By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Updated at 8:15 p.m.

            Consistency at Augusta National is pretty hard.

            For Russell Henley, not so much, and currently, not a great thing.

            For the fourth straight first round of the Masters, Henley turned in a 1-over 73, the Stratford grad finishing off an uneven round in which put him in the middle of the pack, with a weather-delayed start sending the first round into the evening.

            Henley spent the afternoon countering difficult situations with near misses, a round that wasn’t far off being 2 or 3 under. Henley avoided trouble around the green and stayed near the pin, but was unable to convert maybe a half-dozen putts that have often been fairly routine.

            He headed to the clubhouse in a tie for 45th, eight back of leader Bryson DeChambeau, who ended the day up one on Scottie Scheffler.

            Henley is in a large (round completed) group at 1 over that includes Phil Mickelson, Sepp Straka, Jon Rahm, and Eric Cole.

            Hideki Matsuyama is 4 over, and Nick Taylor is 5 over.

            The first tee shot was finally taken at 10:30 a.m., play for the 89-player field starting a little more than two and a half hours late. The first weather announcement came at 5 a.m., with the update at 7:35 a.m. to delay the start.

            Play ended for the day at 7:51 p.m. with nearly 30 dozen players still in round one. They’ll finish starting Friday at 7:50 a.m., with the second round starting 10 minutes later. Henley tees off at 1 p.m.

            Henley countered a tournament-opening bogey - his tee shot went into the left rough- when he missed a 12-foot par putt. But he responded with a birdie on 2, and just missed repeating the feat on 3, taking a par.

            After two more pars, he nailed a 42-footer for birdie on 5 to move into the top 10, with about half the field still waiting to tee off.

            He put himself in a jam with the tee shot on 7, sailing left into pine straw and trees. He got out of it beautifully, except for landing in one of the three green-front bunkers. He got within three feet for par on a 30-footer, and settled for a respectable bogey.

            A fairway sand trap snagged his tee shot on 8, but it wasn’t a troublesome lay, and he was back on the fairway, 102 yards from the pin after two shots on the par 5. Then he was on target with a beauty and set up a 4-footer for birdie to go 1-under.

            Last year, Henley had two bogeys and two birdies through the front nine for an even start. His early play was  more consistent, just missing birdie putts and staying near the hole.

            A year ago, his back-nine slide started right away, with a double bogey on 10. This year, a par after finding another bunker, barely missing a birdie.

            He almost saved par on 11 after a tee shot into the right rough, preceding a superb second shot en route to a 11-footer, but he just missed and tapped in from a foot for bogey, back to even.

            Henley got into pine straw off the par-3 12 tee, but made a nice par save. Three pars later, he coughed up a bogey on 15, missing hard and right normally a gimme, a 5-footer. His bogey putt was longer than the par try.

            Then he was a hair off to the right for a birdie on 16 before a par on 17, hanging at 1 over.

            He hit a sand trap to start on 18, but it was a safe sand spot, as was the case on 8. He was 62 feet from a birdie, and finished with a 7-footer for par.

            Several golfers were still on the front nine when Henley finished around 5:25 p.m.

            Henley finished with four bogeys, three birdies, and 11 pars. He hit eight of 14 fairways, and 10 of 18 greens.

            After one round in 2023, Henley was also eight back of the leaders. Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, and Viktor Hovland were all at 65.

            Thursday, Rahm was also in the large crowd at 1 over, Hovland was 1 under. Koepka is even through 11.