This And That From Day One Of The 2016 Masters

/

Happy reading after a day one that lived up to the expected hype, with some stellar play in very difficult winds and a few big surprises.

Jordan Spieth's 66 gives the defending champion a five-round streak as leader and put to bed any questions about having to put a new driver in the back. Ron Sirak's account includes quotes from Ben Crenshaw, who was out following Spieth.

Speaking of Crenshaw, Jim McCabe quotes him at length for Golfweek.com about Thursday morning's honorary starters moment.

Tom Watson called a penalty on himself, shot 74, but still has a chance to be the older player to make the cut, writes Golfweek.com's Adam Schupak.

Rickie Fowler posted an 80 and sounded a little shell shocked, reports Dave Shedloski. He also took to Twitter to push back at some of his critics.


Bryson DeChambeau discussed his grace, artistry and 72 played in the company of Jordan Spieth. My account at GolfDigest.com. He also showed a little bit of non-Hoganesque playing to the cameras.

Phil Mickelson's serviceable 72 in under three minutes:

Ernie Els' 10 9 included 7 6 putts. Alex Myers and Joel Beal compiled this video and account from eyewitnesses.   

Els spoke to reporters after and admitted he was having trouble taking it back.

Matthew Rudy talked to some instructors about the situation, which was utterly bizarre on so many levels, especially considering how well Els was able to hold the round together.

Some stellar images from the Golf Digest team Thursday.

Cheng Jin has evolved the blog entry we used to get from Masters.com into a video diary. He talks about getting a putting lesson from Nick Faldo and his first Masters round.

 

Sunday's Drive, Chip and Putt averaged 377,000 viewers over four hours according to SportsTVRatings. The ANA Inspiration won by Lydia Ko (and in east coast prime time) averaged 398,000 viewers over four hours.