Aiken's Kevin Kisner overcomes rough start for solid Masters opening round

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Kevin Kisner made birdie on three of the par 5s on Thursday to shoot 71 in the opening round of the Masters Tournament. [Michael Madrid/USA TODAY Sports]

A major start being delayed by three hours is bad enough, but following it up with back-to-back bogeys wasn’t how Kevin Kisner drew it up.

Starting on No. 10 became a task for many in Thursday’s field at the 2020 Masters Tournament, but it was going to take more than a couple errant tee shots to bring the former Georgia Bulldog down. Kisner played 3-under par from that point on, finding birdies on No. 13, 15, 2 and 3, to finish with a 1-under-par 71.

“Just really a tale of two nines. I hit it better on the back nine and scored worse, and hit it worse on the front nine and scored better,” he said. “That tells you there's a lot of different facets of the game. I've never missed so many fairways as I did today at Augusta, and it's not really a first cut this year, it's more really rough, so I've got to get the ball in the fairway so I can attack pins.”

Like many would note following their round, the lack of patrons on the course is more than noticeable.

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“No buzz, and tough to get the energy going like at the Masters where you get really amped up around the first tee and as you go throughout the day,“ Kisner said. ”It feels like you're out here preparing for a Masters, not really playing in a Masters.“

Following the morning weather delay, the tee time for Bubba Watson (1-over through 11) was pushed back to 2:27 p.m. Brendan Todd (2-over through 7) suffered a similar fate, his at 3:22.