Augusta, April 11:

Justin Rose and Trevor Immelman shot 4-under 68s for the lead in the first round of the Masters on Thursday.

On a warm, sunny opening day that featured Ian Poulter’s hole-in-one, a solid start to Zach Johnson’s title defense and Tiger Woods poised for a run at another green jacket, Rose was atop the leaderboard yet again.

Woods prefers to do his best work on the weekend. In his four previous Augusta wins, he twice trailed by three shots after the first round, another time by five, and was a daunting seven shots back in 2005.

Woods, who shot a 72, remained the overwhelming favourite to win his fifth green jacket — the starting point for an unprecedented Grand Slam. After putting up nothing but pars through the first 12 holes, Woods was on the ropes a bit with two straight bogeys. But the world’s No 1 player quickly pulled himself up by chipping in for eagle from just off the green at No 15, bringing out his first fist pump of the tournament. He parred out from there.

Poulter and Robert Karlsson posted 70s. Immelman played a bogey-free round that seemed to come out of nowhere. Poulter sent the patrons into a frenzy with his hole-in-one at No 16, a 170-yard gem known as Redbud.