AUGUSTA, Ga. – The first day of Masters 2022 is in the books and it has been as incredible as expected. From a course that’s playing tougher than it seems, to a leaderboard that already looks like it’s going to be a weekend, to Tiger Wood’s extraordinary 71 in his first professional round in 17 months, Thursday at Augusta National had it all.
Sungjae Im leads through the first 18 holes after a 67 shot, but the top of the leaderboard looks remarkably similar to where it ended the 2020 Masters (more on that below). Sometimes at major championships it takes a while for a leaderboard to take shape, but the 18 golfers who shot under par on Thursday are almost all big names and almost all would be great stories if they won.
Let’s look at nine takeaways from an outstanding first round of Augusta National.
1. 2020 Masters Redux: The top three on the board is the same top three at the end of the 2020 Masters. Dustin Johnson beat Im and Cameron Smith that year, but now Im beats Smith by one and DJ (and three others) by two. Though Smith is the favorite, Im has staying power at the top. He’s only played two Masters, but one of those was T2 in 2020. We rarely consider him one of the best young players in the world, but adding a Masters to his already solid resume will change that on a big scale.
2. Who is in the top 10? Since 2005, all but two winners have been in the top 10 after Round 1. The only exceptions have actually been the same people. Woods previously won in 2005, and then he did it again in 2019 from T11. This year’s list includes the following names, and one of them will almost certainly be your 2022 Masters champion.
- Sunjae Im
- Cam Smith
- Danny Willett
- DustinJohnson
- Scottie Scheffler
- Joaquin Niemann
- Jason Kokrak
- Corey Conners
- Patrick Cantley
- Harry Higgs
- Kevin Well
- Daniel Berger
- Tony Finau
- Webb Simpson
- Will Zalatoris
- Harold Varner III
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- … and Tiger Woods
3. Insidious Scheffler: Seemingly everything Scottie Scheffler does is quiet, including his 3-under-69 on Thursday in the first round. The world’s No. 1 player walked in with almost no fanfare – partly because of Woods and partly because he’s never been called the surefire world No. 1 player – but he finds himself in the same position he often finds himself in majors. In his last six major championships, Scheffler has finished in the top 10 four times and in the top 20 all six times.
4. Smith’s bookend doubles: Smith is perhaps the most exciting player in the sport right now. Somehow he shot 68 with doubles on the first and doubles on the last. In his last two rounds — one at TPC Sawgrass, which earned him The Players, and one at Augusta National, which put him in second place — he’s made 18 total birdies and destroyed most of the two fields. He might not win this weekend, but he could be the rollercoaster ride you’re looking for the rest of the way.
Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter and Greg DuCharme recap Thursday’s action at Augusta National, including a shocking 71 from Tiger Woods. Follow and listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
5. Who came out? Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau both shot 76, and apart from a miracle on the last 54 holes, they’re out of the mix. Other big names also struggled. Sam Burns shot 75. Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele — all Augusta National stallions — shot 74 and tied PGA Tour Champions players Padraig Harrington and Mike Weir in Round 1.
Also, this was the tweet of the day.
6. Danny Willett, right? are we going to do this again? Willett’s 69 is good for T3, and there was no premonition like there was back in 2016 when he won. Willett has zero top 20 finishes worldwide in his last 12 starts, but he was still eager to return to the site of his biggest win.
“You can’t come into this place and not wake up every morning with a smile on your face,” Willett said. “I think it’s impossible. It’s impossible for the players, and I think it’s impossible for the 25,000 guests who come and walk around here every day. It’s quite a special place. It’s nice that we can bring the good work that we’ve done, bring it here, and it kind of gives you that little bit of butterfly that’s still walking around this place.”
7. Rating average: I was shocked at how difficult this course was after so much rain in Augusta over the past few days. I would have thought the scoring average would have been about the same, but it went up to almost 74. Some of that is because it’s artificially inflated by amateurs and past champions, but some because Augusta made it harder than normal on a Thursday, putting in pins and trying to make up for some of the sodden grass.
8. Low in the morning: Only two of the six amateurs shot better than 79, and world No. 1 Keita Nakajima, who made the cut at the Sony Open earlier this year, led with an even par 72. Austin Greaser blasted a 2-over 74, and these two look like the only contenders for low amateur honors this time around. Also, a 72 is a fabulous Round 1 result for anyone, let alone an amateur.
9. Tigers Thursday: Round 1 was all about the Big Cat, which I’ve written about extensively here. One last statistic about him. After not playing competitive golf for over 500 days, he beat eight of the top 10 players in the world on the first 18 holes at Augusta. Wild.
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