It’s been 60 years since Jack Nicklaus became the first player to win back-to-back Masters and 24 years since Tiger Woods became just the third.
Now, Rory McIlroy, who needed 17 tries to win his first green jacket and complete the career Grand Slam, is in position to join more elite company. He fired a 67 on Thursday and has a share of the first-round lead, stoking talk of back-to-back jackets.
“Certainly it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind when I started 2026,” McIlroy admitted. “But obviously it would be nice.”
McIlroy shot 34-33 to post his best opening-round score since 2011, when he began the week with a 65. He started with a 72 last year en route to his victory.
McIlroy begins the second round tied with Sam Burns, who also shot 34-33 in a quest to win his first major. They hold a two-stroke lead over Kurt Kitayama, 2018 champion Patrick Reed and 2015 PGA champion Jason Day.
The course played to an average of 74.648 shots Thursday, more than a stroke higher than last year’s average score of 73.589. There were 10 scores in the 80s, the most 80s since 2007, when 12 players struggled under frigid, windy conditions.
World No. 1 and two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler shot 70 and is tied for fifth with Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele and Justin Rose, who lost in a playoff at the 2025 Masters.
Burns said it was his most solid round at Augusta National. He credited the ability to keep the ball in the fairway — he hit 11 of 14 fairways from the tee — and not get ahead of himself.
“I think this course is so tricky that you kind of try to get lost in your kind of process and just try to execute,” Burns said. “If you start thinking … this is not really a golf course you want to do that. Just trying to go out, execute, have a good process, commit to the shot and be accepting of whatever happens.”
Masters double eagles
Reed eagled No. 2 and No. 8, becoming the first player to accomplish that in the same round since Henrik Stenson in 2012. The par-5s on the back didn’t treat him as well; he had par at No. 13 and a bogey on the 15th. Reed shot 69 and is two shots off the lead.
Double dunkers
Fred Couples and Robert MacIntrye each hit two balls in the water, Couples at the par-5 15th and MacIntyre on the par-3 16th hole.
The frustration continued for Couples, who followed with a double-bogey at No. 16, when he rinsed a Bridgestone in the pond, and a double-bogey at No. 16. He shot 8-over 44 on the second nine and finished at 78.
MacIntyre needed nine shots to complete the 16th, his highest score on the PGA Tour.
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