
Augusta National played incredibly difficult during the opening round, but Justin Rose and Scottie Scheffler made it look easy on day one of The Masters.
Rose opened his 2025 Masters account with a seven-under par 65, whilst Scheffler posted a four-under par 68.
On a day when Nick Dunlap shot a truly shocking 90, there were few performances that were error free.
Rose’s only blemish came on the final hole, whilst Scottie traversed Augusta National bogey-free.
The Englishman will begin his second round early on Friday morning, whilst Scottie Scheffler will have to wait until the afternoon before he gets his Masters campaign underway again.
It will be fascinating to see how everything unfolds at Augusta on Friday afternoon.
Justin Rose disagrees with Scottie Scheffler theory after day one at The Masters
The Englishman would have been ecstatic with his first round score on Thursday.
The real challenge for him begins now though.
He will have to go out on Friday and post another solid number, if he is to tee off in the last group on Saturday.
He will be well aware of Scheffler’s presence on the leaderboard, there is no doubting that.
And Rose responded when asked by one reporter whether his game-plan was affected by Scottie, and whether it will be going forward:
“No, there’s absolutely no mentality like that whatsoever. Because I think we all are running our own race as hard as we can. You just don’t have the — you’re not afforded the luxury to think that way, at all.
“But you do notice Scottie on the leaderboard and you’re like, that’s a great start for him. You know, he’s going to be tough from there for sure. Like you know that. But it doesn’t rattle you or change what you’re doing or influence you in any way.
“But you’re like, okay, his position in the game right now and obviously the way he’s played in recent years, that’s a great start for him. Probably a perfect start.”
Justin Rose has history on his side, but so does Scottie Scheffler
Both players clearly have a good chance of winning this week.
Most people would say that Scheffler is still the red-hot favourite, despite the fact that he’s currently three shots adrift of Rose.
History is on the side of both players heading into the second round.
Out of the last 20 Masters, 18 of the eventual winners were inside the top 10 after day one.
Now it’s up to either Justin Rose or Scottie Scheffler to go out there and make that statistic even more emphatic than it already is.
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