One of the best parts of the Honorary Starters ceremony was Jack Nicklaus’ bag. The 18-time major champion and six-time winner at Augusta had a bag made with different flags from around the country, including one from the Masters and another from St. Andrews.

Flag bags are common in certain parts of the country, but seeing arguably the greatest golfer of all time using one to begin the Masters was pretty interesting.

Scottie Scheffler holed out for birdie from the sand at the back of the 12th green to move to 3-under par and in a tie for third. He then added a birdie on 13, another on 15 and yet another on 16.

The 2022 Masters Tournament champion has crept into veteran territory and is noticing the changes in his approach.

“I think in terms of preparation, I think I valued much more rest going into these types of weeks,” the 27-year-old said Tuesday. “I think when I first came out in my career, I didn’t really value rest as much as I should have. I was a really big practicer, and I would say I probably practiced too much at tournaments. So, trying to work on getting quality rest and being ready to compete.”

The top-ranked golfer in the world, Scheffler enters this week’s Masters with wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and the Players Championship in back-to-back weeks. He tied for second at the Texas Children’s Houston Open two weeks ago and has seven top-10 finishes in his last eight starts.

Will Zalatoris dropped an eagle on No. 13 and it appears that his game is lining up once again at Augusta National. Zalatoris, who has two top-10 finishes in his only starts at the Masters, followed with a birdie on No. 15 to get to 4 under, and is now in a second-place tie with Danny Willett and Scottie Scheffler.

As part of our 2024 Masters Surveys, we asked players what’s the most annoying thing about Augusta National.

You’ll never get a more honest response than the one we got from Steve Stricker, who has two top-10 finishes in 16 starts at the Georgia golf course.

“You feel like you’re walking on eggshells. You have to be careful about just about everything you do,” Stricker said.

Here’s the entire list, and there are some great answers.

Not long ago, Bryson DeChambeau called Augusta National a “par 67 for me’’ because he has little trouble reaching all the par 5s.

That statement proved fair after he birdied three of the four long holes on Thursday while running out to an early lead at the Masters. DeChambeau was 7 under through 17 holes and held a three-stroke advantage on the field as of 4 p.m. ET. He wound up shooting a 65.

DeChambeau’s career-best round at Augusta is an opening 66 in 2019, and he added a 67 in 2021. But overall, the Masters has vexed the former U.S. Amateur champion. He’s never finished in the top 20 in six starts.

Here’s more on Bryson’s day from our Adam Schupak.

Thanks to a two-and-a-half-hour weather delay Tiger Woods had plenty of time to warm up and get ready for his first round, and the humid weather at Augusta National today should have him feeling comfortable given all the surgeries he’s had and the metal that’s holding his leg together. Cold and wet is no good for the Cat, but the afternoon weather is perfect.

Our Adam Woodard is following Tiger all day long in the Tiger Tracker. Click here for more.

In addition to prepping for his Masters title defense, Jon Rahm served up the Tuesday night Champions dinner. All part of his busy week leading up to his Thursday first round.

A birdie on the third got him to red numbers. He gave it right back with a bogey on the fourth but then had back-to-back birdies on Nos. 8 and 9. On the ninth hole, he hit his second long and about five green-chair rows deep into the gallery. From there, he saved par to make the turn in 2 under, tied with fellow LIV golfer Cam Smith and three back of leader Bryson DeChambeau, also of LIV.

Danny Willett, the most recent unlikely Masters champ, won the Green Jacket in 2016. Here in 2024, he’s back in the hunt once again.

Willett can still only count the Masters as his lone PGA Tour win. He does have seven international victories on his resume.

During Thursday’s first round, he started it off right with a birdie on the first. He got it to 3 under at the turn before bogeys on Nos. 10 and 14 but then two straight birdies got him back to 3 under, two off the lead by Ryan Fox.

Bryson DeChambeau didn’t win the Par 3 Contest, which is good for him, considering that the winner of that event has never gone to win the Masters later in the same week.

DeChambeau did have one of the shots of the day, though, with a dunk par on the eighth hole.

During Thursday’s first round of the Masters, DeChambeau opened with three straight birdies before cooling off. But then he started warming up again on the second nine with birdies on the par-3 12th and the par-5 13th to get 4 underk a shot off the lead.

ESPN has opened its coverage of The Masters rounds each day with “Welcome to the Masters” hosted by Laura Rutledge and Marty Smith.

Rutledge typically works the sidelines at football games, working select NFL games on ESPN, as well as the NFL playoffs and the College Football Playoff. She also hosts ESPN’s  NFL Live and can often be seen as a host of SEC Network’s SEC Nation.

