Matt McClean enjoyed a dream start to his Masters debut as he birdied the first hole to take him to the top of the leaderboard.
The 29-year-old optometrist, who secured his place at Augusta by winning the US Mid-Amateur Championship, hit a superb approach to the difficult par four and holed from four feet to move to one under par.
With eight players on the course at the time, McClean was the only one of them to be under par at the time.
The Belfast man missed the chance to add another birdie on the second, but he remained on top of the leaderboard after making a putt for par.
McClean was finding some of the hardest holes on the course surprisingly easy, making his second birdie of the day on the 240-yard par-three fourth to briefly open up a two-shot lead.
However, the Walker Cup hopeful was then unable to get up and down from short of the fifth green and the resulting bogey dropped him into a nine-way tie for the lead on one under.
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