Augusta National has proven to be too much for many during the opening round of The Masters.
Bryson DeChambeau shot four over and struggled to get anything going. Meanwhile, Aldrich Potgieter shot an 84.
The sun, which has beamed down on Augusta all week without a drop of rain, has made it firm and fast, and it’s unlike anything we have seen from the iconic course in years.
That wasn’t an issue for Jason Day, who shot a 69 in round one to put himself in the mix. The Australian thinks he’s identified an advantage for himself already.
Jason Day says his experience is an advantage at this year’s Masters
With the course playing unlike anything the younger generation has seen from Augusta, Day, making his 15th appearance at The Masters, leaned on his years of experience.
He said after his round. “Man, like it’s — you can start seeing — if you look down the first fairway you start seeing the purple change. That’s when you know when you start seeing that tinge of purple, that’s when you know it’s starting to get firm and fast.
“Like I said yesterday was a dramatic difference in the way the course was playing. It was very soft — it was softer, a lot softer, a lot slower.
“Now you’re starting to see things roll out a little bit more. Like I mean, you can’t — there is certain locations where you have to miss and sometimes you just got it suck it up.
“So that’s when getting back to your question about the experience, definitely helps knowing that — being around here 15 times now, it definitely helps in those situations.”
He then predicted what he thinks the course will be like this weekend: “I mean, just depends on what they want. If they want digits to win it’ll be baked out and fast and guys will be kind of spewing on themselves out there. Be really difficult.
“So if they want — they can definitely soften it out if they need to. It’ll be interesting. It’s going to be a good challenge regardless.”
Jason Day comments on Rory McIlroy’s opening round at The Masters
Defending champion Rory McIlroy is off to a great start at Augusta, having put himself towards the top of the leaderboard after Thursday’s play.
Day said what he saw of the Northern Irishman’s opening round: “Obviously, I’m looking at him right now because the leaderboard is staring me right in the face. Obviously, he’s off to a great start defending the championship, The Masters.
“So, yeah, there is plenty of great golfers out there that you have to worry about as well. Not just him. And first and foremost you’ve got to worry about yourself. Just make sure you’re doing the right things.
“If you can do that and execute the shots that you need to, then hopefully things should take care of themselves.”
It looks like if Day is to become an unlikely winner, he’ll have to fight through the very best golf has to offer.