This is her first trip to the Masters, even though she spent some of her childhood in Georgia. She called the assignment a “bucket list” item.

SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt is hosting the broadcasts of each round with analysis from Curtis Strange. SportsCenter anchor Michael Eaves is conducting player interviews.

For the ESPN Deportes broadcast, veteran reporter John Sutcliffe is the playcaller with former golfers Hernán Rey and Matias Anselmo providing analysis.

Eight-time PGA Tour winner Geoff Ogilvy will join SportsCenter throughout the week as an analyst.

“This opportunity came along and I thought, ‘This is pretty good,’ ” said Ogilvy. “It’s dipping the toe in the ocean without fully committing.”

There was speculation that Ogilvy, widely regarded as one of the top quotes among players and an avid reader on golf history who has branched out into the golf course design business, was a top candidate to replace Paul Azinger as the lead analyst for NBC Sports, but Ogilvy has politely declined so far.

Break out some crystal for Ryan Fox.

He’s the first player to make an eagle in the 2024 Masters, carding a 3 on No. 8. That vaulted him into the lead for the tournament at 5 under through the front nine. Fox has had some runs in the past, including when the 37-year-old New Zealand native became the first player to make back-to-back eagles at any two holes at the Stadium Course during the 2024 Players Championship since the PGA Tour began recording data in 1983 (the first Players was played at the course in 1982.)

It’s a game of inches, right?

Nick Taylor sure could have used a jolt after starting 2 over through the first five holes on Thursday and it looked like the Canadian was coming in straight at the sixth pin. In fact, he was, but the result, after it plunked loudly, was not what he wanted. Instead, the ball rolled off the green and Taylor could only manage par.

Christo Lamprecht, at 6-foot-8, is one of five amateurs in the field. That means he had a couple special privileges this week others won’t be able to enjoy.

On Monday, it was the annual Amateur Dinner, where he and the other four ams got to enjoy a dinner with Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley. Then, Lamprecht got to partake in another tradition reserved for amateurs: staying a night in the Crow’s Nest.

It’s a room that is reserved for amateurs the week of the Masters. Measuring only 30 feet by 40 feet, the tight space is historic sitting above the Augusta National clubhouse.

“There’s very few places in America that have a bed big enough for me, but I’ve gotten used to that,” Lamprecht, from South Africa, said. “It’s probably the best uncomfortable sleep I’ll ever have in my life. Yeah, I’m just fortunate to be here.”

Lamprecht got out to a great start, making the turn at 2 under during Thursday’s play.

The year 1958 was eventful at the Masters Tournament.

Two bridges across Rae’s Creek were dedicated in honor of Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. A young pro named Arnold Palmer won the tournament for the first time.

And Amen Corner was born.

Actually, the famous stretch of holes — Nos. 11, 12 and 13 — had been in existence for 25 years, but a catchy nickname didn’t exist until Sports Illustrated golf writer Herbert Warren Wind came up with the term in 1958.

The three holes where Rae’s Creek meets the National played a vital role in the early years of the Masters.

Wind, a veteran golf writer who also was a jazz buff, decided to combine his interests to describe the Sunday action.

He took the name from a jazz recording, “Shoutin’ in That Amen Corner.” (Wind wrote that the album was recorded by Milton Mezzrow, but research has shown Mezzrow did not make a record by that name.)

The nickname became part of the tournament’s lore. Wind died in 2005 at age 88, but his lengthy essays and many books are still popular reading for golf fans.

“Herbert Warren Wind was one of the greatest golf writers that ever lived,” former Augusta National and Masters Chairman Hootie Johnson said. “For many years, he wrote wonderful stories about the Masters and the players that competed in the tournament.”

A revamped upper left of the green complex on No. 6 has created a comfortable shot for many players early at the Masters.

Canadian Corey Conners, the last man to have a hole-in-one on No. 6 in 2021, put his tee shot within 3 feet to make a birdie.

Two groups later, Georgia native Harris English went within a foot of an ace.

Erik van Rooyen, who was part of the first pair to tee off, is in a four-way tie for the lead at 3 under as he hits the turn.

The South Africa native has two wins on the PGA Tour, but his highest finish in a major was in 2019 when he tied for eighth at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York.

Luke List had a memorable moment on Wednesday when he made the 108th hole-in-one in the history of the Par 3 Contest on the 6th hole, which was playing 140 yards.

Unfortunately, his opening round of the 2024 Masters has not been as memorable. The Vanderbilt University product opened his round with a bogey, then added a double on the fifth hole, followed by two more consecutive bogeys. As of 1 p.m. ET, List sits at the very bottom of the board at 5 over.

