McIlroy Tied for Lead at Masters After Impressive Opening Round

Rory McIlroy, the defending champion, has taken a share of the lead at The Masters after a strong opening day. McIlroy carded a 67, which included five birdies in an eight-hole stretch, to join Sam Burns at the top of the leaderboard on five under par. Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, and world number one Scottie Scheffler are also in contention, while Bryson DeChambeau struggled to a four-over 76 and former champion Jon Rahm shot 78. McIlroy's bid to become the first back-to-back winner at The Masters since Tiger Woods is off to a promising start, with the Northern Irishman finding momentum after a slow start to reach the turn in 34. He then started a fresh birdie burst by taking advantage of the par-five 13th and went on to equal the second-lowest opening round by a defending champion. McIlroy said, 'I felt like I got a lot out of my round... I stayed really patient when I needed to.' Meanwhile, Rose finished two strokes back after successive bogeys, and DeChambeau's triple-bogey seven at the 11th left him nine strokes adrift.