AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) Rory McIlroy wanted to get off to a solid start at the Masters, his latest shot at a career Grand Slam.

Saving par on the final three holes in the opening round Thursday helped him keep it in sight.

McIlroy shot a 3-under 69, breaking 70 in the first round at Augusta National for the first time since 2011. He shot a 65 that year and looked like he would win a green jacket before a final-round meltdown.

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McIlroy heads into the second round Friday three shots behind Jordan Spieth, who made five consecutive birdies on the back nine to build a two-stroke lead over Tony Finau and Matt Kuchar.

”You look at it and not anyone is really getting away,” McIlroy said. ”Jordan had a pretty strong finish there. But this is my best start in a few years. And, yeah, it’s such a hard golf course to play catch-up on. If you start to chase it around here, that’s when you start to make mistakes.

”But to be right up there and have the ability to stay patien..

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) Li Haotong made his first bogey in his first Masters, and he was lucky it wasn’t worse.

He was caught in the trees left of the 10th fairway. It took him four shots just to reach the green, and he still had 7 feet to navigate. Li made the bogey putt, a big relief for the 22-year-old from China.

”Literally almost say, `Amen’ down there,” Li said with his infectious smile.

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Maybe it was a premonition.

Li proceeded to make three straight birdies around Amen Corner on Thursday, starting with a 35-footer from off the green using the belly of his wedge en route to a 69. He doesn’t have a deep understanding of the tradition at Augusta National, but he could tell this was special.

”Quite lucky today,” Li said.

It’s part of his self-deprecating nature that made Li a favorite of Web.com Tour players when he first played a full circuit in America. But his peers know better, whether they watch him play or look at his results.

He won four times on..

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) Tony Finau’s last 24 hours included a little bit of everything: Pain. Embarrassment. Concern. Relief. Determination. Excitement.

The 28-year-old American with Samoan roots battled through a severely sprained ankle and shot a 4-under 68 in the opening round at the Masters. How he injured it was somewhat comical, albeit painful to watch. How he overcame it was downright extraordinary.

”You can’t make that up,” he said.

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It was one of the best – certainly most unpredictable – story lines of the tournament’s first day.

Finau dislocated his left ankle celebrating a hole-in-one during the Par-3 Contest on Wednesday and then popped it back into place. X-rays were negative. Finau had an early morning MRI on Thursday to determine whether he could make his Masters debut.

Doctors cleared him to play, and his ankle was tightly taped as he headed to the practice range. No pain-numbing shots or pills. Just pure grit.

”I was just extremely happy tha..

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) A look at the key hole Thursday in the first round of the Masters:

HOLE: 15.

YARDAGE: 530.

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PAR: 5.

STROKE AVERAGE: 4.644

RANK: 17.

KEY FACT: Nine players in the top 10 made birdies at the hole known as ”Firethorn,” but this is where Sergio Garcia’s hopes of a second straight green jacket ended on the very first day. He dumped five balls into the water and shot 13 – matching the highest score on a hole in Masters history. Garcia finished with a 9-over 81, the worst score ever for a defending champion.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) A brief look Thursday at the opening round of the Masters:

LEADER: Jordan Spieth birdied five straight holes beginning at the 13th on the way to a 6-under 66.

CHASING: Tony Finau and Matt Kuchar are two strokes behind after shooting 68s, while the group at 69 includes Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson.

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TOUGH GUY: Finau turned in a dazzling round just 24 hours after dislocating his left ankle while celebrating a hole-in-one during the Par 3 Contest.

TOUGH HOLE: Defending champion Sergio Garcia shot himself out of tournament at the 15th hole, where he dumped five straight balls into the water. He finished with a 13, equaling the record for the highest score ever on a Masters hole.

TIGER WATCH: Tiger Woods returned to the Masters for the first time since 2015 and shot a 73, leading him seven shots off the lead.

GRAND SLAM: McIlroy posted his second-best score in the opening round in 10 Masters appearances. He opened with a 65 in 2011 but ..

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) This time, Sergio Garcia offered no excuses.

Blame this one on the golf gods?

Not a chance. Even they couldn’t possibly be this cruel.

