Early conditions perfect, scoring is low

Published Apr. 10, 2009 12:18 a.m. ET

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Ross Fisher was the first of three players to climb to 5 under on the leaderboard before Tiger Woods even teed off Thursday at the Masters, sticking his tee shot on the par-3 16th to a few feet for birdie.

Round 1 of the Masters

Photos: Arnold Palmer hit the ceremonial tee shot at Augusta to kick of the 2009 Masters tournament. Check out all the action here.

Chad Campbell was the second, making birdie on his first five holes of the day; and third was Shingo Katayama, wearing pants the same color as a green jacket, after a birdie on the par-5 15th. (Katayama bogeyed 17, but birdied 18 to finish the day back at 5 under. 1987 champ Larry Mize got to 5 under as well, but that was after Tiger teed off.)

For those of you anxiously waiting for Tiger Woods' Sunday Red, Augusta National and weather conditions built to perfection have presented an early Sea of Red to help tide you over.

Where is the cold and wind from earlier this week? Gone.

Where are the roars? Closer than we might think.

At 2:30 Masters time, 36 players were under par. Sixteen players finished last year's first-round in the red; Trevor Immelman and Justin Rose both led with 4-under 68s.

Tim Clark, winner of yesterday's Par-3 Contest and before Katayama finished an early clubhouse leader at 4-under 68, kicked things off today by making birdie on the first two holes; Fisher, however, kicked things into gear by getting to 4 under through 8 holes. Angel Cabrera matched that mark about an hour later.