Masters leaderboard is stacked

New year, new Masters, but Jordan Spieth remains in a groove as comfortable as a good recliner.

Spieth leads after the first round at Augusta National on Thursday, opening with a bogey-free, 6-under 66 that has him two clear of Danny Lee and Shane Lowry.

The 22-year-old Texan, who went wire-to-wire to win his first major championship here last year, has held the solo lead for five consecutive Masters rounds. Arnold Palmer went wire-to-wire in 1960, then shared the lead for the first two rounds of the 1961 Masters. That’s as close to Spieth’s dominant run as has ever been seen at Augusta National.

While Spieth remains atop the leaderboard, several of his challengers from a year ago are still in pursuit. Justin Rose, who finished tied for second last year, is tied for fouth place at 3-under along with Masters mainstay Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey and Soren Kjeldsen. Of the eight players right after Spieth on the leaderboard, there’s nearly one-third of the likely European Ryder Cup team this fall. (Casey would make the team if he were a European Tour member.)

Rory McIlroy, who posted a career-best fourth-place finish last year, had gotten it to 4-under before two bogeys in the final three holes to shoot 2-under 70.

Meanwhile, several pre-tournament favorites got off to solid starts before fading in bewildering fashion.

World No. 1 Jason Day played a near-perfect first nine, shooting 5-under 31. Day was still at that figure, one behind Spieth, through 14 holes, when he three-putted the par-5 15th for bogey and made a confounding triple-bogey 6 on the par-3 16th. He bogeyed the next hole for good measure to bring him all the way back to even-par 72. That’s a popular position for a number of major winners and other attractive pre-tournament names, including three-time champion Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson, Henrik Stenson and Louis Oosthuizen.

Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson was 3-under par early in his round, but, like Day, he collapsed quickly. Watson bogeyed the ninth, 11th and 12th holes to fall back to even par. Then, like the Aussie, it was a swift slide: bogeys on 14 and 15, a double bogey on 16 and a bogey on 17 before a fall-padding birdie at the last to finish 3-over.

Rickie Fowler got off to a bad start – not as bad as Ernie Els’ first-hole 9 – with a double-bogey 6. He fought back, though, with three birdies in four holes to get under par. At 1-over on the round, Fowler found the water hazard guarding the green at the par-5 13th, leading to a shoulder-slumping triple bogey. Three holes later, Fowler made double bogey, and that was all she wrote. With 8-over 80, Fowler trails Spieth by 14 shots and has a lot of work to do in expected nasty conditions on Friday afternoon just to play the weekend.

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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