Mike Weir opened the 90th Masters tournament on Thursday with a 9-over-par 81, leaving the 2003 champion tied for 86th as the first round wound down at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Rory McIlroy posted a 5-under 67 and shared the lead with Sam Burns after the opening round of the first major of the year.
Weir, 54, is playing in his 27th Masters and is one of two Utah ties in the field, but this year's 91-man lineup does not include Tony Finau. Finau has been a fixture at Augusta for the past eight years, making his absence from the tournament notable on a day when Weir was trying to steady a difficult start and keep himself in position to make the cut.
That contrast gives Thursday's opening round its weight. Weir knows this course better than most players in the field, having won the green jacket in 2003, but he was left chasing after an 81 in his first trip around the course this week. McIlroy, by contrast, started fast and immediately put pressure on the rest of the field with his 67.
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The bigger story for Utah golf, though, is not only Weir's score but Finau's absence. A player who had become a familiar name at Augusta for nearly a decade did not earn a place in this year's Masters, a reminder that even established major-tournament regulars can be left watching from home when the field is set.
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Weir still has Friday's second round to try to move up, while McIlroy enters the day in the lead and the rest of the field begins the long work of catching him. For Finau, the next stop comes elsewhere, after a Masters week that opened without him.
