Jordan Spieth returns to familiar spot atop Masters leaderboard

Jordan Spieth is back in his comfort zone at Augusta National Golf Club. That is, the 24-year-old Texan is in the rarefied air atop the leaderboard in a star-studded Masters Tournament.

Spieth — who has finished in the top three in three of his previous four Masters starts, with a victory in 2015 — shot 6-under par 66 in Thursday’s first round. He had seven birdies and an eagle, making five birdies in a row on the back nine. He said a good start is important in any event, but especially so at a major such as the Masters.

“This tournament often feels like there’s six rounds with how the weekend grind is and ... well, really any major,” he said. “I feel like I’m kind of one round down out of six, so I’m not getting ahead of myself. It’s just it was a really good start.”

He has a two-shot lead over tournament rookie Tony Finau, who played on a left ankle that had been dislocated the day before, and former Georgia Tech star Matt Kuchar, who shot 31 on the back nine.

It is the ninth time Spieth had held a share of the lead here in his 17 career rounds at the Masters. He was a wire-to-wire winner in 2015 after opening with 64.

PHOTOS: Spieth's Stellar First Round at Augusta

The 2017 event was the rare Masters where Spieth wasn’t in the mix at the start. He opened with 75 – including a nine on No. 15. He followed with 69-68 and was two shots off the lead before another 75 left him in a tie for 11th.

“It’s just the first round,” Spieth said Thursday. “I know as well as anybody anything can happen at Augusta National.”

Spieth, of course, was referring to the 2016 Masters. He went into the 12th hole in the final round with a one-shot lead, made quadruple bogey and emerged trailing by three. He tied for second.

Finau, who is thought to be the first Masters participant of Tongan and American Samoan descent, dislocated his left ankle after making a hole-in-one on the seventh hole during the Par-3 Contest on Wednesday. He fell to the ground and popped the ankle back into place and played out the round. After a restless night, an MRI on Thursday morning revealed no structural damage, and he was cleared to play by doctors.

"To me, it’s a miracle,” said Finau, who described the pain at the time of the dislocation as 10 on a scale of 10. “My foot was out of place 24 hours ago and I sit here in second place in the Masters after round one.”

Seven players are three shots back at 69: Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, who needs a win here to complete the career grand slam; former Augusta State star Patrick Reed; Charley Hoffman; Canada’s Adam Hadwin; China’s 22-year-old Haotong Li; Spain’s Rafael Cabrera Bello; and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, who celebrated his 42nd birthday Thursday.

Tiger Woods, who last played in the Masters when Spieth won in 2015, had what he called an “interesting” day. Woods hit only 61 percent of the fairways, 57 percent of the greens and had 28 putts. He had three birdies and four bogeys while shooting 73, the same score he shot the last time he played Augusta National.

PHOTOS: Pictures from the First Round at Augusta National

Of other top players coming into the Masters, Phil Mickelson had 70, last year’s runner-up Justin Rose shot 72, world No. 1 Dustin Johnson and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson each had 73s, world No. 2 Justin Thomas had 74 and world No. 3 Jon Rahm had 75.

Defending champion Sergio Garcia had the highest score on a hole in the Masters in 38 years, making 13 on No. 15 en route to 81, which tied for the second-highest score of the day. It was the highest opening round by a defending Masters champion.

“It’s the first time in my career where I make a 13 without missing a shot,” said Garcia, who followed that answer with a veiled criticism of the front-right pin position.

Garcia saw five balls go in the water on No. 15 before keeping one on dry land. A 10-foot putt kept him from having the highest score ever on a hole in tournament history. The other 13s in Masters history were on the par-5 13th (Tsuneyuki Nakajima in 1978) and the par-3 No. 12 (Tom Weiskopf in 1980)

Spieth, a three-time major champion who hasn’t won since July’s British Open, is coming off a final-round 66 and a third-place finish Sunday in the Houston Open as his world-class putting form has started to return.

He had his usual three sessions of putting practice before his round Thursday and went around with 24 putts, one less than Finau, who led the field.

“There was a lot of work that went in mentally, physically,” he said of his putting. “How comfortable am I now compared to then (the Match Play two weeks ago)? Significantly. A lot.”

Spieth closed with a bogey save after what he called a “beautiful chip” from the left side of the green that he “couldn’t have got closer with a bucket of balls.”

He had driven into the left woods for the first time in his career and had to chip out backward into the fairway, leaving him 262 yards to the green. He hit a 3-wood left of the green, then chipped to tap-in range.

“The way that I hit it is the way that I pictured it,” he said of his fourth shot, which was from 37 yards away. “Sometimes that happens, and most of the time it doesn’t. After I struck it and it took its first bounce, I thought, ‘Man, that’s going to be within five feet,' and it was a bonus to be a tap-in.”