Britain's Justin Rose leads Masters by 3 after first round

On a beautiful spring day at Augusta National, the 2025 quest for the Green Jacket began with a ceremonial tee shot

Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, and Gary Player took some nice swings, but what followed was an up-and-down afternoon for most of the field

Except for one player, Justin Rose reigns supreme after the first round of the Masters

shooting a 65, including eight birdies and one bogey, which came on the 18th hole

The 44-year-old Rose, who won the 2013 U.S. Open, has led the Masters after the first round five times in his 20 starts

How does he plan to string together three more great days? Really try to be clear out there, really try to make sure I didn't hit a shot until I was fully committed

You know, those are kind of the things we say often, and they're pretty boring to hear, shot for shot, all these types of things

But ultimately, there is no other way of doing it. It's just how good you are at doing that in the moment, right

And it all comes down to execution. I know my way around this golf course. I have a great strategy around here

As does the defending champion Scotty Scheffler, who's aiming to be the first back-to-back winner since Tiger Woods in 2002

Scheffler is just three shots back along with Canadian Corey Connors and Swede Ludwig Oberg

Liv golfer and two-time major winner Bryson DeChambeau is right in the mix too

And experience counts says Oberg who just in his second Masters tournament I felt like we played a very disciplined round of golf today You know when you execute the shots it makes it a whole lot easier obviously but felt like we managed sort of the shots where we were in between clubs in the right way

and didn't try to force anything laid up on a couple of part fives where I could have probably gone for it if I was aggressive

and proud of the way that I finished. Oberg birdied for the final seven holes

and is also number one in driving accuracy after the first round

Another great story, 65-year-old Fred Couples, The 92 Masters champion shot a 171, which included a hole-out eagle on the 14th hole from just over 190 yards out

Couples is the second oldest player to break par at the Masters, only a couple months younger than Tom Watson, who did it in 2015

But it wasn't all roses and azaleas Thursday. one of the biggest favorites on the board, Rory McIlroy, was cruising through the first four rounds

at four under when he chipped over the green on 15th. It went in the water and he made double

bogey. Two holes later, another double dropped him to even par. So instead of being three back

he is seven off the pace. A few other big names that will need some scorching second rounds to

stick around for the weekend include former champs Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth at plus three

as well as Andrew Shoffley and Justin Thomas. The second round gets underway Friday, 7.30 a.m. Eastern

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis