Story lines are plentiful this year at Augusta National as a number of players have found themselves in red figures during Thursday's first round, including former champion Tiger Woods and Charl Schwartzl, but it's trio of Europeans sitting atop the leaderboard as Lee Westwood, Paul Lawrie and Francesco Molinari, lead the way Thursday at The Masters.
Tiger Woods never really got much going in his opening round but was steady until his final few holes, finishing with back-to-back bogies to shoot an even par 72. He still managed birdies on No. 3, 8, and 10, but couldn't figure his swing out in the home stretch.
Henrik Stenson was playing great, using two Eagles on his front nine to boost him out to an early lead, pushing it as far as 6-under heading into the 16th. But he exploded on the 18th , recording the seventh 8 in Masters history; carding every golfers arch-nemesis, the dreaded snowman. He finished at 1-under 71.
As for Westwood, he used a five birdies on the front nine to push himself toward the top at 4-under through his first nine, while Paul Lawrie and Miguel Angel Jimenez are leaders in the clubhouse after rounds of 3-under 69. Molinaro and Jason Dufner currently are at e-under at well, while Sergio Garcia is at 2-under. Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy are both sitting at 1-over.
Full leaderboard can be found here.
