The defending champion takes to the first tee. Jon Rahm’s opening shot of his defence is a 3-wood, and he larrups it down the right-hand side of the fairway. He’s going round this afternoon with the 2023 US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who finished tied for tenth last year. Not the ideal start for the 29-year-old from Sheffield, as he pulls one into the trees down the left. In fact that’s nearly on the 9th fairway. Meanwhile bogey for Sergio at 5 and he’s back to level par.

Danny Willett joins the leading bunch with birdie at the par-five 8th. He’s on the fringe in two and nearly drains the long eagle putt. Meanwhile Phil Mickelson’s competitive juices are still flowing despite that cold start: birdie at the short par-four 3rd and the three-time winner, last year’s surprise joint runner-up after that final round of 65, is level par again.

The honorary start. Twenty minutes before Erik van Rooyen hit the first competitive stroke of the 2024 Masters, the legendary trio of Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson took their ceremonial tee shots. Between them: 246 years, 11 Masters. All three sent their little dappled orbs down Tea Olive to great cheer; Player, the oldest of the three at 88 but the youngest at heart, followed his shot with an elegant swivel and high kick that would pop out the hip of many a man half his age.

Welcome back Sergio! We’ve missed you. The 2017 champ flayed his opening tee shot into the trees down the left of 1, but clipped his second greenside and managed to get up and down from the bottom of the swale to save par. Now at 4 he knocks his tee shot to seven feet, the best of the day so far, and tidies up for birdie. He’s -1 and let’s not get carried away yet. Meanwhile An Byeong-hun, who has missed the cut here three times in four visits, becomes the third player to open with three birdies. He joins a bunch at the top that also includes Erik van Rooyen, who tickles home a putt from off the back of 9, up over a ridge and then down a treacherous slope. The 33-year-old South African turns in 33.

-3: Van Rooyen (9), DeChambeau (5), Fox (4), An (3)
-2: Knapp (9), Willett (7), Lamprecht -a- (6)

Ryan Fox is making just his second appearance at the Masters at the age of 37. He’s making up for an awful lot of lost time, replicating Bryson DeChambeau’s birdie-birdie-birdie opening blitz. Meanwhile DeChambeau drains a putt from 25 feet to save par at 5, while Danny Willett makes a magnificent left-to-right breaker from off the back of 7, around the shoulder of a bunker, to regain the shot he dropped at 5. It’s all happening!

-3: DeChambeau (5), Fox (3)
-2: Van Rooyen (8), Willett (7), Lamprecht -a- (6), An (2)
-1: Knapp (8), Olesen (5), Finau (2)

Here’s a reminder of how Jon Rahm won the Masters last year. He ended the week four strokes clear of Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, the latter having played the back nine in 31 strokes, one of the great Sunday charges, albeit ultimately futile. You can bet your bottom dollar Lefty will still back himself for a fourth green jacket, even if he’s now 53 years old, though he’s not started well this time round. Bogey at the opening hole, after failing to get up and down from just off the front of the green. Still, there are slow starts and slow starts: Rahm four-putted the 1st last year. So all is not yet lost.

As for the weather that caused this morning’s delayed start, there’s much more in the way of good news than bad. The really horrible stuff has come and gone, though there could be more rain later this afternoon. A chance of isolated thunderstorms, too, but fingers crossed they’ll give the area the swerve. The 40mph winds that were forecast never arrived, though it is breezy now and the gusts could further pick up later. The rest of the week, though, is all good. Sunny and windy tomorrow; sunny and warm over the weekend. Arnold Palmers all round!

There are 13 LIV golfers at Augusta National this week. The reigning champion Jon Rahm heads a list of talent that also includes former winners in Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel and Bubba Watson. That’s a lot of green wool. The first of the big LIV names out this morning is Bryson DeChambeau, and he’s absolutely flown out of the traps with birdies on the first three holes. Darts thrown into 1 and 3, a chip up to kick-in distance from the back of 2. He’s our new leader. Danny Willett meanwhile bogeys 5 and from a share of the lead, slips to two behind in the blink of an eye.

-3: DeChambeau (3)
-2: Van Rooyen (7)
-1: Willett (5), Lamprecht -a- (4), Olesen (3), Stubbs -a- (2), Fox (1), An (1)

(For the record II: the other LIV golfers here this week are Tyrrell Hatton, Brooks Koepka, Adrian Meronk, Joaquin Niemann and Cameron Smith.)

Austin Eckroat is one of 20 players making their Masters debut this week. The 25-year-old from Oklahoma, who won his first PGA Tour event at Palm Beach Gardens last month, will have dreamt of teeing off at Tea Olive all his life. And when he finally gets to live that dream … he hooks one into the pines down the left. A double to start, and it won’t get any easier.

For the record, the 19 other debutants are: Ludvig Aberg, Akshay Bhatia, Wyndham Clark, Eric Cole, Santiago de la Fuente, Nick Dunlap, Ryo Hisatsune, Lee Hodges, Nicolai Hojgaard, Stephan Jaeger, Jake Knapp, Christo Lamprecht, Peter Malnati, Denny McCarthy, Grayson Murray, Matthieu Pavon, Adam Schenk, Neal Shipley and Jasper Stubbs. There are nine PGA Tour winners among that lot.

Here we go then, fellow golf friends and lovers. Time to unwrap the green paper from a pimento cheese sandwich, pour yourself a long cool glass of iced tea, suck absent mindedly on a Georgia Peach Ice Cream Sandwich, and settle down on the porch. It’s on!

… and Thursday morning’s big news is a fast start for the surprise 2016 champion Danny Willett. Out in the second group, he carded the first birdie of the week at 1, then added a second after knocking his approach at 3 from 130 yards to five feet. He’s joined at the top of our first leader board by Erik van Rooyen, who follows birdie at 3 with another at 6.

-2: Van Rooyen (6), Willett (4)
-1: Moore (4), Lamprecht -a- (2), DeChambeau (1)

Preamble