Johnson pulls out, Spieth blunders at Masters

Johnson had a serious fall on the eve of the tournament and despite showing up at the course and practicing his swing ahead of his scheduled tee time, decided the pain from a lower back injury would prevent him from competing at his best.

"I'm very sad I have to do it but it's just a freak accident. I wanted to try and play but I'm not going to be able to compete," he said.

"It just sucks."

The reigning US Open champion had been the oddsmakers' favorite in the year's first major golf championship after winning his three prior starts but hurt himself in a fall down stairs Wednesday at a rental house.

"I could swing maybe 70 percent was about max. It still hurt," Johnson said.

"My heart was in it. I wanted to play. The more I thought about it, I wasn't going to have any chance."

Without the world number one, Northern Ireland's second-ranked Rory McIlroy and Australian world number three Jason Day were tipped to be key contenders for the title.

However, neither had it their own way in the opening round, played in sodden blustery conditions.

American William McGirt, making his Masters debut, had the clubhouse lead at three-under par 69 with compatriot Charlie Hoffman at three-under with five holes to play. Fellow American Jason Dufner was one shot back on 70 with one hole remaining.

Six players were in the clubhouse on 71,including five-time major champion Phil Mickelson and the English trio of Justin Rose, Andy Sullivan and Matthew Fitzpatrick.

- Bogey blowout -

=================

Four-times major champion McIlroy appeared to be struggling in the wind and was three-over after the front nine.

He opened with a bogey on the first hole and dropped shots on the third and fifth to make the turn in 39.

Day also suffered, returning a two-over 74 with a double-bogey on the 11th hole.

For another favorite, 2015 Masters champion Spieth, the day turned sour on the back nine in a near repeat of the quadruple-bogey nightmare that cost him back-to-back titles last year.

The American, twice a Masters runner-up, was five shots up on the final day last year when he imploded after taking seven shots on the par-3 12th.

This time out, he negotiated the 12th hole in regulation but took a nine on the par-5 15th, ballooning his score before sinking a birdie at 16 to limit the damage to finish on 3-over 75.

Spieth said the bogey blowout put him under pressure for the following three days.

"But overall I doubt the scores get much better than a couple under today, and maybe three or four by the end of tomorrow," he said. "So I'm going to probably need to play something under par tomorrow... I feel like I need to snag something tomorrow. But do it through patience and taking advantage of the par?5s."

"And the weekend, it looks like there's going to be no wind. It looks something like single digits might win this tournament. And I certainly can post single digit under par at this point... got three rounds to go."

Jack Nicklaus, a six-times Masters winner, had predicted that the chilly and windy conditions, with gusts of up to 40mph (65kph) and set to last through Friday would take their toll.

"I don't think there will be a lot of scores under par, but some of these guys are so good that they will shoot under par," he said, predicting that the greens would be "very difficult."