Patrick Reed carried his early season form on the DP World Tour onto the Major Championship stage to boost his hopes of claiming his second Masters title.
The American has started 2026 in brilliant fashion, winning the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and Qatar Masters to take pole position on the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World.
Full of confidence as a result, arriving at Augusta National as the World Number 23, Reed opened with a three-under-par 69 to sit two adrift of early pacesetters Rory McIlroy and Sam Burns at Augusta National.
Reed has not missed a cut in his seven starts since winning the Green Jacket in 2018 and appears confident that if he can maintain a disciplined approach he will put himself in title contention.
“This is one of those places that the more you think about it, the more you think ahead, the more it bites you,” he said.
“When I won in '18, it was the first year I actually fully bought into just taking it day by day and shot by shot.
“I think that's what my recipe is, because when you get to the first major, you're always going to put too much pressure on yourself, you're always going to grind a little harder.
“Golf is one of those games if you start trying to force things, you actually get worse. Other sports, the harder you push, the harder you go, usually it works out.
“In our sport the harder you push and the harder you try to make something happen, that's usually when it kind of goes the wrong direction.”
Reed enjoyed a flying start on day one, birdieing the first before holing an eagle putt at the par five second.
After five straight pars, he then made his second eagle of the front nine from around 55 feet as he turned in 31.
However, a missed green at the tenth resulted in his first bogey of the day.
He then found the water beyond the green at the par five 15th, with his second shot with a fairway wood taking a heavy first bounce off the green.
Despite a couple of indifferent approach shots at the 17th and 18th, he showed his short game expertise to salvage pars and he is expecting the challenge to only get tougher with conditions expected to become firmer and faster as the week progresses.
"Just got to be patient," he added of his approach. "I mean, try to get as many early as you can the first couple of days, because this is one of those golf courses that it can change so quickly.
"With what the weather looks like it's going to be, hot, you know, really hot, sunny, they could make this place really, really hard if they wanted to. I wouldn't be surprised.
"We have the best players in the world here. Why not? Challenge us and make it difficult, because it's one of these golf courses, though, if you hit quality golf shots, you're going to get rewarded for it.
"That's the biggest thing is if it's going to firm up and it's going to get faster and faster, you're just going to have to hit quality golf shots and know where you are going to hit the ball."
