The first round of the 2026 Masters continued at Augusta National with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler among the headline names on the course as the day’s action unfolded.
One of the more striking early stories involved Carlos Ortiz, who is making only his second Masters start and his first appearance since 2021. The 34-year-old Mexican showed last year at the US Open at Oakmont that he can handle the demands of a major championship, finishing in a tie for fourth. But Augusta National has already provided a much sterner challenge.
Ortiz’s opening holes quickly turned troublesome. He drove into the creek down the left side of the second hole, then fluffed a splash out of a fairway bunker at the fifth. The mistakes added up to a grim start of 5-7-5-4-6, a sequence that included three bogeys and two doubles.
By the time he reached five holes, Ortiz was already at +7 and facing a steep uphill battle to recover. Even a par at the sixth, which at least halted the run of damaging scores, would offer little comfort after such a difficult beginning.
The early stages of the round also carried the wider sense of a Masters day in motion, with the official leader board tracking the evolving positions and the field settling into the demands of Augusta’s opening test.
Elsewhere, the day marked the 30th anniversary of a memorable Masters moment involving Greg Norman, a reminder that Augusta National has long produced both brilliance and heartbreak in equal measure.
As the first round progressed, attention remained fixed on the marquee names and the shifting shape of the tournament, with plenty of golf still to come before the day was complete.
