Masters 2023: Jon Rahm hits bombs, grabs share of Thursday lead

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Sometimes at the Masters, you have to take inspiration from those who have gone before you. Especially if those before you have screwed up as epically as you just did.

Walking off the first green, where he'd four-putted his way into a double bogey, Jon Rahm had one thought run through his mind: Seve Ballesteros' famous quote at the 1986 Masters after a four-jack of his own. Asked how he could have four-putted, Ballesteros replied, "I miss the putt, I miss the putt, I miss the putt, I make the putt," Ballesteros said.

Rahm, long known for a volcanic temper, kept his cool and unleashed his rage on his tee shot on No. 2. Three shots later, he'd birdied the hole and was well on his way to cleaning up after himself quite nicely. He closed with a frenzy of birdies — four in the final six holes — to leap into a tie for the lead at -7.

"If you can somehow make it through the first 6½ holes, and what I mean is putting the ball in the fairway on 7 and you're around even par, I think it's a pretty good start," Rahm said after his round. (For the record, that's exactly where he was at that point in his round.) "It's easy to make bogeys. It's not easy to make birdies. So if you can get through that, you have a short iron into 7, 8, 9 to maybe make some birdies and maybe get the round going. I was able to do that and took advantage of it the rest of the day."

Rahm finished the afternoon hitting 94 percent of his greens, saving 100 percent of his sand shots, and finding 100 percent of his fairways — all of which ranked him first or tied for first as he finished. His opening-round 65 was the lowest score in Masters history after an opening double bogey.

"If you're going to make a double-bogey," he said, "might as well do it on the first hole of the tournament when you have plenty of holes to make it up."

Rahm began the year pretty much as hot as humanly possible, winning three of five events and placing solo third and T7 in the other two. He cooled off — by his standards, at least — finishing no higher than T31 in his most recent events and withdrawing from The Players Championship. So enthusiasm for Rahm ran well behind the expectation and acclaim for Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.

At -7, Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Brooks Koepka lead a stacked leaderboard on a day when Augusta was playing as softly as it will all week. Also high on the leaderboard: Cameron Young at -5, plus Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott and several others The rest of the weekend is likely to be soaked with biblical rain, so any players who didn't make a charge when they had a chance — looking your way, Rory McIlroy — are already facing a serious deficit.

"To be in this position where, you know, I'm already starting ahead in a sense, is very, very nice," Rahm said. "But again, still three days to play, right? There's a lot of golf to be played."