Right Back At It, McIlory Leads Masters After Round 1, Tied With Burns

What's old is new again at the 2026 Masters Tournament. After Thursday's first round, things feel an awful lot like they did the last time we were here.

Rory McIlory, fresh off completing the career Grand Slam in 2025 at Augusta National Golf Club, after he beat Justin Rose in a playoff, is sitting on top once again.

He's not alone on top, though, as Sam Burns, who has never finished better than 29th at The Masters, is tied after he also shot a 5-under, 67.

How McIlroy and Burns got to that number was where things differed.

Burns started strong, eagling the par-5 second hole, before giving one back at the sixth. But he got that shot right back on the eighth hole before back-to-back birdies on 12 and 13 set him up to finish strong with a birdie on 15.

McIlroy on the other hand seemed off his game early. He did birdie the second, but gave it right back on the third. But back-to-back birdies on 8 and 9 got him to 2-under, and three birdies in a row on 13, 14 and 15 put him atop the leaderboard.

Those two sit two shots clear of anyone else right now. Kurt Kitayama, Jason Day and Patrick Reed all shot 3-under, 69.

Just behind them sits last year's runner-up, Rose. He's tied with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Shane Lowry and Xander Schauffele.

History tells us the likely winner is among the names we've already mentioned, as 17 of the last 20 winners have been inside the top 10 after the first round. If we want to get generous since it was only nine names, the list of golfers tied for 10th at 1-under includes: Haotong Li, Nick Taylor, Tommy Fleetwood, Brian Campbell, Aaron Rai, Jacob Bridgeman (in his masters debut), and Gary Woodland.

For those still interested in the wild outings of Bryson DeChambeau, Thursday did NOT disappoint. DeChambeau bogeyed the second (somehow), but birdied the third. He then triple-bogeyed the 11th, before finishing his round bogey-birdie-bogey. He's 4-over after his 76.

The "yep, that's what happens at Augusta National" round of the day goes to the 12-over, 84 from Aldrich Potgieter. The South African making his second appearance at The Masters had about as wild a trip around the course as it gets. He had a double-bogey on 1, a bogey on 5 and 6, back-to-back double bogeys on 7 and 8. Then he went bogey-double-birdie on 11, 12 and 13. He finally escaped the round with back-to back bogeys on 17 and 18.