Il Nuovo Postiglione - Rahm recalls Ballesteros after recovery from nightmare start

Rahm, the world number three and one of the favorites to slip on the green jacket on Sunday, four-putted the opening par-4 hole but recovered quickly to card a seven-under 65 and sit atop the leaderboard with Norway's Viktor Hovland and American Brooks Koepka.

Rahm said that as he left the first green, he recalled a famous quote from the two-time Masters winner.

"I remembered Seve's quote, when he four-putted at the Masters. I just kept thinking to myself, "Well, I miss, I miss, I miss, I make." Move on to the next," he said.

"I carried a little bit of that negative energy into the tee shot on two, hit it about 10 yards further than I usually do and moved on with my day.

"If you're going to make a double-bogey, might as well do it on the first hole of the tournament when you have 71 holes to make it up."

Rahm certainly moved on -- birdying the next two holes and then making eagle on the par-five eighth hole and he said he had not been overly concerned by the setback given the way the errors were made.

"I was focused on the fact that all the strokes were good. The reads were good. The roll was good. Obviously the speed was off on the first two putts, so once I kind of accepted that there was nothing really to look into, I just got to work and I had 17 holes to make up," he said.

The 28-year-old, who won the US Open in 2021, said he came into the tournament in confident mood and his round had built upon that.

"I'm mostly super happy with what I've done. I didn't expect to hit a great 3-wood, a good second shot and four-putt the first hole, but to overcome that and shoot 9-under on the next 17 holes was something to be proud of," he said while noting the weather may yet play havoc with the schedule and conditions.

"Hopefully I can just keep it going. We'll see. I don't even know if I'll be able to tee off tomorrow, if I'll tee off on time or late. There are possible thunderstorms so there's a lot of question marks up in the air. With that said, I'm really happy I started the way I did and gave myself a solid start to the week".

A.Imbrogno--INP