Bryson, Brooks, Dustin, Rory Struggle at the Masters; Jordan, Lucky Again

The pre-tournament big names struggled with a tough set up, practically burned-out greens and gusty winds in round one of the Masters.  The long hitters suffered and the medium to short hitters advanced.  It made no sense, really.

Bryson DeChambeau, longest of the long, had no distance control with his irons and no accuracy with his driver.  Yet when asked if he was going to change drivers for round two, he said no.

“I need to understand how the ball flies off of downhill slopes into uphill greens, and conversely uphill slopes into downhill greens,” he said to media after posting a 4-over 76.

He admitted to some bad swings and said the practice greens are completely different from the golf course, which he was unable to adjust to, at first anyway.  His second shot at 18 which flew too far, he said he got a wrong number.

Something was wrong for sure.  He looked like he was in the wrong area code most of the afternoon.

Dustin Johnson, the defending champ, was 2-over and T30 after round one.

“I felt like I hit a lot of good shots that didn’t end up in good spots, just from misjudging the wind a little bit,” he commented to reporters after his round.  He thinks he’s swinging well, but admitted his irons were not currently as sharp as they have been in the past.

Johnson is tied with Brooks Koepka, also at 2-over par. Koepka is playing on a bad right knee that he had surgically repaired recently, so recently that he was not expected to play this week. His leg was tired, he said after he finished.  But he’s been told he can’t hurt it by playing.

More from Brooks Koepka News

• Zach Johnson’s Ryder Cup Picks Add Proven Winners, Comfy Partners, Good Putters
• The bunker that changed the PGA Championship
• Reassessing Brooks Koepka’s status among the game’s greats
• Can Brooks Koepka LIV for one more day?
• Brooks Koepka: Major Theory and ‘Choking’ at the Masters

It should not have come as a surprise that Rory McIlroy turned in a high score, 4-over par.  He is in the middle of adjusting his swing, and it’s likely that process will take a while.  He admitted to hitting some loose shots and headed to the range to work on shoring things up.

“It’s like you get into these bad habits and that feels normal,” he explained to media about the changes, “and then you get it back into position where I’ve been a million times before, and it just feels a little different.”

New dad Jon Rahm was at even par for the round.  He pretty much summed up the way the day went for most golfers.

“It was a battle.  That’s all I can say.  There was not one moment where you felt relaxed, or where I felt relaxed out there,” he admitted to media. “ everybody struggled.  Rory struggled.  Xander struggled.  I struggled.”

He said it was harder than usual to hit greens and that some of the putts scared him.

One who got lucky was Jordan Spieth.  He was on his way to an over par round when he miraculously holed out a chip on the par 5, 15th.  It hit the flag stick hard and fell into the hole for eagle and put him back at 1-under.

“If it didn’t hit the pin, it wasn’t just going in the water.  It might have gotten to the middle of the water,” he said to media about the shot.

He needed it to go in because he had triple-bogeyed the 9th, which was a real Spieth-as-Tarzan adventure.  Off the tee, he was in the right pine straw with trees mostly blocking a path to the green.  While he thought he would be able to hit through them, he was wrong.  His ball cracked off the bark of one of them and bounced backwards but the resultant location gave him a better view of the green.

At the end of it all Justin Rose, who has been sidelined for the last month with back problems, is leading at 7-under par, four ahead of Brian Harman and Hideki Matsuyama and five ahead of Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Webb Simpson, Patrick Reed and newcomer Will Zalatoris.  Of the group, Zalatoris is the longest hitter.

The action in the first round was mostly in saves, not in birdies.  Only 12 players were under par.

However, what was somewhat concerning were the aerial views of the greens. Yes, at the Augusta Women’s National Amateur they looked a little crispy, but on ESPN they were down-right beige, tan, more brown than green.  From the ground level views, they were green and brown blotches.  This is the look of a US Open green, not of the lush, verdant Masters.  Are they even going to last until Sunday?

“Monday it kind of looked like what it does normally what it does on a Saturday, late Saturday afternoon, Sunday,” Brooks  Koepka said to media when asked about the condition of the putting surfaces. “On the back of 6, there’s no grass, and 9, I don’t know if there is grass.”

So, it’s not our eyes deceiving us.  The greens are going to be finished by the end of this tournament. However, no matter what the putting surface is actually made of, early Sunday evening, there will be a winner.