It’s finally here! Nuts and bolts for Day 1 at the Masters

The best day of the golf year is finally here. Your nuts and bolts for the opening round at the Masters.

At long last, it is here. The Masters arrives Thursday morning at Augusta National. No more waiting. No more press conferences. No more pre-game hype. We get actual golf shots that count on Thursday morning.

And recent trends show that the score you post on Thursday morning is strongly indicative of your chance to slip into a green jacket come Thursday night. The last 13 winners have all been inside the top 10 after the first round at Augusta National. Over the last 25 years, the winner almost always comes from somewhere inside the top 15 after the first 18 holes. So it may feel like a day when players, and you the fan, can just ease into it. But it might be more important than you realize for your favorite player to get off to a good start and post something in the 60s in the first round.

This year we have a very small field, even by Masters standards. It is always the smallest major championship field by a significant margin. If the field size approaches triple digits, the green jackets start to get anxious. This year’s Masters field never came close to the century mark, and settled at a trim 87 players on Sunday night with the late addition of Corey Conners. In contrast, the other three majors have a field of 156 players. Aside from the Open, which is blessed with never-ending daylight deep in the northern hemisphere in mid July, that kind of bloated field requires groups of three playing off split tees for sun-up to sun-down golf over 36 holes. It can be a logistical challenge, especially when we get the slightest weather delay at the U.S. Open or PGA Championship.

The Masters enjoys the luxury of a ton of flexibility when it comes to creating its tee sheet. No one goes off the 10th tee here. The entire field plays from the 1st tee onward. With the field so small this year, they even bumped the honorary start from Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player back a few minutes and won’t send the first group out until 8:30 a.m. ET. After that, it’s rolling off No. 1 until 2 p.m. The pace at the masters has slowed dramatically so rounds will come in well above the five-hour mark. Jordan Spieth and that last group of the day should be finishing up around 7:30 p.m. ET or so.

Here’s the tee sheet for your opening round of the Masters Tournament (all times ET):

• 8:30 a.m. -- Andrew Landry, Adam Long, Corey Conners
• 8:41 a.m. -- Ian Woosnam, Keith Mitchell, Kevin Tway
• 8:52 a.m. -- Mike Weir, Shane Lowry, Kevin O’Connell
• 9:03 a.m. -- Angel Cabrera, Aaron Wise, Justin Harding
• 9:14 a.m. -- Danny Willett, Brandt Snedeker, Takumi Kanaya
• 9:25 a.m. -- Fred Couples, Si Woo Kim, J.B. Holmes
• 9:36 a.m. -- Branden Grace, Emiliano Grillo, Lucas Bjerregaard
• 9:47 a.m. -- Charl Schwartzel, Charles Howell III, Eddie Pepperell
• 9:58 a.m. -- Sergio Garcia, Tony Finau, Henrik Stenson
• 10:09 a.m. -- Adam Scott, Hidiki Matsuyama, Kyle Stanley
• 10:31 a.m. -- Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Viktor Hovland
• 10:42 a.m. -- Charley Hoffman, Louis Oosthuizen, Marc Leishman
• 10:53 a.m. -- Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele, Gary Woodland
• 11:04 a.m. -- Tiger Woods, Haotong Li, Jon Rahm
• 11:15 a.m. -- Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Cameron Smith
• 11:26 a.m. -- Sandy Lyle, Michael Kim, Patton Kizzire
• 11:37 a.m. -- Trevor Immelman, Martin Kaymer, Devon Bling
• 11:48 a.m. -- Larry Mize, Jimmy Walker, Stewart Cink
• 11:59 a.m. -- Jose Maria Olazabal, Kevin Na, Thorbjorn Olesen
• 12:10 p.m. -- Bernhard Langer, Matt Wallace, Alvaro Ortiz
• 12:32 p.m. -- Alex Noren, Keegan Bradley, Matthew Fitzpatrick
• 12:42 p.m. -- Vijay Singh, Billy Horschel, Jovan Rebula
• 12:54 p.m. -- Kevin Kisner, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Shugo Imahira
• 1:05 p.m. -- Zach Johnson, Ian Poulter, Matt Kuchar
• 1:16 p.m. -- Francesco Molinari, Rafael Cabrera Bello, Tyrrell Hatton
• 1:27 p.m. -- Bubba Watson, Patrick Cantlay, Satoshi Kodaira
• 1:38 p.m. -- Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Day
• 1:49 p.m. -- Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas
• 2 p.m. -- Jordan Spieth, Paul Casey, Brooks Koepka

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The TV coverage will be the usual limited afternoon broadcast. But we do have featured groups streams up and running throughout the day now. Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley also dropped a bombshell in his annual Wednesday press conference that highlights of every single shot will be available on the Masters website within minutes. It’s still unclear just exactly how that will work but it’s a dramatic improvement and change for an event that has always tried to limit how much is shown. Here’s your media schedule for the first day at the Masters.

Thursday’s first round coverage

Television:

3-7:30 p.m.: Live first round coverage - ESPN

8-11 p.m.: Replay of first round coverage - ESPN

Online:

3-7:30 p.m., 8-11 p.m.: Simulcast of TV coverage on WatchESPN

Available at Masters.com

9:58 a.m. to completion (~7:30 p.m.): Featured groups stream

• 9:58 a.m. ET: Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Tony Finau
• 11:04 a.m. ET: Tiger Woods, Jon Rahm, Haotong Li
• 1:38 p.m. ET: Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Day
• 2 p.m. ET: Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Paul Casey

10:45 a.m.-6 p.m.: Amen Corner live stream

11:45 a.m.-7 p.m.: Nos. 15 and 16 live stream

Radio:

2 p.m.-completion: Masters Radio - Masters.com

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