History was firmly against Rory McIlroy on Friday as he tried to revive his bid to win the Masters and complete the career grand slam.
McIlroy’s opening 72 left him seven shots behind Ryder Cup team-mate Justin Rose, who ended the first round in the lead for the fifth time in his career to break the record he had shared with six-time champion Jack Nicklaus since also shooting 65 in 2021.
It is the seventh consecutive year McIlroy has been six or more shots back after round one, with just one of the last 19 Masters champions – Sergio Garcia in 2017 – being more than four shots behind after round one.
Only two men in history have come from seven behind after 18 holes to win, Nick Faldo in 1990 and Tiger Woods in 2005.
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To make matters worse, McIlroy had been primed to break 70 in the first round at Augusta National for just the third time in 17 attempts when he reached four under par with a two-putt birdie on the 13th.
However, the world number two missed from short range for another birdie on the next and then ran up a double bogey on the 15th after chipping from over the green into the water at the front.
McIlroy also double-bogeyed the 17th after hitting his approach over the green and three-putting from 20 feet following a clumsy chip.
Rose’s only blemish came with a bogey on the 18th but the 44-year-old still emerged with a three-shot lead over defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Ludvig Aberg and Corey Conners.
Each of the last five Masters champions has been in the top three after the opening round and Rose was told that statistics favour those who make a fast start in his post-round press conference.
“I didn’t know that that’s the stats, but it makes sense because it’s the kind of golf course that needs a ton of respect,” the 2013 US Open champion said.
“So when you are playing with the lead or around the lead, you have the ability or you’re afforded the luxury of patience and respecting holes and respecting pins and things like that.
“When you’re in chase mode, you end up possibly making one or two silly bogeys by trying to play catch-up, and obviously that ultimately hampers the catch-up.
“From my point of view, I know what holes suit me, what pins suit me, where I want to play defence, where I want to I feel like I can be on front foot. So that’s all I can do, really, going into the next few days.”
Rose was among the early starters on day two and quickly extended his lead to four by getting up and down from a greenside bunker on the par-five second.
He maintained that advantage in unorthodox fashion on the par-three fourth after his skied tee shot came up 50 yards short of the green, a superb pitch to five feet allowing the former world number one to escape with a par.
However, Rose was unable to repeat the feat after driving into a fairway bunker on the fifth and carded just his second bogey of the week to drop back to seven under.
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