Three of the five Aussies in the field are under par and inside the top 20 through day one, Day’s five-under 67 putting him within two of co-leaders Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Viktor Hovland, all of whom opened with seven-under 65s.

Day went one better than fellow Queenslander Adam Scott who bogeyed the final hole for a four-under 68 while Open champion Cameron Smith birdied 18 for a round of two-under 70 and tie for 17th.

Runner-up in 2011 and the outright leader with three holes to play when Scott won in 2013, Day had only once previously broken 70 in his opening round at The Masters.

That was in 2015 and, in a week in which the weather is expected to make scoring difficult in the days to come, Day is well-placed to once again contend for the green jacket.

Twelve months on from missing The Masters for the first time in his career, Day’s resurgence shows no signs of slowing down but he knows he shares a lofty position on the leaderboard with many of the game’s best players.

“You look at the leaderboard, it’s very, very stacked right now,” said Day.

“I mean, any one of those guys can win easily and there’s big names on that leaderboard right now.

“I’ve just got to keep my head down and keep pushing forward.

“It’s nice to be able to get off to a good start, but you can’t get too far ahead of yourself. It might end up turning into a marathon if we have a pretty wet kind of windy conditions on the weekend.”

Just one back of Day in a tie for sixth is Scott, who admitted to leaning on past champion vibes in his round of 68.

On the 10-year anniversary of his Masters victory, Scott took advantage of a good break at the first hole and then birdied two and three, his only dropped shot of the day coming at the final hole.

“There’s some good vibes being a Masters champion and coming back here and it’s appreciated and it’s certainly felt by those champions,” said Scott.

“I think all the former champions feel it here. I think you even get good breaks from it.

“My ball bounced out of a bunker and onto the first green today.

“Any week you want to get off to a good start. But we just don’t know what’s going to happen and how the weather might affect the rest of the week.

“If you’re hanging around right from the start on a week like this it’s probably helpful.”

Following an opening par Scott found the greenside bunker at the par-5 second before playing an exquisite bunker shot to three feet which he duly converted for birdie.

He made it two in succession at the third after almost driving the green at the 350-yard par 4.

It left an awkward uphill pitch but the 42-year-old displayed his short game wizardry with a lofted shot that landed softly and left a birdie putt of five feet that he again rolled in.

Ten pars followed before Scott again made a surge in consecutive holes.

A wedge that carried into the back section of the green on 14 left a testing right-to-left putt of 20 feet which Scott rolled in but there was better to come on 15.

His longest drive of the day – 332 yards straight down the centre – left Scott with 209 yards into the par-5 15th.

One of the best long-iron players in the game just carried his approach shot onto the green, his ball popping up and releasing to 10 feet for an eagle putt that would get him to five-under and just two off the lead.

A tee shot that leaked into the pine straw right of the 18th fairway prevented Scott from reaching the green with his approach shot, unable to get up-and-down from 56 yards on his way to a closing bogey and a round of 68.

A frustrating day with the putter was all that prevented Smith from making a greater impression on Round 1 as he seeks to add to his wonderful history at The Masters.

Two-under at the turn, Smith made bogey on 10 when his approach shot travelled long into the patrons at the back of the green, dropping a second shot on 12 when he pulled his tee shot long and left.

The Open champion leant on his short game to make birdie from beside the green at the par-5 13th and then holed a 21-foot birdie putt on 18 for a round of 70.

Paired together for the opening two rounds, Min Woo Lee and amateur Harrison Crowe both posted three-over 75s on day one.

After making birdie on two, Lee launched a blistering tee shot to the fringe of the green at the 350-yard par-4 third. It would go to waste, however, as the West Australian four-putted for bogey, his third putt spitting back out at him from just three feet.

With bogeys on his next two holes, the 24-year-old admitted that it was an error he didn’t respond well to.

“I guess I didn’t really get over it. I went bogey, bogey afterwards,” said Lee, who made bogey on 13 and double bogey on 14.

“It’s tough, but those first six holes, if you can get through square or one-under, you’re really happy.

“It is one of the tougher holes and a tough stretch of golf on this course, so you just have to suck it up and go play some better golf.

“It is tough. It’s not easy.”

Understandably, it was a nervy start for Crowe but he soon settled into his round that consisted of five bogeys, two birdies and 11 pars.

His opening tee shot went left onto the ninth fairway yet he still managed to find the green with his second.

He did three-putt to start his first Masters with a bogey but walked away buzzing from his first competitive round at Augusta National.

“To knock it on green from where I was, I’m not really sure anyone would have been there today,” Crowe said of his path down one.

“To be the only one to knock it on the green in the group was, it was all right. It was cool. It was good.

“It was definitely nerve-wracking. I had to definitely take a couple of deep breaths. But after a few

holes it started to settle in and started to feel a little more normal out there and started to feel real cool.

“It was a lot of fun. It was awesome. And it was cool to share with it Min Woo.”

Round 1 scores (leaders at -7)
-5 Jason Day (67)
-4 Adam Scott (68)
-2 Cameron Smith (70)
-1 Ryan Fox (NZ) (71)
+3 Min Woo Lee (75)
+3 Harrison Crowe (a) (75)
 
Round 2 tee times AEST
10.54pm Ryan Fox (NZ), Billy Horschel, Harris English
11.06pm Jason Day, Zach Johnson, Gordon Sargent (a)
1.42am     Min Woo Lee, Harrison Crowe (a), Larry Mize
3.06am              Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay, Kurt Kitayama
3.30am              Cameron Smith, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im