Rory McIlroy claims share of lead in hunt for back-to-back Masters victories

Defending champion Rory McIlroy basked in the warm Georgia sunshine and the glory of his return to Augusta to lay down a marker in his bid for rare back-to-back Masters wins with a share of the first-round lead.

Following a nondescript seven holes in which he struggled with his driving, the Northern Irishman, seeking to become only the fourth man after Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Sir Nick Faldo to retain the green jacket, burst into life with five birdies in eight holes.

A round of 67 catapulted him into a share of the lead with American Sam Burns on five under, two clear of 2018 champion Patrick Reed, Kurt Kitayama and Australian Jason Day.

“I felt like I got a lot out of my round. It started pretty scrappy,” said the world number two.

“I was hitting out of the trees a little bit the first seven holes and then started to string some good swings together from the eighth hole onwards and played those last 11 in five under.

“I stayed really patient when I needed to. Honestly, I couldn’t have got a lot more out of my round. I feel like I leaned heavily on my experience out there to do that.”

A brilliant approach to the long, steeply uphill eighth, brought his second birdie of the day and moved him back into red figures, and he hit it even closer at the next to turn in two under.

That was two behind the then-leaders Reed and Burns but McIlroy pressed the accelerator from there.

The saying in these parts is the Masters does not start until the back nine on a Sunday, but the defending champion shifted through the gears with a birdie at the 13th, the hole he doubled-bogeyed from 90 yards in his final round a year ago, having driven into the pine straw.

He rolled in a six-foot birdie at the next before finding himself behind the same trees on the left-hand side of the 15th fairway from where he produced one of the shots of his career 12 months ago.

There were too many trunks to go around this time, however, and he sensibly opted to go through and under, pitched to the back of the green and then holed a wicked, downhill curling putt for another birdie.

He went close at the 17th and produced a great recovery from a fairway bunker at the last to finish his first round much better than he did a year ago, when he only managed to shoot a level-par 72 and was seven behind going into the second day.

McIlroy admitted he was nervous when he teed off his defence.

“We’re playing the first major of the year. It’s the Masters. If I felt absolutely nothing on that first tee that’s not a good sign, so it was nice to feel my hand shaking a little bit when the tee went into the ground and struggle to put the ball on top,” he added.

“I knew I was feeling it. That’s a good thing. That’s why we want to be here, we want to be able to try to play our best golf when we’re feeling like that.

“It’s not as if you feel like that the whole way around but it was still nice to feel that on the first tee.”

Bryson DeChambeau, who was paired with McIlroy for last year’s final round, struggled as he took three attempts to get out of a greenside bunker at 11 for a triple-bogey seven as he signed for a four-over 76.