Rory McIlroy started The Masters with golf’s all-time greats backing him to triumph at Augusta National, but ended the opening day with his Grand Slam hopes under threat once again.

Honorary starters Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson were asked who they thought would win the Green Jacket this week and all selected McIlroy, who needs to win The Masters to become just the sixth in the modern era to complete the Grand Slam.

McIlroy is already a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this season and made a strong start to his 17th Masters appearance, posting his best opening nine-hole total since 2011 and adding another birdie at the par-five 13th, only for his round to unravel over the closing holes.

The world No 2 racked up two double-bogeys over his final four holes, finding the water with his third shot at the par-five 15th and three-putting from 30 feet at the par-four 17th, with a level-par 72 leaving him seven strokes behind early pacesetter Justin Rose.

An opening round that initially offered so many positives finished in familiar fashion for McIlroy, who now enters a seventh consecutive year of being six or more strokes back after the opening day at Augusta National.

Late errors cost McIlroy in opening round

McIlroy missed birdie putts over his first two holes but made amends by picking up a shot at the par-four third, then holed from 12 feet to save par at the par-fourth to continue his steady start.

The four-time major champion posted back-to-back birdies from the eighth to reach the turn in 33, his best start at Augusta National since 2011, then took advantage of the par-five 13th to get to four under and within three of Rose.

McIlroy’s round began to unravel at the par-five 15th, where he went long of the green in two before chipping down the slope and back into the water with his next shot.

He went to the drop zone and eventually carded a double-bogey seven, with McIlroy falling further behind when he went long of the 17th green and racked up a three-putt double-bogey from 30 feet.

McIlroy’s wayward drive at the last hit a tree and bounced back down by the pines, leaving him having to hit a low pitch towards the green, with a closing par leaving him tied-27th of the 95-man field.

“I think he’ll know that he got to four under in second gear – he was he was just cruising along,” Dame Laura Davies told Sky Sports. “That one bad thing happened on 15. Yes, he’s backed it up with a terrible double bogey on 17, but he’ll know he can get back in position.

“You can’t worry about the fact that Justin Rose is on seven under. You can’t worry what the others are doing after day one or day two – you can worry about them on the back nine on Sunday.

“He’s still in a good position and it’s better than his first-round average around here.”

Each of the last six men’s major winners were in the top four after the opening round and all of the last five Masters champions in the top three following round one, while 18 of the last winners of the Green Jacket were within four strokes of the 18-hole lead.

“If you put those two doubles early in the round and he comes about with four birdies, everyone’s going ‘oh, what a comeback’,” Davies added. “It’s just the wrong way round mentally when you walk off the course.

“He’d like to do [on Friday] exactly what he did right the way through to when he was standing on the 15th fairway, where he was four under par with a nice iron to hit into that green. Then, he’ll hopefully finish the round off well.”

Could Bhatia’s pace of play been a factor?

McIlroy’s late slide started at the 15th, where Sky Sports Golf’s Paul McGinley suggested a disruption to his rhythm and concentration was behind the mistake that led to his costly double-bogey.

“Just a couple of things happened there while he was getting ready to play what was a difficult but not impossible chip at 15,” McGinley said during Sky Sports’ coverage on Thursday.

“The first was his playing partner Bhatia, he hit his second shot in the water and took forever to take the drop and after almost 10 practice swings he played this pitch shot, wasn’t a bad shot but it went back onto Rory’s line.

“From there Rory has to wait for him, even though he’s ready to go and he’s a quick player, one of the quickest on tour. Bhatia has to walk all the way around the water and all the way up onto the green to mark his ball because it’s on Rory’s.

“Then as Rory is getting ready to play again he has to wait for the 16th tee box right behind and the playing people having to walk by there too, so again he’s slowed down there.

“Now a little bit of a drop of concentration, he hasn’t got into his routine the way he did before and I think he got distracted there and that’s why the execution wasn’t quite as we’d seen up until there.

“That was a difficult shot, it wasn’t impossible, it was mis-hit and I think it was down to concentration more than anything else. It could well have been a factor that those two incidents happened in quick succession and slowed him down to three minutes from when it was a shot to play to when he actually played it.”

When is The Masters live on Sky Sports?

Sky Sports Golf will be showing record hours of live coverage from the 2025 contest, including more action over the final two rounds than previous years. Wall-to-wall coverage continues on Friday from 2pm, with Featured Group action and regular updates until the global broadcast window begins at 8pm.

A new addition to this year’s coverage sees a Masters build-up show live from 3pm over the weekend ahead of full coverage starting at 5pm, covering all the action until after the close of play.

Sky+, Sky Q and Sky Glass will provide plenty of bonus feeds and allow you to follow players’ progress through various parts of Augusta’s famous layout, including Amen Corner and more.

Who will win The Masters? Watch throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage of the second round begins with Featured Groups on Friday from 2pm on Sky Sports Golf. Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.