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One moment Garcia was fighting to get back to even par and in contention at the Masters. The next he was writing a double-digit number on his scorecard that effectively ended any chance he had of defending his Masters title.

Even for the mercurial Spaniard, this was uncharted territory.

”It’s the first time in my career where I make a 13 without missing a shot,” Garcia said. ”Simple as that.”

Well, not exactly. If it were that simple, Garcia might have a lot more prized possessions in his display case than the green jacket he won in a memorable back nine charge last year that included an eagle on the par-5 15th hole.

He won’t get another this year after an implosion on the very same hole that someday might have its own special spot in Masters lore.

Unfortunately for Garcia, for all the wrong reasons..

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) The first standing ovation came on the practice range.

There was more applause when he strolled to the 18th green, though most of the patrons stayed in their fold-out seats.

Tiger Woods is back at the Masters.

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Just not in the position so many of his fans were hoping he would be.

Woods plodded through an unspectacular opening round on Thursday, settling for a 1-over 73 that left him far off the lead but still feeling good about his chances.

Considering the buildup that accompanied his first competitive round at Augusta National since 2015 , it might’ve seemed like a bit of a letdown.

Not to Woods.

”I could have easily let the round slip away from me, but I got it back,” he said, brimming with that bravado of old. ”And I’m right back in this tournament.”

When Woods stepped to the first tee on a sunny, brisk morning, the patrons finally heard the words they’ve missed out on at the last two Masters.

”Fore, please. Tiger Woods now driv..

Stephane Cardinale – CorbisConor McGregor is pissed. Sure, sure, he's a professional fighter. That's his default setting. But this is something else entirely. This weekend, Conor McGregor—who hasn't set foot in the octagon in almost a year and a half—will lose his UFC lightweight title to the winner of Max Holloway-Khabib Nurmagomedov bout, and he's taking that about as poorly as any adult human being possibly can.
On Thursday, following a UFC 223 press junket at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, McGregor and his goons stormed into the arena, cornered a bus carrying an array of UFC fighters, including Nurmagomedov, and began hurling all manner of iron objects at it. We could describe the whole thing for you, but honestly, you have to see it to fully believe it:
https://twitter.com/SandhuMMA/status/981954748491468803
https://twitter.com/jrsvx/status/981960460323848192
In the footage, you can see McGregor strike another individual—not fellow fighter Michael Chiesa, who als..

Jamie SquireJoe LaCava, caddie to Tiger Woods, is a long-suffering New York Rangers fan, so even he could appreciate the irony: the most prominent appearance his team will make this spring won’t be in a hockey game, but on a T-shirt LaCava wore in the first round of the 2018 Masters.
Did LaCava think about that when he got dressed Thursday morning?
“Nah, I just have a bunch of T-shirts and I like it because it keeps me cool ,” LaCava said while standing outside the Augusta National clubhouse.
“I don’t know why I wore it,” he cracked. “I should just give up on them.”
The Rangers will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2010, but LaCava knows he couldn’t shake them if he tried. His connection to the team goes back to his roots in Newtown, Conn., when he had tickets in Madison Square Garden’s old blue seats. And on a day when Woods’ Masters return was the focal point of the sports world, even the Rangers’ Twitter account relished seeing their logo in the middle of it all.
https://t..

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) The Latest on the crash of a tour bus that injured passengers heading to the Masters golf tournament (all times local):

7:20 p.m.

A passenger injured when a charter bus crashed on the way to the Masters golf tournament says he’s thankful ”everybody’s alive.”

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Doctors Hospital in Augusta released video Thursday evening of Kip Plowman describing the crash as he waited in the emergency room to have broken glass removed from his hand.

Plowman said the bus careened off the road and spun around one and a half times before skidding on its side a good distance. He said the bus was filling up with smoke as he climbed through a window above his head.

Plowman said he felt badly for other injured passengers as well as for Masters ticketholders stuck on Interstate 20 as it was shut down after the crash. He said: ”It’s not the way we planned the day.”

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3:20 p.m.

A Georgia hospital says it’s treating nine passengers – including one in critical co..