Bolter in Masters lead
RUSSELL GOULD AND EVIN PRIEST WITH the hottest golfer on the planet withdrawing injured, unheralded Charley Hoffman turned the 2017 Masters on its head with one of the best opening rounds in Augusta National history.
And Marc Leishman is feeling the 2013 Augusta vibe after thriving in the wild wind to plot a course towards another Masters Sunday.
The Victorian surged into contention four years ago and had a front-row seat for compatriot Adam Scott’s droughtbreaking victory which secured Australia’s first green jacket.
World No.1 Dustin Johnson entered the year’s first major with three US PGA Tour wins the green jacket when members tee off after the final holes of the US Masters on Monday.
The club’s assistant professional Rob Dehne said the American championship boosted local participation numbers every year.
“It definitely inspires them in as many starts, but injured his back falling down a staircase on Wednesday.
It opened the door for littleknown Hoffman’s sevenunder-par 65, which drew comparisons to Australian Greg Norman’s record low first round of 63 during the Shark’s infamous 1996 Masters. to get out there and play golf,” he said. “You see it in social media too. People usually get down to the driving range.
“Normally what happens as soon as the Masters finishes at about 9.30am, everyone floods down.”
Since 1949, a green jacket
The 40-year-old Hoffman’s sensational score was particularly memorable in the brutal winds that wreaked havoc on the rest of the field as he bridged a gap of four shots over fellow American William McGirt (69) and Englishman Lee Westwood (70).
“For lack of any better words, it was a dream,” said Hoffman.
Leishman conceded Hoffman’s 65 was “probably one of the best rounds of the year” but isn’t convinced it’s the number he has to get to win.
After opening with a steady one-over 73, with an 18th hole bogey courtesy of a muddy ball, Leishman said “bring on the wind” because he wasn’t worried about it at all.
Smiling and “enjoying life and golf” Leishman said he has been awarded to the US Masters champion and must be returned to the clubhouse one year after victory.
The Cairns Golf Club borrow the tradition and award a jacket to the winner of a ninehole hitout that follows the championship end. feels comfortable at Augusta and thinks the weekend, and more, is well within his reach.
“I have played well in the first round here a fair bit (he opened with 66 in 2013) I’m feeling good, in a good spot off the course, game is probably the bests it has ever been coming in to the masters.
“I am enjoying my golf and that is a big part of playing well.
“You can only play in the conditions you are given and I enjoy playing in the wind, I really enjoyed it today. I like the fact that if you play well even par is a good score, and oneover is a good score.
“We get used to shooting low numbers a lot, not playing in too much wind over here.”
Only four first round leaders have gone on to victory in the past 40 years which gives
Dehne said he watched the US Masters every year.
“It is the tournament that everyone wants to win and all the best players – it is so prestigious,” he said.
Nominations are also open for the Cairns Open to be played on May 6 and 7. not only Leishman but countrymen Jason Day (two-over), Adam Scott (three-over) and even Rod Pampling (also twoover) more than a slight chance of being in contention.
Day, playing his first competitive round since stepping away from the game to deal with his mother’s cancer battle, had as many birdies as bogeys and knows a good grind in a windy Friday could lead to better scoring on a predicted warm and much more still weekend.
“That’s the only real thing you can do is just try and grind and have more birdies than bogeys,” the world number three said.
“I think I’m playing some decent golf. I’ve just got to get myself a little bit closer to the hole.” JORDAN Spieth thought he’d expelled his Augusta demons when he first carried the water on the 12th hole, then made a comfortable par.
It was his first visit, in completion, to the famed hole since his Masters meltdown last year when he twice plopped his ball in Rae’s Creek and took a seven, costing himself back to back titles.
But Augusta, Spieth, and quadruple bogeys seem to be now forever linked after the Texan took an unbelievable nine at the par five 15th in Thursday’s opening round.
There was water involved again, his third shot, after laying up, spinning back viciously into the black, inky pond at the front of the green.
But then there was a duffed chip and three horrible putts that sent Spieth tumbling from the top of the leaderboard, again. He finished with a three-over par 75.
“Yeah, very difficult. You think of it as a birdie hole, obviously being a par 5. And unfortunately I still thought of it as a birdie hole today and it really isn’t, when you lay-up,” Spieth said.
“So I didn’t take my medicine, and hit it about 15 feet right with a club that takes the spin off.
Instead I was stuck in the ‘15 is a birdie hole’ mentality, and it kind of bit me a little bit.
“I struck the shot well, I just hit the wrong club. I used a club that would spin instead of one that would maybe take the spin off.”
As a Masters winner Spieth gets to play every year “until they ask me to stop”.
But his affinity with Augusta may be on the wane. His last four rounds have all been over par, having never finished in the negative in any of his previous nine there.