The very first shot we saw as they came on the air this afternoon was defending Champion Zach Johnson’s approach into the 13^th hole from behind with the azaleas surrounding the green and water in front … the sheer beauty and familiarity we all have with this course gets my adrenaline pumping right away! No matter what the storylines turn out to be, I’m never disappointed watching The Masters, never.

Day One saw 18 rounds under par under sunny skies and calm winds … a complete opposite from the wet Thursady we saw last year when the average round was above 76. Today’s lead is jointly held by Justin Rose and Trevor Immelman at 4 under par with 71 year-old Gary Player bringing up the rear at 11 over.

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Zach’s opening round of 2 under was pretty phenomenal in my books as he came into this week with only 1 top 10 to his credit and no one giving him a chance-in-you-know-what to make any noise. Who knows? A repeat may be in the cards for only the third time in modern history (Faldo and Woods).

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Tiger was 2 over par by the time the golf hits the airwaves after a sloppy bogey on 14 which followed him being robbed on the par 5 13^th when his second shot that “was a sweet sweeping 4 iron” as he put it afterwards, landed pin-high and bounded over the green into one of the most difficult chipping positions on a course chalk-block full of ‘em. 4 shots later and he’s walking away with a bogey when he should have had a great chance at eagle, merely a potential 3-shot swing.

So what does he do on the Par 5 15^th as soon as the rest of the world gets to watch? Calmly chip it in for eagle and get back to even par, that’s what. I believe it was his 10^th consecutive round at Augusta that he failed to break 70, but he’s only 4 shots off the lead and has only led after the first round in 3 of his 13 Majors wins so he is still in great position to get the Grand Slam discussions going full bore come Sunday night.

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The powers-that-be that run the Masters by their own screw-the-rest-of-yas rules have long been considered to be the snobbiest of snobs, but they deserve major props for letting kids in for free with a paying adult. This is something that all tournaments should follow the Green Jackets lead on making the stars of the game more accessible for kids to help grow the game. Tickets are famously difficult to get for The Masters and as a result it is one of the oldest galleries you’ll ever find at any venue on tour … letting the kids in is one of the best stories of the week, imo.

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A little Poolie update … sorta … if you somehow managed to pick the trifecta of Justin Rose(-4), Ian Poulter(-2 with a hole-in-one on #16)  and Lee Westwood(-3) in your 20 man roster you’re off to a pretty good start. If you guessed that I happen to do it, well, you’d have made a very lucky guess!

On the not-so-good-side for me, I decided to leave Stephen Ames off of my list at the very end and he then shot a very respectable 2 under. After eliminating the transplanted Canadian it was then a choice between Brandt Snedeker and John Senden who would get the final spot on my team. Of course I chose Senden who is near the back of the pack at 8 over while Snedeker was on the leader board all day shooting 3 under, 1 behind the leaders.

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Rose, Poulter and Immelman all live near each other in Florida and are good friends. So good in fact that they traveled to Augusta a couple of weeks ago for two days of practice rounds and now they all find themselves on the first page of the leader board after day one. Remarkably, this is the third straight year that Rose has been in the lead after the first day … horses for courses I guess.

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Mickelson made a miraculous chip in for birdie on the 1^st hole from way over the back of the green that would have gone a good 50 feet past the hole and off the other side of the green if it missed, got some good and bad breaks along the way and managed to hold on for a 1 under 70. The even number every-other-year streak of wins in 2004 and 2006 is still alive for 2008 … here’s hoping it’s a Phil and Tiger showdown on Sunday!

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