1)    Seeing Angel Cabrera’s drive off the first tee. At 445 yards, Tea Olive is one of the most testing opening holes in Major Championship golf. But Cabrera creamed his tee shot to leave him all of 70 yards to the front of the green. He was a clear 60-70 yards ahead of both Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson. I’m not sure if it set the tone for Cabrera’s masterful round – as he made a rather ugly par with a saving putt of ten feet – but he couldn’t have made a bigger statement from the off…

2)    Tiger’s preparation at the range. If ever there was an example of sticking to your set-up, this man follows his by book. For the 20 minutes or so that I watched him, everything was exquisite. Just not holing the putts, and there may be too many shots – and players – between him and the top of the leaderboard. We shall see…

3)    Following the trio of Geoff Ogilvy, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Two players in the world’s top 10, the other ranked 16th, and hardly anyone else, it seemed, was watching. With Woods long since in the clubhouse and Mickelson and Furyk behind, the viewing areas were wide open to watch some, shall we say, interesting golf…

4)    Vijay’s powers of recovery. From the 10th to the 15th, the Fijian couldn’t hit the fairway for toffee. But his play from the trees was masterful. On the 10th he hit a low iron under the branches and up to the left of the hole; on the 11th, a horror lie saw him have to work his ball all of 150 yards – at no higher than 10 feet – back into friendly territory; on the 13th he played from behind a tree to 100 yards short, wedged on and birdied; on 14, a low hybrid through more trees saw him find the green and two putt for par. If it hadn’t been for this play, he wouldn’t be playing at the weekend…

5)    Garcia’s recovery and his first sub-par round at the Masters since 2004. Considering his putting woes, there was a huge surge of surprise when the Spaniard sunk his eight-foot birdie on the last hole. Back in the game at four-under, would you dare back him over the weekend?

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