The 75th staging of The Masters Tournament began with the ceremonial opening drives of honorary starters Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.
Now 81 and 71 respectively, both found the fairway, but Nicklaus really middled his and was the longer by some 60 yards.
It was so good, in fact, that Ross Fisher and Sandy Lyle – two of the first Europeans out on the course - would have preferred to play their second shots from where the six-time champion's ball had finished than from the sand.
Fisher, in the opening group, bogeyed the first – as did Alex Cejka and Sandy Lyle - but came back with a birdie at the long second.
On level par he shared top spot with playing partners Jonathan Byrd and Sean O'Hair and also American amateur David Chung.
On a fine and calm day scoring was expected to be low, especially when the temperature started to rise and allowed the ball to fly further.
Fisher, whose wife Jo is expecting their second child at the start of next week, had his second bogey of the day on the 240 yard fourth.
At one over he slipped two behind American quartet Sean O'Hair, Jeff Overton, Jerry Kelly and Kevin Na, while Cejka was one back thanks to a birdie at the 350 yard third, but Lyle was joint last on two over after also bogeying the fourth.
Alongside him was Australian Adam Scott, who kicked off his tournament with a double bogey six.
