Henrik Stenson leads early European charge at Masters
Friday 6 April 2018 01:43, UK
Henrik Stenson led the early European charge on the opening day of the Masters with a three-under 69.
The Swede, whose best finish in his 12 previous visits to Augusta National was joint-14th in 2014, mixed five birdies with two bogeys as he bettered his old best first-round score in the Masters by two shots.
Stenson, who was celebrating his 42nd birthday, twice got to four under but slipped up with bogeys at the 14th and 18th, although he was content with his efforts.
"I'm happy with that," he told Sky Sports. "I think I played a well-played round. I feel like I still left a few shots out there, a couple of unforced errors with the irons and so on, but all in all a good day.
"I putted nicely and took a couple of good chances, saved myself on a few occasions, so, all in all, I don't think I deserved any better than what I finished on really."
Despite the good weather conditions, Stenson admitted it had not been easy out on the course.
"It's silly-hard and you can't appreciate that on TV," he added. "It is the most difficult golf course in the world I think and if it's playing that hard on a good day it kind of tells you what we are up against when we have tough days out there.
"The margins are super-tight. But we know that and you have just got to embrace that and try and hit your shots and do the best you can and take what comes out of it."
Stenson was later joined in a seven-way tie for fourth place - three behind leader Jordan Spieth - by fellow Europeans Rory McIlroy and Rafa Cabrera Bello.
Cabrera Bello found himself on three over after four-putting the fifth for a double-bogey, but he recovered in fine style with six birdies in 12 holes from the seventh.
"I kind of told myself that putt could happen to anyone, but I hadn't really been playing bad the first few holes," he said. "The scoring was a bit unlucky. Just hang in there, grind through the round, there will be some birdie opportunities.
"I made a really good putt on seven and it gave me a boost. And No 8 I played it perfectly, I managed to birdie that as well. So it kind of felt like, okay, I was back in it. And really stayed patient and played good golf.
"Gave myself several chances and was able to recover the ones when I got into a little bit of trouble. So I was very pleased with the round.
Austria's Bernd Wiesberger is just one shot behind the leading European trio after equalling his best round at the Masters with a score of 70.
Wiesberger turned in one over after bogeying the fifth and eighth following a birdie at the third, but he came home in 33 with birdies at the 10th, 13th and 15th.
He said: "Looking at the leaderboard I didn't expect that two under was going to be that high up. Definitely a couple opportunities out there, but then again you need to be really careful with some of the pins.
"Some have changed from the previous first rounds here at the Masters, sort of spruced it up a little bit, which some of them made it pretty tricky to get the ball close to. And all in all I felt I executed well and I had two kind of mental errors on the front nine.
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"But making the turn I thought I had a good idea of what I wanted to do and hit good shots and I was happy with a couple birdies coming in.
"All in all it played nice, not a lot of breeze, obviously you need to trust your reads when the wind is swirling down in the valley, but all in all I thought I did a good job and happy with the start today."
