Scott, McIlroy launch chase for Masters glory
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, April 11, 2014
The annual quest for Masters glory moved into full swing on golf's greatest stage yesterday at Augusta National with favorites Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott going out in back-to-back groupings.
Defending champion Scott, who last year became the first Australian to win the Masters, headed out first in the 16th grouping of the day alongside PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner and 19-year-old British amateur Matthew Fitzpatrick.
Scott is bidding to become just the fourth player to win back-to-back Masters titles after Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods, the last man to achieve that feat in 2002.
In so doing, he would also take the world No. 1 spot away from Woods, who is absent through injury.
"It's been a process to get there and that's where I'm at, at the moment, and I'm getting close. But it will take four great rounds this week," he said.
Eleven minutes later it was McIlroy's turn as he began his bid to win a third major title after the 2011 US Open and 2012 PGA Championship.
The 24-year-old Northern Irishman had for company 20-year-old Jordan Spieth and 23-year-old Patrick Reed — two rising young United States stars on the PGA Tour.
Reed and Spieth are part of a record haul of 24 Masters first-timers who are threatening to turn the game inside out as the generation that spawned such talents as Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh starts to fade.
"It feels funny that they are going to be playing their first Masters and I'm playing my sixth," McIlroy said of his playing partners. "I feel like the veteran in the group."
Among the first to show atop the leaderboard was 2012 US Open champion Webb Simpson, who birdied the first three holes, while Jonas Blixt of Sweden reached the turn at 3-under with four birdies and a bogey.
Earlier in the morning, the 78th Masters got under way under blue skies at the fabled Georgia layout with living legends Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player hitting the first balls as honorary starters.
Golf's famed "Big Three" immediately stepped aside as the action got under way with the first two birdies of the tournament going to 2009 British Open champion Stewart Cink and 1991 Masters winner Ian Woosnam.
There was also the milestone of Craig and Kevin Stadler becoming the first father-and-son combination to play at the same Masters tournament, albeit in different groupings.
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