The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Masters second round.
Though the weather was idyllic at Augusta National, the course showed its teeth in Round 1. As promised, Augusta is playing firm and fast — the field scoring average of 74.65 on Thursday was the highest at the Masters since 2017.
The Day 1 leaderboard is dazzling yet again. Here are the top numbers and notes to know from Round 1 of the 90th Masters Tournament.
1. For more than a decade, Rory McIlroy went to Augusta National and faced the same set of questions every year. Now, with the burden of history lifted and the demons of past Masters Sundays exorcised, McIlroy exudes a freedom his past steps around this place did not enjoy. McIlroy made just one bogey in an opening-round 67, one shot off the lowest-ever first-round shot by a defending champion.
After leading the 2025 tournament in strokes gained approach, McIlroy picked up right where he left off with his irons, gaining three strokes on the field in that statistic, fifth-best in the field, per Data Golf. Thursday was the fifth consecutive Masters round in which McIlroy has gained more than a full stroke on the competition with his approach play. He did that just five times in 36 Masters rounds from 2015 to 2024.
McIlroy birdied all four par 5s Thursday, the first time he has done so in a Masters round since Sunday in 2019. Over the last 20 years, Masters winners have made birdie or eagle on par 5s more than 55 percent of the time. Since his debut in 2009, McIlroy is a combined 108 under par on par 5s at the Masters, tied with Phil Mickelson for the best such cumulative score in that span.
2. This is the seventh time McIlroy has held a share of a first-round lead in a major, but it’s just the second time at the Masters. The other instance preceded a Sunday second-nine unraveling in 2011. McIlroy is the first defending champion to hold the 18-hole lead or co-lead at Augusta National since Jordan Spieth in 2016 and the seventh in tournament history. Only one of those men — Jack Nicklaus in 1966 — went on to win the Masters in consecutive years.
Thursday was the 10th time in McIlroy’s major championship career that his score was seven strokes, or more, better than the field average. That breaks a tie with Dustin Johnson for the most such rounds since 2009. Only three players have won the Masters in consecutive years: Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02).
Speaking of Woods, McIlroy wouldn’t mind pulling off something Tiger did a quarter century ago at Augusta National. Woods, the last man to complete the career grand slam, did so at the 2000 Open at St Andrews. The next year, he came to Augusta and won.
3. McIlroy is joined on top of the leaderboard by Sam Burns, the American who nearly broke through with his first major win last summer at Oakmont. Unlike McIlroy, Burns does not have a lengthy resume at the Masters: Thursday’s 67 was his best career round at the tournament. Entering Thursday, Burns was a combined 20 over par in his previous eight Masters rounds, with a dozen double bogeys or worse in that span.
Burns led the field in greens in regulation (16) and strokes gained tee to green (6.13) in Round 1. In those previous eight Masters rounds, he hit less than 59 percent of greens in regulation and lost nearly a stroke per round to the field tee-to-green. Burns had a complete performance on Day 1: He and McIlroy were the only players in the field to gain a stroke or more on the competition in all four primary strokes gained denominations: off the tee, approach, around the green and putting.
In four previous Masters starts, Burns has had two missed cuts and has not finished better than tied for 29th. Burns held pre-tournament odds to win of 70-to-1. Those would be the lowest pre-tournament odds to win the Masters since Charl Schwartzel won at 100-to-1 in 2011.
4. Sitting two shots back in a tie for third is 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed. A year ago, Reed trailed only McIlroy in strokes gained ball striking en route to a solo third-place finish. Thursday, his putter earned the largest share of the credit, picking up more than 3.5 strokes on the greens. Reed eagled both par 5s on the first nine. In the first 11 starts of his Masters career, Reed accrued just three eagles on those two holes.
Long one of golf’s most polarizing figures, Reed left LIV Golf at the beginning of 2026 in an effort to work his way back to the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, he has been great on the DP World Tour circuit, winning twice this season and leading all players in the order of merit and strokes gained total per round.
5. Jason Day also opened with a 3-under-par 69, the third time in his Masters career he has started the week with a round in the 60s. Day received plenty of publicity for his pre-tournament scripting, but the birds he has made on the course deserve more attention.
