Alvaro Quiros put on a show at Augusta again, displaying impressive length off the tee as he consistently bombed drives 350 yards down the fairway. His incredible length left him short wedge shots into Augusta's ever-so-tricky greens, allowing him to control his distance and leave himself relatively easy putts. As expected, Quiros dominated the par fives, finishing at 4-under on the four holes. And in crunch time, with the round winding down, Quiros caught fire, recording birdies on the final two holes to finish with a 32 on the back nine.
The end result was a 7-under 65 on the card, matching the mark Rory McIlroy set early in the day. For most of the afternoon, it looked like McIlroy's 7-under 65 was untouchable, but after a brief stumble, Quiros came roaring back, catching McIlroy and heading into the clubhouse tied for the lead at The Masters.
Phil Mickelson has a knack for scrambling and getting himself out of tough spots, and his first round at The Masters was no exception. Nothing was going right for Mickelson -- except maybe his drives -- as "Lefty" struggled to control his shots. Despite sending his drive into the bushes on No. 13 and spraying tee shots all over the place, Mickelson made some amazing saves, slowly working his way up the Masters leaderboard in the process.
Mickelson finished the day at 2-under and, despite his errant ways off the tee, only recorded one bogey -- coming on No. 18 after an errant approach shot. His first birdie of the day came on No. 8, the second par five at Augusta. He followed that up with a string of pars, with a second birdie finally coming on the par four 14th. On No. 15, Mickelson made it two-in-a-row, sinking a birdie to move to 3-under. Mickelson finished the day at 2-under, tied for 14th.
Y.E. Yang stumbled with bogeys over the final two holes after touching 7-under through 16, finishing with a first round 67. K.J. Choi also finished at 5-under after a masterful performance for birdie on No. 18. Choi drove it into the tree on the right side of the fairway, played a brilliant approach just to find the green and sank a lengthy, winding birdie put from what appeared to be over 50 feet. Matt Kuchar and Ricky Barnes are at 4-under for the tournament, three strokes off the lead.
Amateur Peter Uhlein, 2010 winner of the U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay, came out gunning, firing an even par 70 in the first round, the best amateur score thus far. It was an impressive performance as Uhlein recorded consecutive birdies followed by consecutive bogeys on the front nine and finished with a flare, dropping in a birdie putt on No. 18 to get to even par.
A full leaderboard can be found at The Masters website. For more on the tournament, check out the rest of our 2011 Masters StoryStream. Head on over to SB Nation Atlanta for a local angle or check out SB Nation’s full coverage of the 2011 Masters.