Friday, April 11, 2008
Practice Makes Perfect

The first round of the Masters certainly didn’t disappoint, we were glued to our screens last night like former Big Brother contestants watching the Top 100 Talentless Celebrities, waiting to see where they rank. But the gladiators we saw battling it out at Augusta are anything but talentless.

Things got off to a slow start when Arnold Palmer kicked things off with his opening drive, unfortunately it was into a mist so thick that play had to be delayed by an hour. But soon the bad weather cleared and spectators were treated to the glorious sunshine they’re accustomed to at the Georgian club.

Nick Dougherty took the lead early on, but topping the leaderboard at the end of the day would be a lot to ask from his first outing at the tournament. It was fellow Englishman Justin Rose who led the field at the end of day one, tied with Trevor Immelman – who made up a three-ball with Rose and Poulter for a practice round at Augusta two weeks ago - at four-under. This is the third time he has been in this position though, so he’s not choosing a pair of trousers to match the green jacket just yet. "I've learned you can't count your chickens too early," He said, though he does admit he should be pushing to be in contention at the final hole on Sunday. "At the age of 27 you begin to say you can't keep putting it down to experience. You say 'this is the time to step up' if you like. But I'm not putting too much pressure on myself."

Rose’s run of six birdies in eight holes was sensational at such a difficult course – where fairways are mown sideways to make every shot as hard as possible – but Sandy Lyle deserves a special mention today. He was chasing the leaders for much of his round, and looked fairly comfortable at three-under. His noble performance – two decades after his Masters victory – ended with him level for the day.

The excitement is almost too much to bear, but we can’t wait to see what happens next. Will Rose still be up there on Sunday? Will Sandy Lyle? Only time will tell, but we’ll be watching with baited breath both this evening and at our Masters bonanza at Urban Golf tomorrow night.

For live scoring click the leader board below.




4/11/2008 10:58:18 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [2] 
Tracked by:
"Practice Makes Perfect" (three-ball) [Trackback]


©Copyright 2008 Golfpunk Online

Page rendered at 11/21/2008 11:31:41 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)