Day, 38, entered the week with some sneaky-strong statistical ranks on tour in 2026: 10th in strokes gained around the green, top-25 in greens in regulation and top-30 in strokes gained putting. Day finished tied for eighth at last year’s Masters, his best result in the tournament since 2019.
American Kurt Kitayama also shot 69 on Day 1, carding a field-best eight birdies or better. In his third Masters start, Kitayama was a combined 18 over par in the first five rounds. He has now broken 70 in back-to-back attempts, having closed out the 2025 Masters with a round of 68. Kitayama, 33, has one top-10 finish in a major in his career: a tie for fourth place at the 2023 PGA.
Scottie Scheffler’s start puts him in the Masters top 10 again. (Hector Vivas / Getty Images)
6. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler played the first three holes Thursday in 3 under, his best opening three holes to any round in his already incredible Masters career. He didn’t make a single birdie the rest of the afternoon, but at 2 under par, he is positioned to be a factor in this tournament yet again.
Scheffler hit 12 of 14 fairways, just one off his career best in any round at the Masters. He ranked second in the field in strokes gained off the tee thanks to that pinpoint accuracy with his driver. Scheffler shot 2 under par despite losing strokes to the field putting and carding 5s on each of the last three par 5s.
With a win this week, Scheffler would be the first player in tournament history to win three green jackets in his first seven career starts, eclipsing the record of eight shared by Arnold Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods.
7. Justin Rose finished his opening-round bogey-bogey, but at 2 under par, he is in contention yet again to win the green jacket. For a while Thursday, it looked like Rose might add to his Masters record of five opening-round leads or co-leads. For his career, Rose is 31 under par in the opening round of the Masters, the best such score in tournament history.
Rose hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation, a total bettered by just three players in the field on Day 1. It is the 23rd time Rose has had a round with 14 or more greens in regulation at Augusta National, five more than any other player since 2004 (Tiger Woods, 18). Rose is trying to become the first man to win the Masters the year after finishing runner-up since Dustin Johnson did it six years ago. At 45 years old, he would be the oldest Masters winner since Nicklaus in 1986 and the oldest men’s major winner from Europe since Old Tom Morris won the 1867 Open at age 46.
Justin Rose plays his shot on the 13th hole. (Hector Vivas / Getty Images)
8. All four players to card scores of 70 in Round 1 are past major winners. Along with Scheffler and Rose, Shane Lowry and Xander Schauffele got in at 2 under, each seeking his first Masters victory.
Schauffele, who has the best scoring average in tournament history by a player without a win, made five birdies. He ranked in the top seven in the field in strokes gained off the tee and strokes gained tee to green. Lowry made four birdies on the first nine, playing arguably his best golf since the late loss at the Cognizant Classic earlier this spring in Florida.
9. Two of the pre-tournament favorites, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, would like to hit the reset button on their 2026 Masters experiences. DeChambeau shot 76 on a day marred by a triple-bogey 7 on the 11th hole. Since his debut in 2016, DeChambeau has had seven-hole scores of 7 or higher at the Masters. No player has more in that span. Thursday was his 10th career Masters round of 75 or higher.
Rahm (78) was arguably an even bigger surprise. On LIV Golf this season, Rahm has averaged nearly six birdies or better per round. He failed to make a single birdie Thursday, the first time he has done so in a round in his Masters career. Since winning the green jacket in 2023, Rahm has shot in the 60s just once in nine attempts. Of the 91 players in the field, only two were worse than Rahm in strokes gained putting: amateur Mateo Pulcini and past champion Mike Weir.
10. All five rounds in the 60s on Thursday came from the first 15 groups on the golf course. Overall, the first 15 groups averaged 74.48 for the day, while their counterparts in the last 16 groups averaged a higher score of 74.81.
Each of the last 20 Masters champions shot scores of par or better in the opening round. Eighteen of the last 20 winners were in the top 10 after Round 1. Notably, McIlroy was not last year — he sat in a tie for 27th place, and his seven-stroke deficit tied the largest in Masters history by a tournament winner.