Sunset for Augusta is 7:56 p.m.

With the final tee times on Thursday coming at 4:30 p.m., several groupings are sure to have their opening rounds carry over into Friday.

Bryson DeChambeau made birdie on the first three holes of the 2024 Masters, a good way to start the day after a weather delay.

Why is his former (and current) coach Mike Schy so sure that DeChambeau is on the verge of taking his game to another level this year? To explain, he circles back to October when he went to Miami to see DeChambeau, who defected to LIV in June 2022, play. Schy was curious to see what a LIV event looked like and he got a lot more than he anticipated.

“So, I’m out there at the pro-am on Thursday, and he’s not hitting it well. His driver flattened a bit in Saudi Arabia and he was hooking it again. He got that figured out but he’s clearly not happy with the way he’s hitting it. You know how he gets,” Schy says. “I don’t say anything unless he asks. He called Dana (Dahlquist) at one point and hung up on him. He called me over from 60 yards away and said, ‘Mike, why am I hitting it bad?’ I said, ‘Well…’ I determined his ball position was too far back. He said, ‘You think it’s that simple?’ I said, ‘All day you’ve been saying it should be simple. What’s simpler than changing ball position?’ This is right after he hit it fat in the water. He hits a couple and it’s better. He says, ‘It feels like I have more turn.’”

One day later, Schy continues, he’s in the locker room conversing with DeChambeau about his old swing and DeChambeau commented that what he used to do was wrong.

“That really bugged me. I didn’t sleep that night. I even texted him some stuff that Homer (Kelley, famous for The Golf Machine) had said about ball position,” Schy recalls. “I walked into the locker room and it’s just him and I, and I said, ‘You know, dude, you were the consummate hitter. Now you’ve worked on this long drive thing and your right arm has moved into the front. You’ve gone from more of a hitting motion to more of a swinging motion. You can’t have the ball back in your stance in a swinging motion. Of course, he says, ‘I’ll have to think about that.’ ”

Here’s more on the story.

No doubt if you’re sitting at home (or more likely at work), monitoring a TV (or perhaps a TV and three other screens) of the 2024 Masters, you’re having dreams of one day making your way to Augusta National.

Well, tickets can be had and you don’t have to pay through the nose on the secondary market.

Each June, the Masters ticket drawing opens for the next year’s event. It’s free to create an account and then you just have to cross your fingers you’ll get picked.

Then you just have to figure out flights, accommodations, food …

You’ve heard about the weather by now. But it wasn’t that bad.

Yes, there was a delay, with some rain overnight and the gates opened about 2 hours later than oringally planned. Hundreds of patrons were lined up, though, ready to go. Of course, there’s a no running policy here at Augusta National. Fans quickly lined up at the first tee for the ceremonial tee shot. The line to the gift shop also started backing up, with patrons clamoring for shirts, pullovers, garden gnomes and more.

The Masters Tournament was officially deemed underway when the ceremonial starters of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson struck the first golf balls.

The first competitors to hit the course, though, were the starting duo of Erik van Rooyen and Jake Knapp. The field of 89 for 2024 created a twosome as the first two off. And they both parred the first hole, 445-yard par-4 called Tea Olive.

Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson took to the first tee for the 2024 ceremonial first tee shot. It’s a moment that draws patrons out the course early, as they all line up both sides of the tee box to watch the legends of the game officially start the tournament each year.

Take a look at some photos from Thursday’s tee shots.

After his shot, Nicklaus lifted both hands into the Georgia air and said three words.

“I did it.”

According to Topgolf UK, a whopping 4 million Brits (or 6% of the population) will call in ‘sick’ simply to sit and watch the first major over the coming days.

The study, commissioned by gamified golfing experience Topgolf UK, looked into British attitudes towards key sporting events as The Masters gets underway.

Gary Player is part of the Honorary Starters with Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, and prior to the Masters, we asked Player about the craziest ticket ask he ever had for the event.

He didn’t disappoint.

“My church minister from South Africa, who was touring America, asked me for a ticket,” Player said. “I made the mistake of giving him my own badge. When he came to the gates, the security guards grabbed him to question how he obtained Gary Player’s badge. Fortunately, the chairman at the time, Bill Lane from Texas, who was the ultimate gentleman, took care of the matter.”

Augusta National comes alive in the sun, with the various levels of green popping, but although April is an ideal time to be in Georgia, it hasn’t proved to be perfect in recent years.

As a matter of fact, Thursday’s late start marks the sixth straight year that weather has forced a delay of some sort.

