10 April 2004	Saturday	19 Safar 1425

AUGUSTA, April 9: England's Justin Rose made the most of his early start when he put himself atop the leader board after shooting a stunning first-round five-under 67 on Thursday.

It was an impressive performance by 23-year-old Rose, playing in only his second Masters.

The Englishman sank a 30-foot bidie putt on the first hole and followed that with another birdie at the par-five fifth to go two-under par. He reached the turn three-under when he birdied the ninth.

Even three putts on 11 could not rattle him and two holes later he was back to three-under. Then a birdie-birdie finish saw him two clear of his nearest rivals, playing partner Chris DiMarco and fellow American Jay Haas.

Veteran Ben Crenshaw snatched a share of the lead when he got it to three-under but two dropped shots in three holes saw him slip back to one-under. More dropped shots and he had to settle for a two-over 74.

Sandy Lyle, the 1988 Masters champion, put on an impressive display when he carded a level par 72. The 46-year-old, who only gets to play on the tour when he can manage to get an invitation, went off in the first group of the day with 66-year-old Charles Coody and 67-year-old Tommy Aaron.

Lyle refused to be distracted as Aaron and Coody ran up cricket scores. Coody shot 16-over par 88, one stroke worse than Aaron. Lyle has not made the cut here for the past four years and last year he opened with an mind-numbing 82.

He was not happy at being paired with the two elder veterans. Lyle. Scotland's Colin Montgomerie was sitting at two-under when he stood on the 18th tee but the Scot bogeyed the final hole to finish at one-under.

It was a shaky start for Montgomery, who began birdie, bogey, birdie before settling down. His mood was not helped by playing in the group behind Arnie Palmer, making his Masters farewell after playing in 50 straight championships.

The sun and wind that had turned the fairways hard and the greens lightning fast quickly had vanished and the early players were greeted with showers, but the greens were still slick.

Tournament favourite Tiger Woods got off to a nightmare start. His opening drive was heading for the ninth tee until he got a luck deflection off one of the giant Georgia pins that tower over the first hole. But he could still not manage to salvage par.

First round scores:

67 Justin Rose

69 Chris DiMarco, Jay Haas

70 Darren Clarke, Chris Riley

71 Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer, Phillip Price, Kirk Triplett, Charles Howell III, K.J. Choi

72 Sandy Lyle, Shaun Micheel, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Brad Faxon, Nick Price

73 Fred Couples, x-Brandt Snedeker, Ben Curtis, Stuart Appleby, Tim Clark, Jeff Sluman, Raymond Floyd

74 Peter Lonard, Ben Crenshaw, Jerry Kelly, Scott Verplank, Angel Cabrera, Fredrik Jacobson, Craig Stadler, Kenny Perry, Padraig Harrington, Craig Parry, Stewart Cink, Eduardo Romero

75 Rocco Mediate, Vijay Singh, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Bob Tway

76 Larry Mize, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, Michael Campbell, Bob Estes, Stephen Leaney, Steve Flesch, Craig Perks, Len Mattiace, Ian Woosnam, Chad Campbell

77 x-Gary Wolstenholm, Briny Baird, Paul Lawrie, Rich Beem, Zhang Lian-Wei, Trevor Immelman, Todd Hamilton, J.L. Lewis

78 David Toms, x-Nathan Smith, John Daly, Jeff Maggert

79 Jonathan Kaye, Jonathan Byrd

80 Fred Funk, Tim Herron, Adam Scott

82 Gary Player, Shigeki Maruyama

84 Arnold Palmer

87 Tommy Aaron

88 Charles Coody. -Reuters