Shane Lowry was pleased with his start to the 87th Masters Tournament after equalling his lowest round at Augusta National with an opening 68 on Thursday.
The Irishman, who finished in a tie for third last year, made five birdies and a single bogey to sit firmly in contention after 18 holes.
The 2019 Open Champion broke a run of six straight pars with a hat-trick of birdies on the seventh, eighth and ninth before showcasing his considerable short-game abilities with a tremendous par save at the tenth.
His first bogey of the day followed on the 11th but Lowry got the shot back with a lengthy birdie putt at the 15th before finishing with another gain to reach four under par.
Lowry said: "It was pretty good. I felt like I was in control of my ball out there today.
8th start at The Masters for @ShaneLowryGolf 🇮🇪#TheMasters pic.twitter.com/HWCD9PTcv6
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) April 6, 2023
"It was nice. I said to Darren (Reynolds, his caddie), I hit my second shot on the 18th and I was like 'that was a pretty good round of golf'.
"And obviously it's nice to go up and roll in that putt on the last as well. I'm pretty happy with myself."
Poland's Adrian Meronk reflected on how he felt at the first tee after signing for a 73 on his tournament debut.
He said: "You're always going to be nervous. But it was a nice nervous. I was actually quite excited.
"I hit a good shot and, yeah, from there it was just easier.
"But you have a lot of nervy shots on this course, especially with the wind swirling in the trees.
"A couple of times I had to back up and just, you know, trust my process and start again. But it's very tricky.
"But I really enjoyed it, yeah."
