Masters tees off today

The first tee shot at Augusta came before most people had finished breakfast, with the opening group scheduled for 7:40 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 9, and every player starting from the first tee instead of a split-tee setup. That early start is part of what makes the Masters feel different from a regular tour stop: 91 players, one course, one first tee, and four days at Augusta National Golf Club from April 9 through April 12 for the 90th edition of the tournament. The player everyone is chasing is Rory McIlroy, because he arrives as the defending champion after winning the 2025 Masters and completing the career Grand Slam, which means winning all four men’s major championships at least once. The other name hanging over the week is Scottie Scheffler, the world number one, who still entered Augusta as one of the shortest betting favorites even after a run of spring results that raised questions about his form. That is why Thursday matters more than a normal opening round: Augusta does not usually give players much room to “play into” the week, and the leaderboard can tilt fast once the greens firm up and the wind starts moving through the pines. Watching the first round is also more fragmented than it used to be. Prime Video carried live action from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday and Friday, and ESPN took over the main first-round television window at 3 p.m. with coverage running to about 7:30 p.m. Eastern. The side feeds are almost a second tournament for viewers. ESPN said it would stream Featured Groups plus dedicated cameras on holes 4, 5 and 6, Amen Corner on holes 11, 12 and 13, and holes 15 and 16 across all four days. Amen Corner gets its own feed because those three holes can flip a scorecard in about 20 minutes. The 11th is a long par four, the 12th is the short par three over water, and the 13th is the risk-reward par five where eagles and disasters can happen in the same group. The pairings tell you where the tournament’s heat might come from. FanSided’s Thursday list shows the field moving in tight intervals from 7:40 a.m. into the afternoon, which means a hot morning round from a favorite can set the tone hours before the late wave even reaches the turn. And there is one old Masters rule that still shapes the whole week: recent history says first-timers almost never win here, with PGA Tour analysis noting that every winner since 1979 had already played the event before. Augusta is less like a neutral golf course and more like a maze that only starts to make sense after you have gotten lost in it once.