Augusta, the wind, the afternoon session, the hard greens and an unrefined drive put Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño to the test in the first round of the Masters at Augusta.
The Madrid native started off with a 75, sweating it out to the very last putt of the 18th hole. It wasn't exactly the ideal beginning, true, but there are a lot of positive elements that came out of that +3. He managed to remain standing even when it seemed as though the first big one was slowly going down the drain.
The short game and a good series of putts from less than two meters away were able to make up for the errors off the tee. Gonzalo wasn't hitting the ball well, and one of the tell- tale signs was that he quickly took to the practice course to try to correct the errors in his swing together with his two trainers, José Carlos Gutiérrez and Mariano Bartolmé.
The most positive aspect, apart from putting up a fight until the very end, is that Gonzalo isn't far from the head of the pack. To be exact, he's just 7 shots away from the leader, Bill Haas, and five from the top ten. A few other difficult contenders have situated themselves at the top, right off the bat as well, as is the case with defending champion, Adam Scott (-3), Bubba Watson (-3), Louis Ooshuizen (-3), Brandt Snedeker (-2) and Rory Mcllroy (-1).
Gonzalo will make a grand attempt tomorrow at knocking off the disadvantage against the top spots. He'll play starting at 3:13 pm (Spanish local time).
