Justin Rose may not have a Green Jacket in his closet, but few players in the field know Augusta National better and the 44-year-old Englishman proved that once again with an incredible seven-under 65 to hit the front on day one of the 2025 Masters.
Rose lost out to Sergio Garcia in a playoff in 2017, but that remains his best chance of winning the tournament despite being a regular feature at the top of the leaderboard, particularly after 18 holes. In fact, this is his fifth time to hold the advantage after the opening round, edging out Jack Nicklaus with whom he was previously tied for the most first round leads at the season’s first major.
Birdies on each of the opening three holes set the stage, and he reeled off another three-in-a-row around the turn, birdieing eight, nine and 10 to open up clear daylight at the top. With his putter on fire, it came as something of a surprise when a slick five-foot birdie putt slid by on 13, but an impressive up-and-down from back right of 15 and a 19-footer dropped for birdie on 16, moving him to -8 and giving himself a chance to tie the course record with two to play.
Another one! Justin Rose records his eighth birdie of the day and moves to eight under par. #themasters pic.twitter.com/oxh2mmUbj1
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 10, 2025
It wasn’t to be, and two right misses off the tee on 17 and 18 left him scrambling to save par and keep his card clean. He managed it on the first of these, carving a long-iron around a tree to the front of 17, but had to pitch out sideways on 18 and couldn’t convert the 16-footer for par.
But even a closing bogey couldn’t dampen his spirits, as he took a three-stroke lead over Scottie Scheffler and Corey Conners and set a lofty target for Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Åberg, Bryson DeChambeau and the other chasers still on course.
“Typically on day one I tend to find that they set the golf course up to be quite difficult,” he told Sky Sports after his round, “and there were not many low scores out there. I went out there with the mentality to try and be really clear, really patient, and I just ended up getting off to a flier!
“I got up and running, so from that moment I felt like I was on the front foot and playing the golf course well. I began to develop a lot confidence and felt like there was a good round in me. I just got unstuck at 18, but for the most part that was a great day.”
In addition to taking sole possession of the record for number of times to hold the first time lead -definitely an honour – he also holds the less enviable record for most rounds leading without ever winning The Masters. But he refuses to look on that as a negative statistic.
“You know what, I feel like I’ve played well enough to win this tournament,” he said. “I just feel like I don’t have the jacket to prove it. I feel like, no, it’s a compliment. I’ve obviously played, I’ve played a lot of good rounds of golf here. Got a lot of crystal, which is obviously always nice.
“But yeah, you know, ultimately, you want to be last man standing on Sunday, and I was a shot shy — I guess Sergio and I in 2017, that was a real 50/50. That could have gone any which way down the stretch. A little bit of Lady Luck here and there is always the difference here at times. But I’ve had my luck on occasion and been a champion. But you’ve got to be playing the golf to keep creating those opportunities, and obviously the only way to do that is to get your name on the leaderboard. I definitely don’t shy away from it.”
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