Former champion "single" 9 holes on the first day of Master 2023
Weir competes for Master this year, at the age of 52 thanks to winning the 2003 tournament. That victory also gives him the privilege of competing for the "Green Jacket" for life.
This year's tournament, Weir was arranged in the same doubles group with Na for the first two rounds. But in the opening stage, Na suddenly reported illness and then dropped out of the tournament after scoring bogey on the 9th hole. Before that, he repeatedly expressed unstable health.
Therefore, Weir played singles throughout the last 9 holes of the round. He said it's been a strange situation in his career, since he started his professional career in 1992. However, the former Masters champion insists that the experience of playing alone brings a greater sense of serenity due to the initiative of the rhythm of the competition. This factor is more or less affected when you have a groupmate.
In the first round, Weir hit 72 strokes. With this result, he stands at T37 with an even par while the top of the table is at -7, belonging to Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland.
Weir guessed that the organizers would arrange a symbolic player for him to fight with in the next match. However, they still left the Canadian golfer alone in the second round, from 9:30 pm on April 7, Hanoi time. Weir has not passed the Masters from 2014 to 2022.
The filling of the same person, although a long-standing solution, is only implemented when the list is cut off in odd numbers. That task belongs to Jeff Knox - a senior member of Augusta National for the last 20 years. However, Knox, 60 years old this year, has announced his retirement after the 2022 match. The field has not yet announced a replacement for Knox.
Knox was once "in the even group" with A-rank players, like Rory McIlroy at the 2014 Masters and Jason Day in the 2017 tournament.
On the occasion of playing with Day and sharing the tee box, Knox reached a handicap of about 1.0, closing the round of 77 strokes. When playing in the members tee box, Knox set a lap record at Augusta National, at 61 strokes and to date no one has broken.
