By Rory Carroll
AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) -Round one of the Masters heavyweight battle between Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy went to the tournament’s defending champion, who managed to avoid any major damage, while the Northern Irishman took some heavy blows late on Thursday.
Scheffler and McIlroy are the two best players in the world, and fans came into the year’s first major hoping for a Sunday showdown between the sluggers.
That is still possible, but McIlroy, who is trying to complete an elusive career Grand Slam, will first need to pick himself up off of the mat.
McIlroy, who went out later in the day as wind picked up, looked confident as he drilled four birdies through his first 14 holes before suffering double bogeys on 15 and 17 to drop back to even par.
It is McIlroy’s 11th attempt at becoming only the sixth player in history to triumph at all four of golf’s majors.
Scheffler signed for a bogey-free round of four-under 68 to sit in a three-way tie for second place behind leader Justin Rose, who is seven under par.
Although the world number one appeared to move effortlessly through Augusta National, he said the firm greens were making him work.
“I would have felt pretty good about it,” Scheffler said when asked how he would have felt about the round if he knew ahead of time.
“I had a feeling the golf course was going to get pretty firm. The areas to hit your irons out here are pretty small and they get even smaller when the greens are firm, so there’s definitely some challenge to the golf course today.”
McIlroy, who suffered a heartbreaking final-round collapse at the 2011 Masters that began with an errant tee-shot on 10 that led to a triple-bogey, did not speak to the media after Thursday’s round.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Augusta, Georgia. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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