William McGirt and Jason Dufner, the No. 53 and 66 players in the World Golf Ranking, are co-leading the Masters at 3 strokes under par on Thursday afternoon.
Masters 2017 leaderboard: William McGirt, Jason Dufner tied for lead in 1st round
A few veterans have put together strong first rounds.
Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images
Play is starting to wind down in the first round at Augusta National. It’s been a windy day on the grounds, and nobody’s been able to run away from the pack with long strings of birdies. Parity has defined the day, and if the weather is similar tomorrow, the story might not change much. That should mean a closely packed board.
World No. 1 Dustin Johnson withdrew from the tournament shortly before he was set to tee off with the day’s last group. Johnson had been the field’s betting favorite before a back injury suffered on Wednesday threw his status into question.
The world No. 6, Jordan Spieth, finished at 3-over for the day. He made a devastating quadruple-bogey on the 15th hole, the second quad in his last two tournament rounds at Augusta. Spieth isn’t out of the running, but he’ll have to grind to recover.
McGirt, 37, is a journeyman with one career victory, coming last year at the Memorial. He has never played the Masters before, though he’s appeared in the sport’s other three majors at least once apiece. His best finish in a major to date is a tie for 10th at last year’s PGA Championship, won by Jimmy Walker.
Dufner has been on the stage before, of course. He won the PGA in 2013, and he’s notched a few other top-10 major finishes in that tournament and the U.S. Open. He’s never been in serious contention at the end of a Masters weekend, however, and now he’s got a great shot to get there in 2017.
Weather’s expected to turn for Saturday and Sunday, but until then, just scoring somewhere around even par is a good outcome. If Dufner and McGirt can do that on Friday, they’ll be in great shape. Any better, and they should be on cloud nine.
The official Masters leaderboard updates constantly and automatically. As of just before 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, here’s where the field stands at Augusta:
Position | Player | To Par | Thru | Today | R1 | R2 | Total |
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