The Masters: Rahm reverses horror start to tie Koepka and Hovland for first round lead

Tiger Woods plays his tee shot on the third hole during Thursday’s first round.

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Viktor Hovland chips onto the 10th green Thursday. The Norwegian shot a 7-under 65 to take the early lead.

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Patrick Reed’s caddie, Kessler Karain, helps Reed line up a putt on the 13th hole Thursday.

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Woods grimaces on the fourth tee. The five-time Masters champion said his surgically repaired right leg felt sore Thursday and that the pain is “constant.”

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Phil Mickelson hits a shot on the second hole Thursday.

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Adam Scott plays a bunker shot on the second hole Thursday.

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Pins adorn a spectator’s hat on Thursday.

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Defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler hits his tee shot on the seventh hole Thursday.

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Sergio Garcia fishes his ball out of the creek on No. 13.

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A worker updates one of the leaderboards Thursday at Augusta National.

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Brooks Koepka hits his tee shot on the 14th hole Thursday. Koepka shot a 7-under 65 to tie Hovland and Jon Rahm for the first-round lead.

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Hideki Matsuyama, who won the tournament two years ago, looks over a putt on the second hole.

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Rahm and his caddie, Adam Hayes, are seen on the third green Thursday.

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Golf legend Jack Nicklaus hits a ceremonial tee shot before the start of the first round. He was joined by Gary Player and Tom Watson.

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Rory McIlroy signs autographs after competing in the traditional par 3 contest that is held the day before the start of the tournament.

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Min Woo Lee walks to the 15th green during a practice round Wednesday.

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Masters 2023: The best pictures from Augusta

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CNN
 — 

No golfer on record has ever double bogeyed the first hole of The Masters and gone on to don the green jacket.

But Jon Rahm is a man on a mission to rewrite history at Augusta National.

After four-putting the opening hole, the Spaniard roared back to shoot seven-under 65 on Thursday and join Viktor Hovland and Brooks Koepka at the summit of the first-round leaderboard.

Seven birdies and an eagle at the eighth hole saw Rahm card the lowest 18-hole score in Masters history among players to have opened with a double bogey or worse, a start 554 golfers had suffered previously, according to ESPN Stats and Info.

Rahm overcame a nightmare start.

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The world No. 3, chasing his second major title after victory at the US Open in 2021, hit every single fairway in what he dubbed a top-three major round of his career.

“If you’re going to make a double or four-putt or anything, it might as well be the first hole,” Rahm told reporters.

“After that, I was focused on the fact that all the strokes were good, the reads were good, the roll was good. Obviously the speed was off on the first two putts, so once I kind of accepted that there was nothing really to look into, I just got to work and I had 17 holes to make up.”