Trio of 65s lead assault on Augusta National during 2023 Masters opening round

By channeling a quote from a famous countryman and two-time Masters Tournament champion, Jon Rahm reset his mind after a horrendous start to the 87^th Masters Tournament.

It helped him shoot 7-under-par 65 and tie a healthy Brooks Koepka and Norway’s Viktor Hovland for the first-round lead at Augusta National Golf Club.

Rahm, the 28-year-old year-old Spaniard who won the 2021 U.S. Open, four-putted his first hole on Thursday for a double bogey. On his walk to the second tee, he thought about what Seve Ballesteros said after he four-putted the 16^th hole in the first round of the 1988 Masters. Since Rahm wasn’t born until 1994, he had only heard about the quote from Ballesteros, who won the Masters in 1980 and 1983, but he applied it to his situation.

“I think it was here at the Masters, right, when he four-putted. I just kept thinking to myself, 'Well, I miss, I miss, I miss, I make.' Move on to the next,” Rahm said. “I carried a little bit of that negative energy into the tee shot on No. 2, hit it about 10 yards further than I usually do and moved on with my day.”

HONORARY STARTERS: Nicklaus, Player, Watson again shine in Masters' honorary starter ceremony

TEE TIMES: Start times for Friday's second round moved up 30 minutes. Here are the pairings

ROUND 1 ANALYSIS: Second nine of Augusta National humbled by world's best during Masters opening round

The rest of the day was spectacular. Rahm played his final 17 holes in 9 under, highlighted by an eagle on the par-5 eighth hole, where he rolled in a 4-footer.

“Yeah, it's still a long way to go,” Rahm said. “I'm mostly super happy with what I've done today, right. I didn't expect to hit a great 3-wood, a good second shot and four-putt the first hole, but to overcome that and shoot 9 under on the next 17 holes was something to be proud of.”

The three leaders are two shots clear of their closest rivals. Second-year PGA Tour pro Cameron Young and veteran Jason Day both had 67s.

It’s one strong leaderboard. The top 17 golfers have combined for 14 major championships and two Olympic gold medals. Thirteen are among the top 19 in the world golf ranking.

After Rahm’s round, all anyone wanted to know was about with his four-putt on No. 1. His first putt was from 48 feet. Then he “missed, missed” from 8 feet and 5 feet before making a 3-footer.

“The fact every single putt felt good makes it easier,” said Rahm. “If you're going to make a double or four-putt or anything, it might as well be the first hole, 71 holes to make it up. After that, it was more, I was focused on the fact that all the strokes were good. The reads were good. The roll was good. Obviously the speed was off on the first two putts, so once I kind of accepted that there was nothing really to look into, I just got to work and I had 17 holes to make up.”

Rahm was in an explosive group. He, Young and Justin Thomas (70) combined for 18 birdies and the eagle by Rahm. Young had seven birdies.

“Not only Cam but Justin played good as well,” Rahm said. “I told Justin on the fourth tee, what are the odds of three guys having seven birdies in the first three holes combined? It doesn't usually happen very often. It helps when everybody in the group is playing well.”

Koepka returns to major form at Masters

Koepka also had a strong playing partner in Gary Woodland (68) and led the way among the LIV Golf contingent, which started with 18 players. They are down to 17 after Kevin Na withdrew after nine holes with an undisclosed illness.

After Koepka, the next-best LIV golfer was Cameron Smith, who had 70.

Koepka, who won last week’s LIV event in Florida, is finally 100 percent physically after two years of battling various injuries. He’s known for elevating his play in the majors – of which he has won four.

“There's a difference in kind of my demeanor,” he said of playing in a major championship. “Everybody on my team behind the scenes says they can see from the moment we land at a major, here at Augusta, I get kind of quiet. I'm very - I'm not talking. I'm very focused, disciplined, driven. There's only really a couple things I care about, is going to work out and going to play golf and that's it when we're here, and nothing else really matters. It's full focus on this and trying to walk out of here with a green jacket.”

Hovland shines in first pairing with Tiger Woods

Hovland could feel Rahm’s pain on the first green. In last year’s Masters, he double-bogeyed the first hole in the second round. He went to shoot 76.

It was a different story on Thursday for Hovland, who outplayed five-time champion Tiger Woods (74) and Xander Schauffele (68), the seventh-ranked player in the world. It was first time the 25-year-old Hovland had been paired with Woods, the five-time Masters champion.

“When I found out I was paired with Tiger, my heart kind of went a little bit further up in the throat, and I just thought, 'Wow, this is going to be exciting,'” Hovland said. “Heart rate started going up. After that, I calmed myself down and thought, 'This is going to be very exciting.' You've just got to embrace it. You can't be scared or anything like that. If you want to win this tournament, you can't be scared about playing with Tiger. So you've just got to overcome things like that.”

It helped that Hovland has recently shored up his short game, which is essential at Augusta National, where players are chipping off tight lies around the greens.

“Yeah, I mean, I don't care how good you hit it out here, you have to chip the ball,” Hovland said. “You have to have a short game. And especially on that back nine when I hit a lot of bad shots, to be honest, but I managed to keep myself in it by hitting some really nice chips and making some really nice putts.”

His improvement around the greens is “pretty much night and day,” he said.

Looking ahead to a rainy Friday

Rahm is part of golf’s current Big Three, including defending champion Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Scheffler is ranked No. 1 in the world, McIlroy is 2 and Rahm is third. On Thursday, Scheffler opened with 68 and McIlroy shot 72.

Rahm finished in the top 10 in his first seven events this year, winning three of them.

“Obviously I've played really well this year, right,” Rahm said. “Maybe not the last few tournaments, but I'm feeling confident, obviously. Hopefully I can keep it going. I'm really happy I started the way I did and gave myself a solid start to the week.”

With rain and cold weather expected to arrive, Rahm and Hovland were happy to get in the house with such low rounds, while Koepka downplayed the significance of his start. Afternoon thunderstorms are expected Friday with a high of 80 degrees. Saturday could be brutal – a high in the low 50s and rain. That is similar to last year’s weather on Saturday.

Tee times for Friday's second round were moved up 30 minutes on Thursday evening. Koepka now is scheduled to start at 8:18 a.m., Hovland at 12:54 p.m. and Rahm at 1:18 in the second-to-last group of the day.

“We don't know how bad it's going to get, but I tend to think that it's easier to make up some ground on the easier days,” Hovland said. “If you start with a really low round and it gets very difficult, it's kind of easier to protect the score a little bit compared to if you're five, six, seven shots back, it's really difficult to make up that much ground if this place is playing very difficult. So obviously getting off to a nice start is key this week.”

Said Rahm: “Yeah, if there's ever like I just said, if there's ever a good time to shoot a low score, obviously Sunday would be the best if you're somewhat close, but knowing that, you know, we don't know how the week is going to unfold, I'm definitely happy I started this way.”

“I don't think my score really gives me much of an advantage,” Koepka said. “I think maybe my tee time with the weather coming up, I think I might be able to squeak out a few more holes than everybody else before it starts dumping. I would say that's probably the biggest advantage I've got going for me right now.”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Rahm's four-putt erased by seven birdies, eagle in Masters Round 1