Brooks Koepka lights up The Masters as Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose struggle

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John Huggan12 April 2019

He may have shed as much as 24 pounds in weight since November, but Brooks Koepka has not lost a step. Not in the Major championships.

Winner of the last two US Opens and the 2018 USPGA Championship, the 28-year old American leads the Masters here. Koepka’s opening round of 66, six-under par at Augusta National, has him tied for first-place with compatriot Bryson DeChambeau.

Two-time Masters champion, 48-year old Phil Mickelson, is in third spot, a shot back. And Ian Poulter, alongside world No2 Dustin Johnson on 68, is best-placed of the 25 Europeans in the 87-strong field. In all, 28 men broke par, a list that includes Tiger Woods, the four-time Masters winner, who is two-under after a steadily played 70.

Still, for all his major success, Koepka — who missed last year’s Masters through injury — arrived in Georgia short of recent form.

After a missed cut in last month’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, the former European Challenge Tour player finished 14-shots behind Rory McIlroy at the Players Championship and failed to win any of this three matches at the WGC Match Play Championship. Hardly confidence-boosting stuff. No matter. On a day when pre-tournament favourite McIlroy made six bogeys in a disappointing round of 73, and world No1 Justin Rose a 75, Koepka did not drop a shot. A run of five birdies in six holes from the turn were the foundation for what is only his second sub-70 round in the Masters.

The presence of De Chambeau atop the leaderboard actually makes most sense. In the 12 months since Patrick Reed claimed the 2018 Masters title, no one in professional golf has won more often than the former US Amateur champion.

Four victories on the PGA Tour sit nicely alongside a fifth first-place, at the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour. And yesterday, no fewer than nine birdies dotted DeChambeau’s scorecard, the most memorable of those a tap-in on the 18th after his 200-yard approach shot struck the pin and finished inches away.

“The ball was sitting down in the rough and all I wanted to do was get the shot started towards the middle of the green,” he explained after closing with four straight birdies. “Maybe I should have had my caddie attend the pin. The ball was just moving too fast to drop. Overall I’m pleased. I was patient on the front nine but not getting rewarded. But I got going on the 12th where I made a birdie. And from the 15th on, I just sailed through.”

As for McIlroy, much work — and many birdies — will be required if the former US Open, Open and USPGA champion is to become only the sixth man in history to complete the career Grand Slam. His was a sloppy performance, one that makes ultimate victory unlikely. Only three times in the last 25 years has the eventual Masters champion shot an over-par opening round.

“I made five birdies but that wasn’t the problem,” said the Northern Irishman. “I just made too many mistakes. And I made them from pretty simple positions.”

As ever in the Masters, McIlroy was far from alone in his misery. Rose, at three-over, fared worse while Paul Casey, a recent winner on the PGA Tour, shot a disastrous birdie-free 81. Only the 2009 champion, Argentine Angel Cabrera, was behind.

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