But Erik van Rooyen has stepped out to the practice area, and he’s part of the first grouping set. We’re getting closer.

Every year we hear about dreams coming true for rookie Masters participants. Practice rounds with legends. Awe about the whole scene. Possibly some crystal for an eagle.

But who had the worst start ever? Greg Chalmers has raised his hand as a contender.

The hilarious Australian offers a strong case, as he beaned two Augusta National patrons on the opening hole, one to the head on the opening drive, another with a punch to the shoulder on his second-ever Masters swing.

The Greggie was 27 in his first go-round at Augusta National, set to tee off in the opening round at 8:30 a.m. soon after the honorary group of Byron Nelson and Sam Snead. Chalmers had multiple professional wins in Australia at that point, but the nerves were understandably in play.

As the left-hander tells it, “the enormity of the event was dawning on me as I stood over the ball on that tee shot,” which he caught a bit on the heel, the ball rifling left toward the rope line.

Here’s more on the story.

The Masters Record Fountain has a new home, but where?

In 1959, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the inaugural Masters, a stone water fountain was placed to the left of No. 17 green. Sixty-five years later, the structure has been relocated ahead of the 88th Masters Tournament.

Etched on a plaque are the names of every Masters past champion. Also noted is a progression of course records at Augusta National, from Ed Dudley’s 69 in 1934 to Greg Norman’s 63 in 1996.

Here’s where the fountain is currently residing.

Here’s the full TV schedule for today:

Thursday, April 11

Live From the Masters, 8 a.m., Golf Channel

Honorary Starters Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson, Masters.com

On the Range, 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., Masters.com/Masters app, CBS Sports Network, Paramount+

Featured holes, featured groups, Amen Corner, 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Masters.com/Masters app, Paramount+

Welcome to the Masters, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., ESPN

First round, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., SiriusXM

First round, 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., ESPN

Live From the Masters, 7:30 p.m., Golf Channel

First-round replay, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., ESPN

First-round highlights, 11:35 p.m. to 11:50 p.m., CBS, Paramount++

For a complete look at the week’s TV schedule, click here.

Remember that feeling when you woke up on Christmas morning as a kid and your parents said you needed to wait to rush down the stairs and see what was left under the tree? That’s the feeling we all have on this Thursday morning.

Augusta National Golf Club announced on Wednesday night that forecasted weather during Thursday’s first round had delayed not only the opening of the patron gate but the round itself. The club sent an update shortly after 7:30 a.m. ET on Thursday morning that noted the first round would start at 10:30 a.m. ET, instead of at 8 a.m. ET as originally planned. Patron gates open at 9:30 a.m. ET and the Honorary Starters Ceremony featuring Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson will start at 10:10 a.m. ET.

The Masters is the best-run tournament in golf and we can listen to pros wax rhapsodic about how much they love Augusta National all day. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few things that annoy players during Masters week.

We’re talking pet peeves and first-world problems. We’re not talking about curing cancer or anything really important but it is still interesting to hear how some of the players would make the Masters even a little better. Traffic and tickets — good luck fixing either of those — were popular picks but some of them fell in the category of things that make you go hmm …

We asked players and here’s what they had to say.

The Masters gnome is still home.

The craze for the bearded wonder began in 2016, when the Masters Tournament introduced a gnome wearing an argyle cardigan. In 2023, the rendition resembled a Masters patron donning a blue shirt and carrying a stack of green and white cups.

This April, he’s donning a bucket hat, blue argyle sweater and a bag of clubs.

There’s plenty more on the phenomenon here.

Thinking about next year already?

The applications for Masters tickets generally opens around the first week of June. The first step is as easy as creating an account on the Masters, Augusta National Women’s Amateur and Drive, Chip & Putt websites (it’s one account, but you’ll need to visit each individual site and log in to apply for tickets to each event).

Hopeful patrons can apply for multiple days at each event but are only eligible to secure tickets for one day. Applications are also limited to one per household.

Prices fluctuate, but the 2024 ticket cost was $100 for practice rounds and $140 for tournament rounds. For the final round of the ANWA, it was $100; the DCP National Finals tickets were $25.

Here’s more on the process.

Tiger Woods will start his Masters at 3:54 p.m. ET.

Woods, who was originally scheduled to tee off at 1:24 p.m., is paired up with Jason Day of Australia and fellow American Max Homa.

Will Tiger make the cut? Who will be the top finisher from Great Britain and Ireland? Which LIV Golf member will finish highest?

These are just a few of the great prop bets we were interested in. Here’s the full list.