Rose, Wetterich Take Lead After Day Where Birdies Were Rare

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The cheers broke the morning calm at Augusta National when Arnold Palmer took a mighty swing at his ceremonial tee shot. For the next 11 hours Thursday, the Masters went mute.

Throw together a course that has grown 500 yards with brittle conditions, and there wasn't much to cheer.

Justin Rose was as proud of his 15 pars as his three birdies in a round of 69, which left him atop the leaderboard with Masters rookie Brett Wetterich. It was the highest score to lead the first round at the Masters in eight years.

Tiger Woods tossed away a solid round with bogeys on his final two holes for a 73. Phil Mickelson shot a 76, his worst start at the Masters in 10 years, and still was optimistic about winning another green jacket. Never mind that no one has ever won the Masters after opening with a score worse than 75.

Then again, this was not the Masters everyone has come to embrace the last several years. Birdies were rare. And the so-called "cathedral of golf" was every bit of that for one reason.

It was quiet.

"I was chatting with my caddie, and we were discussing how muted the atmosphere was," David Howell said. "But very pleasant."

Maybe it was pleasant for the nine players who managed to break par, a group that included Howell and David Toms at 70, and Rich Beem, Tim Clark, J.J. Henry, Zach Johnson, and Augusta resident Vaughn Taylor at 71.

It was a nightmare for the dozen players who couldn't break 80.

The average score was 76.187, highest in four years.

And it wasn't much fun for just about everyone else who finally saw what Augusta National looks like at 7,445 yards in super slick and dreadfully dry conditions.

"It's hard. And when you start playing defensively, it plays harder," Steve Stricker said after a 77. "It's one shot after another where you're up against it. You're nervous on every shot."

Rose hasn't played in five weeks while taking care of a sore back and put together the most remarkable round because it contained no bogeys. He hit a wedge to tap-in range at no. 3, holed a bunker shot on no. 5 and rolled in a 15-foot birdie from the fringe on no. 14.

"That's exciting to go bogey-free on any course on any day," Rose said. "But first round at Augusta on a day where obviously the scores are pretty high makes it a very pleasing round. Yeah, one that I'm very happy with, for sure."

Wetterich can't relate to any of this as an Augusta National rookie. His experience comes from practice rounds, especially one with south Florida neighbor Raymond Floyd, a two-time Masters champion.

"I thought it was a good test of golf out there," Wetterich said. "To me, they don't have to do any changes."

And then there was Toms, who last year said the Masters has so many rules that players "walk around on egg shells." If that had been the case Thursday, the sound would have been deafening.

This was about as exciting as the first round of the 2003 Masters, which was rained out.

Augusta National is renowned for its pockets of roars that resonate through Amen Corner and along the back nine. And there was cause for excitement, such as Howell narrowly clearing the pond on the 15th with his 3-iron for a short eagle putt, and Beem making eagle on the 13th with a 5-wood into the green.

Otherwise, it was a day to play defense.