Another birdie for Kurt Kitayama, who snatches the lead for himself! He batters his drive downhill at the par-four 10th, then arrows his second back uphill from 187 yards to six feet! An outrageously good approach, and it gets the reward it deserves.Meanwhile … remember what we were saying about the conditions, and how they could help some of the shorter hitters? Well, here’s the shortest hitter on the PGA Tour last year, Brian Campbell, with birdies at 1 and 2.It’ll be within reach for one and all this week.-4: Kitayama (10) -3: Reed (7), Fleetwood (7) -2: Olazabal (13), Burns (9), Campbell (2)Bryson DeChambeau tugs his tee shot at 6 into the gallery down the left.It hits some poor patron slap bang in the special section of his trousers: the shot felt ‘round the world.

The brave chap doesn’t crumple to the ground, while Bryson’s ball screws back off the cluster and onto the edge of the green,Unlucky for the patron, who gets a signed ball by way of apology, but lucky for Bryson, who chips up to three feet and tidies up for par,Kurt Kitayama joins the leaders at -3! He makes his third birdie in four holes, the latest at 9 being reward for landing his approach pin high to six feet,Out in 33,This is an unexpected charge from the 33-year-old from California, whose best result at Augusta is a tie for 35th a couple of years ago; his only notable result in a major championship is a tie for fourth at the 2023 PGA Championship, thanks to a final round of 65 that whisked him up the standings from nowhere.

And even that went pretty much unnoticed, with everyone talking about 46-year-old club pro Michael Block’s ace that day.Well, he’s in our line of sight now.-3: Kitayama (9), Reed (6), Fleetwood (6) -2: Olazabal (12), Burns (8)Shane Lowry comes a cropper at another par-three.This time he drops a stroke at 6, sending his tee shot over the back to the left, and only managing to chip up to the fringe.Two putts later, and that’s three shots gone in two short holes.

He’s +1 and that birdie-birdie start already feels like an awfully long time ago.Before Rory can take his putt, some news of a fine par save up on 5.The co-leader Patrick Reed races a birdie effort eight feet past the hole … but he makes the one coming back.A similar dilemma for his playing partner Tommy Fleetwood … and that one goes into the centre of the cup too.Both remain at -3.

But it’s bad news for McIlroy at 3,He dribbles his nine-foot par putt to the edge of the cup … where it stubbornly stays short, one dimple shy of dropping,He gives it the full ten seconds, plus the casting of his shadow in the hope of wilting the grass, but there’s nothing doing,A careless bogey to drop the champ back to level par,Some bother for Rory McIlroy on the short par-four 3rd.

Another misfire from the tee box, off to the left.His chip up onto the raised green is woefully heavy handed by his stratospheric standard: the flag’s front left, and his ball nearly topples off back right.The 40-foot putt he’s left himself is treacherous, because if he overhits it even a smidgen, the ball could trundle off past the cup and off the front of the green, back down the huge bank.So that explains his leaving it nine feet short.Big par putt coming up.

Bryson DeChambeau hits perhaps the shot of the day so far, a high draw into the par-three 4th, over the flag to six feet.But he doesn’t take advantage, his birdie putt dribbling past the right-hand edge of the cup.That’s a shame.He remains at level par and wanders off in a slightly deflated fashion.More trouble for Rory off the tee.

Down the right of 2 this time.Missing both ways.He manufactures a way out, sending his ball to the front left of the green … then from 66 yards, floats a wedge over the bunker, rolling out to three feet.He makes the birdie putt and the defending champ is in business at -1.Meanwhile his playing partner Cameron Young goes from bunker to bunker and needs a testing five-footer to save his par.

In it goes, to avoid the ignominy of a 5-6 start.He’s +1.Bryson bounces back with birdie at 3.He absolutely rattles in a straight ten-footer; the ball would be halfway to Alabama had it not been dead on line.Given the aggressive whip he sent out of the trees on 2, it would appear DeChambeau is in carpe-diem mode.

No point dying wondering! He’s back to level par.Meanwhile up on 4, the willowy and always-entertaining left-hander Akshay Bhatia and Tommy Fleetwood take turns to walk in monster birdie putts! This Masters is already heating up.It’s Thursday morning!-3: Reed (4), Fleetwood (4) -2: Olazabal (10), Kitayama (7), Bhatia (4)So much for Shane Lowry’s fast start.He makes an awful balls of the par-three 4th.The tee shot looked good enough, landing just past the pin and rolling off the back edge of the green.

But after knocking his second to three feet, he three-putts, and that’s a calamitous double bogey.Back to level par.Better news, however, of his Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood, who flops up from the bank at the front of 3, not particularly adroitly it has to be said … but then rolls in the 20-foot left-to-right slider! Back-to-back birdies, and it’s a flying start for Southport’s finest.-3: Reed (3) -2: Olazabal (10), Kitayama (7), Bhatia (4), Fleetwood (3)Rory sends a low hook out from the trees towards the front edge of 1.His chip up leaves a tricky five-footer across the green.

But in it goes.A staunch par after that drive.His partner Cameron Young meanwhile lands his approach in the middle of the green … but in the wrong place.The slope takes his ball all the way back to the fairway.He doesn’t get up and down, and that’s an opening bogey for the Players champion.

And a brilliant par for the third member of the bunch, Mason Howell, who followed up his hat-juggling antics on the tee box by finding the fringe of the green from the trees,Up, down, and a huge smile to celebrate his par,Lovely to see,Bryson DeChambeau sends his drive at 2 into creek-based trouble down the left,He’s forced to take a drop and does pretty well to find the centre of the fairway with his whip out of the woods.

