Masters week kicks off

The first shots at Augusta National were ceremonial at 7:25 a.m. Eastern time, but the real tension started 15 minutes later when the opening group went out and the 90th Masters officially moved from practice-round gossip to scorecard math. Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tom Watson handled the tradition, then a 91-player field took over. (cbssports.com) Rory McIlroy arrived as the defending champion after winning his first Masters in 2025, and he teed off at 10:31 a.m. with Cameron Young and amateur Mason Howell. McIlroy is chasing something Augusta almost never gives out twice in a row: only Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods have repeated as Masters champions. (wsbtv.com) Scottie Scheffler started later, at 1:44 p.m., in a group with Robert MacIntyre and Gary Woodland, which put the world No. 1 on the opposite side of the tee sheet from McIlroy. That timing matters at Augusta because morning and afternoon waves can face different wind and green speeds, so half the field is effectively playing a slightly different course. (sports.yahoo.com) (cbssports.com) Scheffler is not just trying to win another major championship; he is trying to join Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Arnold Palmer as the only men to win three Masters in five years. CBS Sports also noted that he had not played since The Players Championship and arrived at Augusta as a new father of two after the birth of his second child two weeks before the tournament. (cbssports.com) McIlroy’s angle is different because last year’s win removed the one question that had followed him to Augusta for more than a decade. Now the pressure is less about completing his resume and more about defending a green jacket on a course where every missed spot can turn one bad swing into a double bogey. (sports.yahoo.com) (cbssports.com) The other names near the top tell you how crowded this week is. Jon Rahm, the 2023 champion, moved into second in some pre-tournament odds after a strong LIV Golf run, while Bryson DeChambeau entered after winning two straight LIV events and Xander Schauffele landed in one of the marquee morning groups at 10:07 a.m. (cbssports.com) (sports.yahoo.com) The pairings show how Augusta likes to stack the board with little dramas before anyone reaches Amen Corner. Rahm went at 1:08 p.m. with Chris Gotterup and Ludvig Åberg, and Jordan Spieth followed at 1:20 p.m. with Justin Rose and Brooks Koepka, a group CBS called one of the surprises of the opening rounds. (cbssports.com) Even the format adds pressure early because the first two rounds are played in threesomes, which keeps players moving in tighter clusters and makes the leaderboard feel crowded from the start. ESPN’s posted sheet shows featured names packed almost back-to-back from 9:43 a.m. through 1:56 p.m., so Thursday at Augusta was built to keep contenders in view all day. (espn.com) So the opening day is not just a ceremonial start to golf’s most scripted week. It is McIlroy trying to do what only three men have done, Scheffler trying to build a five-year Masters run that would put him with Palmer, Nicklaus, and Woods, and a field of 91 trying to survive the first lap at the one major where the course itself is the main character. (wsbtv.com) (cbssports.com)