Masters 2025: Nicolai Hojgaard had one of the most chaotic opening nines to a major you'll ever see

We wouldn’t have blamed Nicolai Hojgaard’s team if they started to check flights home. Sure, two holes into a 72-hole golf tournament is very, very, very early. But a bogey-double bogey start at the Masters? Not ideal. You’re at least starting to think that it might not be your week.

Not Nicolai. We know the big-hitting Dane is an intense competitor, having faced the pressure of the Ryder Cup in a winning effort for the Europeans in 2023. And he actually held the lead at Augusta National for a time at last year’s Masters before finishing T-16.

Sure enough, Hojgaard rebounded from that really tough start and was back atop the leader board at Augusta National. Again, it’s really, really early. But if his team is very reactionary like we are, at least they can close out of their favorite airlines’ app.

Here’s how unusual his start was on Thursday at Augusta National.

First of all, his tee shot at No. 1. Hojgaard is averaging 310 yards off the tee during the 2025 PGA Tour season, so something very odd happened with his first tee shot on Thursday. It’s one of the most nerve-wracking tee shots in the world, so we get it. But 215 yards? Even this writer’s tee ball went further when he hacked it around a few years ago. That led to an opening bogey.

OK, plenty of golfers bogey the first hole, but then they’re greeted with a great birdie opportunity at the second hole. Welp, Hojgaard made double bogey, which is going to lead to a ton of lost strokes to the field. He snapped it way left off the tee, had to drop, and it was ugly from there.

That’s deflating. Some golfers wouldn’t have the fortitude to recover. The 24-year-old is clearly built differently. He started to cook.

Birdies on Nos. 3, 4 and 5 followed. The birdie on the fifth hole is tough to believe, but thankfully it was captured on live coverage so we know it's real.

Just like the second hole, Nicolai hooked it wayyyy left at No. 5, far beyond those pesky left fairway bunkers. And actually, he had a pretty clean look coming in. He was so far back from the trees in front of him he was able to hoist a majestic iron shot onto the difficult fifth green and rolled in a 15-footer for his third straight birdie! Routine stuff.

Seriously, have you ever seen anyone this far left at the fifth hole?

The sixth hole would present his only par of the opening nine. Then he followed that up with an absolute dart at the seventh hole and a two-putt birdie at the eighth hole—meaning he now had four birdies in his first eight holes and now had a share of the lead! That start probably became a figment of his imagination.

Alas, just to make the opening nine even wilder, Hojgaard missed it way right into the pine straw at the ninth hole. He had a bit of a window through the trees and actually did well to punch it up near the ultra elevated putting surface to give himself a chance for an up and down.