Masters: Round 1 Live
The 2026 Masters moved from preview into live competition Thursday as Round 1 began at Augusta National, and early tee times included defending champion Rory McIlroy while favorites Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm were scheduled later in the day. Weather and course setup look decisive—media on site warned of very dry conditions with 10–15 mph northeast winds Thursday (gusts to ~20) and humidity in the 25–35% range, meaning firmness and trajectory control could separate leaders early. Betting and models still lean toward Scheffler but simulations and on‑site commentary argue matchups will favor players with Augusta fit, caddie chemistry, and precise ball‑striking rather than raw recent finishes. ( )
Rory McIlroy was on the course early Thursday, but the first thing shaping Round 1 was not the leaderboard. It was Augusta National turning dry, firm and fast before Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm even teed off. (nytimes.com, cbssports.com) Thursday’s forecast in Augusta called for northeast wind around 10 to 15 miles per hour, gusts near 20, with low humidity and no rain. That combination matters in golf the way a hard, windy basketball court would matter in a shooting contest: the ball lands and keeps moving. (augustachronicle.com, cbssports.com, accuweather.com) Augusta National is built to punish that kind of bounce. Fairways feed into angles, greens tilt like tabletops, and a shot that lands five feet from the hole can release 20 feet away if the player gets the height or spin wrong. (cbssports.com, pgatour.com) That is why the pre-tournament favorite is still Scheffler even after a quieter stretch by his standards. CBS Sports listed him as the betting favorite for a third green jacket, and Golf Channel had him at +495 early in the week, ahead of Jon Rahm at +910 and Rory McIlroy at +1175. (cbssports.com, golfchannel.com) Scheffler’s case is simple: he is still the world No. 1, and Augusta rewards the exact parts of golf he does best, especially control into greens. The PGA Tour’s season stats page listed him near the top of the tour in scoring average, birdie average and total strokes gained entering Masters week. (cbssports.com, pgatour.com) McIlroy brought a different storyline into Thursday because he is the defending champion and trying to become the first repeat Masters winner since Tiger Woods. The PGA Tour said his 2025 win completed the career Grand Slam, which means he has now won all four men’s major championships at least once. (pgatour.com, cbssports.com) Rahm was the other name hanging over the afternoon wave because Augusta has fit him for years before a shot is even hit. CBS Sports moved him into second in the odds, and his 2023 Masters title plus repeated high finishes there make him the kind of player who can look ordinary one month and dangerous the moment he sees these greens again. (cbssports.com) The tee sheet showed how the day was split. ESPN’s published times had the first group off No. 1 at 7:40 a.m. Eastern, while PGA Tour coverage noted McIlroy was part of the early action and Rahm was set for a 1:08 p.m. start in a group with Chris Gotterup and Ludvig Åberg. (espn.com, pgatour.com, cbssports.com) That split matters because Augusta can change personality over a single day. A morning player might get slightly softer greens and lighter gusts, while an afternoon player can get shinier fairways, firmer landing areas and more guessing on trajectory. (augustachronicle.com, pgatour.com) So Round 1 is not just a race to make birdies. It is a test of who can land the ball on the right shelf, flight it under a crosswind, and trust a caddie to pick the miss that leaves a putt instead of a disaster. (cbssports.com, nytimes.com) By Thursday afternoon, the names at the top may not look like the cleanest list of season-long form. At Augusta, one dry day can make the tournament feel less like a normal stop on tour and more like a four-day exam in distance control. (cbssports.com, pgatour.com)
