Rory McIlroy has made a dream start to his title defense at The Masters with an opening round 67 (-5) on Thursday.
McIlroy entered the tournament with less pressure than in previous seasons, having finally won the Green Jacket and completed the career Grand Slam last year.
The Northern Irishman has also not been in top form recently, withdrawing from the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finishing T46 at The Players.
However, it did not take him long to prove that he should be taken seriously again, tying Sam Burns for the lead on day one.
After handing in his scorecard, McIlroy explained whether his first-round performance deserved a five-under-par 67.
Rory McIlroy admits he was fortunate to card a first-round 67 at Augusta National
While a 67 suggests McIlroy played faultless golf at Augusta National, he actually made several mistakes throughout the day.
His driving was consistently inaccurate, forcing him to find creative ways to get back into position to make a birdie or par.
Thankfully for McIlroy, he made some amazing recovery shots that allowed him to avoid a bogey on every hole besides the third.
He cannot expect to keep getting out of trouble for four consecutive rounds and was probably fortunate to be five under on Thursday.
“Yeah, my hope was to get off to a solid start,” McIlroy reflected on his opening round. “I feel like the way I played, 5-under exceeded where I thought I would be or what I wanted to do.
“I think a fair score for me today would have been like 2-under, with some of the places I hit it. But again, I used my head…
“I got up-and-down when I needed to. I didn’t compound mistakes. Again, that’s just a learning curve that you have to go through around here, and I did it well today.”
The good news for McIlroy is that, if he can shoot 67 without finding fairways off the tee, the Green Jacket will be his if he does.
Rory McIlroy felt the same nerves on the first hole of The Masters
As with every Masters champion, McIlroy had much less pressure on his shoulders at the start of the week than those chasing their first Green Jacket.
However, the 36-year-old admitted that he was still as nervous on the first tee at Augusta National as he always has been.
“No, I was nervous, I was anxious just like I always am on that 1st tee,” he said. “It’s the first round of the major season, the first round of the 16 most important rounds of the year.
Yeah, I’m thankful that I felt the same as I always have. I think it would be worrisome if I didn’t feel that way because it definitely still means something to me.
“But I would say that I didn’t hit the ball very well the first seven holes, and sometimes here that would lead me to get tentative and a little guidy, and I kept swinging, just trusting that I’m going to find it eventually. So maybe that was a little bit different.”