Leishman and Garcia share opening round Masters lead

All four Aussies are well in the hunt after the opening round of the 2013 Masters.

Australian Marc Leishman is the surprising story of the opening round of the 2013 Masters after firing a 6-under par 66 to finish the day in a tie for the lead with Spaniard Sergio Garcia.

Dustin Johnson was briefly also in a  tie for the lead with Leishman and Garcia but made bogey at the par-4 17th hole to end the day just a shot behind the leaders.

Just four Australians are in the field for the 2013 Masters but all four shot good opening rounds.

You could be forgiven for thinking Adam Scott wasn’t having a great round due to the lack of coverage from the ESPN/Masters TV broadcast (via Network Ten). Just the one shot was shown from Scott’s 3-under par round of 69 that sets himself up nicely for a shot at the green jacket.

Scott has focused almost entirely on major golf tournaments over the past few years recording six Top-20 finishes in eight events, including four top-10 finishes. Many have been on the back of good opening rounds.

Jason Day found himself 2-over the card through six holes of his opening round but fought back to finish his round at 2-under par. John Senden flirted with the same score on a few occasions but a round which included six birdies and six bogies meant he had to settled for even par. But the Australian story of the day belonged to Marc Leishman.

Leishman didn’t exactly get off to a flyer. He made bogey on the first hole but managed to get it back with a birdie on the third hole that managed to settle him.

“Got off to a bit of a shaky start, a few nerves early but got those out of the way with a birdie at three, then we were away. I hit some good shots and made some reasonably easy pars and I think that’s what gave me the confidence to go on from there.” Leishman said in his post-round interview.

Leishman made the turn at 1-under and then rattled off five birdies including four in row through holes 13 – 16 to briefly hold the outright lead before Garcia joined him atop the leaderboard.

“It was awesome getting on those sort of runs. Only had a six footer on 13, two footer on 14, two footer on 15 and obviously holed that bomb on 16 from I don’;t know how far that was. In a different zip code I think.” Leishman said smiling.

It’s only round one, but the Aussies are off to a good start.