The spotlight at Masters

The spotlight at Masters

Rory McIlroy’s bogey-free 65 tied Alvaro Quiros for the first-round lead. Six of McIlroy’s seven birdies came on putts shorter than 10 feet.McIlroy also led by two after the first round of last year’s British Open at St. Andrews, but shot 80 while playing in heavy winds in the second round. He finished third, his third bronze-medal showing in nine career Tiger Played Well In Masters Once Again majors.“I’ll be thinking about it and I’ll be thinking about how I can do things better (Friday) than I did that day,” he said. “So if I do find myself in a bit of trouble, I’m going to have to stick in there, grind it out, and that’s something that I feel as if I learned to do at St. Andrews.”Amateurs are accustomed to playing in front of friends and family. The Masters’ large crowds are just another challenge they must overcome. When David Chung stepped to Augusta National’s first tee at 7:56 a.m. Thursday, he tried to take deep breaths to relax himself.“It seemed like there was no oxygen coming into my lungs,” said Chung, a junior at Stanford. “Not only are there people all around you, but there are people lining the fairways. It’s very different.”

Chung eventually grew comfortable with the crowds. He was 2 under through 16 holes before bogeying the final two holes. Asian Amateur champion Hideki Matsuyama and U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein also shot 72 on Thursday.Jin Jeong, the British Amateur champion, shot 73, while U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Nathan Smith shot 75 and U.S. Amateur Public Links winner Lion Kim shot 76.“It was a perfect day for scoring and I would have loved to have shot something a little bit lower, but it’s nice to have a little mini-comeback in the middle there,” Donald said. “I just got off to a really slow start. I’ve done that a little bit in majors before, I’m not sure why, but just couldn’t quite let it go.”