But his wedge in stops way short of the flag, and two putts later that’s a bogey on a hole he’d have been looking to birdie.His face betrays his feelings.Not the start he was after.He’s +1.It’s a 3-3 start for the 2018 champion Patrick Reed! Having birdied 1, he creams his drive at 2 down the middle, then his approach, which only just gets over the bunker guarding the front left of the green, nearly topples off the back.

From the fringe, he tickles a downhill 27-foot putt straight into the cup.That four-week rest seems to have done Reed the power of good.Birdie meanwhile for his partner Tommy Fleetwood, who gets up and down from a tight spot to the right of the green.He’s -1.-3: Reed (2) -2: Olazabal (8), Burns (4), Lowry (3)Rory McIlroy arrives on the 1st tee … as the defending champion.

A huge smile as another box is ticked, another dream realised,A man living his best life,But a look of anxiety as he peers after his drive, which disappears into a line of patrons behind the trees on the left,Rory’s going round today with the new Players champion, Cameron Young, and the 18-year-old amateur Mason Howell, who suffers the indignity of his cap falling off mid-swing, then hitting the head of his driver on the follow through,The ball sails off to the left, just as Rory’s did.

The only way is up for the US Amateur champion.An adventurous start for Matt Fitzpatrick, who sends his opening drive into the trees down the left of Tea Olive, then hits a branch with his punch out.He’s short and left of the green, with a huge bunker to get over, but there’s plenty of green to work with, and he gently lobs to kick-in distance.That’s a great save.Meanwhile his playing partner Bryson DeChambeau sets up a glorious birdie chance, knocking his second pin high, but lets the 12-foot birdie putt dribble past on the low side.

Xander Schauffele makes up the all-star three-ball and that’s pars all round.Shane Lowry joins the leaders at -2.Having birdied 1, he doesn’t look particularly pleased with his high fade into 2 from 200 yards.No idea why, because it’s a doozy, rolling right to left like Sam Burns’ effort before him.The ball rolls 20 feet past, and though he doesn’t get particularly close with the putt coming back, he tidies up for a birdie from four feet.

-2: Olazabal (8), Burns (3), Lowry (2) -1: Homa (9), Knapp (3), Gerard (3), Taylor (3), D Johnson (2), Reed (1)Patrick Reed finished last year’s Tournament in style.He holed out from 146 yards on 17 for a one-bounce eagle, signing for a 69 and third spot all to himself.The 2018 champion loves this place – he’s also got top-ten finishes to his name in 2020, 2021 and 2023 – and at 35 “wants that adrenaline back” after time out on the LIV tour.He’s hungry and has just had four weeks off from his current gig, in a holding pattern on the DP World Tour until the PGA Tour allows him back in.An opening birdie, and there’s a fair chance he’ll be in the mix come Sunday evening.

The first eagle of the week! Sam Burns, from the centre of the downhill par-five 2nd, creams an iron from 209 yards to 11 feet, using the camber of the green to gather his ball in from the centre to the pin back-right.He rolls in the putt, and the 29-year-old from Louisiana, who led the US Open after 54 holes last year, joins Ollie at the top of the Leader Board.-2: Olazabal (7), Burns (3) -1: Homa (8), Kitayama (4), Knapp (2), Taylor (2), Lowry (1), Reed (1)Mixed news for Aaron Rai at yesterday’s Par 3 Contest.The 31-year-old from Wolverhampton, who tied for 27th last year on debut, won it, with six birdies for a round of 21, finishing one stroke ahead of Jacob Bridgeman and Johnny Keefer.The only problem, of course, is that nobody has won both the Contest and the Tournament itself in the same year.

But which Par 3 winner has come closest to Masters glory four days later? We spoil you …Runner-up (lost in play-off): Raymond Floyd (1990) Runner-up: Chip Beck (1993) Fourth: Arnold Palmer (1967) Tied fourth: Ben Crenshaw (1987), Luke Donald (2011) Tied fifth: Tom Watson (1982)Back to the Honorary Starters … and the boys keep swinging.This time they’re taking aim at Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed, over their return to the PGA Tour from LIV, and Tiger for, well, y’know.Over to you, Tom and Gary.The weather is set fair all week.Temperatures in the low 70s on Thursday and Friday, heating up into the mid 80s during Saturday and Sunday.

There’s no rain expected on any of the four days, something that’s not happened at the Masters since 2011, and so the course will almost certainly get even more lively than usual.Springy fairways.Firm and fast greens.Some swirling wind.As a result, length might not be such a deciding factor this week, bringing a lot of the shorter hitters into the equation.

Good news for the likes of Brian Harman, Collin Morikawa, Zach Johnson … and Brian Campbell, the shortest hitter on the PGA Tour in 2025, with an average drive of just (!) 278.4 yards.The moral? Don’t get hung up on distance, kids.Campbell won twice on Tour last year, while Harman, Morikawa and Johnson have five majors between them.The first amateur to make a mark this week is Jackson Herrington.

The 19-year-old from the University of Tennessee is making his first major-championship start, having finished runner-up in last year’s US Amateur,That’s often a springboard to success at the Masters: previous runners-up in the US Amateur to become Low Amateur at Augusta National include Ben Crenshaw (1973), Patrick Cantlay (2012), Doug Ghim (2018) and Neal Shipley (2024),Herrington has this morning carded birdies at 2 and 4, achievements bookended by bogeys at 1 and 5,He’s going along nicely at level par,At some point today, someone will need to throw a consoling arm around Carlos Ortiz’s shoulder