AUGUSTA, Ga. — For the last 59 years, the opening round of the 🀅Masters always has ended with at least one player shooting a score in the 60s.
For most of Thursday’s opening round of the 81st Masters at blustery Augusta National, where the wind gusts reached nearly 40🎐 mph, it looked like that streak was coming to an end.
Several players flirted with♏ shooting some low✨ numbers early in their rounds.
Belgium’s Thomas Pieters was 5-under through 10 holes before giving all of that work back around Amen Corner and finishing with an even-par 72.
Rickie Fowler was 2-under par before leaking oil on his way into the garag𝓡e with a double bogey on 18 to settle with a 1-over 73.
Matthew Fitzpℱatrick, a 22-year-old Brit who looks 10 years younger than his actual age, was 3-under par on the 18th tee and sabotaged his round with a double bogey to finish with a 71.
Finally, an accidental tourist named William McGirt, playing in his first Masters at age 37 and who makes his home in Boiling Sprin🍌gs, S.C., emerged with a 3-under 69.
And then along came Charley 🎐Hoffman, who had the misfortune of teeing off at 1:08 p.m., when the wind was gusting at its highest. Undaunted and seemingly unaffected, Hoffman scorched Augusta National with a 7-un🙈der 65 to surge to a stunning four-shot lead entering Friday’s second round.
So Hoffman leads McGirt by four shots, Lee Westwood (2-under) by five, and Phil Mickelson, Ser🧸gio Garcia, Andy Sullivan, Kevin Chappell, Jason Dufner, Russell Henley and Fitzpatrick (all 1-under) by six.
Wind? What wind?
“It was a dream,’’ Hoffman said. “I mean, you hit the shots that you’re sort of looking at, and then the hardest part is to convert the pu🐈tts, and I was able to do that and I got some good n✨umbers coming down the stretch.
“A few weeks 𒊎back, I sort of sat back on a week off and asked some people what I needed to do better, and asked myself what I needed to do better, and I just needed to believe a little bit more. I think I’m just starting to believe. This game’s tough and I’m starting to believe and obviously seeing putts go in and seeing 💜shots where you want them to go helps the belief process a little bit.’’
Hoffman had a shot at birdie on the 18th ho🌟le, which would have given him five consecutive birdies to close the round and tie him with Craig Wood in 1941 for the largest lead after the opening round at five shots.
The putt ba⛄rely missed, but that took nothing away from what was perhaps the greatest round of Hoffman’s c🧔areer.
It a🎃ll seemed unlikely after two bogeys left him at 1-over par through his꧑ first five holes. Hoffman birdied eight of the next 12 holes, including four in a row beginning at the 14th.
“This was one of those rounds where you could shoot your way out of the golf tournament pretty quick,’’ Hoffma💜n said. “I was just trying to make pars, and while I was trying it make pars, I put myself in position to be able to make bird🌱ies. And I was able to convert those birdies and turn it into a fantastic round.’’
This is not the first time Hoffman has been in contention at the Maste✅rs. Two year☂s ago, he played in the next-to-last group on Sunday, but closed with a 74 to finish 10 shots behind winner Jordan Spieth. That tie for ninth was Hoffman’s best finish in 22 career major championships.
“I’m going to feed off that the rest of the week,’’ Hoffman said. “Obviously, [I’m] going to sleep on the lead at a major championship here at Augusta National [and that] is not going to be the easiest thing. I look forward to it, and I lookꦚ forward to the challenge the n🀅ext three days.
“When I step on the property, I feel good. Visually — I’m a very visual person — it fits my eye𒆙. The greens, I don’t know why it is, I like to see putts that break. Just it feels good when I’m on the greens and on the tees and hitting shots into the green. I don’t know if it just makes me focus a little bit more out here, but I definitely feel comfortable on this property.’’