The fashion clotheshorses didn’t stumble on the catwalk. Far from it, in fact! Graeme McDowell – sporting a nice little green number of his own branded clothing by Kartel – opened with a steady level-par 72; whilst Rory McIlroy, with the trademark swoosh sown into a garment marketed by his Nike paymasters as “base grey and turf orange” started out on his path towards a green jacket with an opening round 71, one-under par.

Yes, the opening day of the Masters has become a stage for golf's fashion houses to launch new designs and to showcase their men. All very nice; but the rather more serious business of negotiating he course is what occupies the minds of the players. Like, how to stop the ball on devilishly slick greens; and, then, how to inveigle a way into the hole for the ball. Oh, the joys.

McIlroy’s round could have been even better, but for three-putt bogeys on the 12th and 18th holes which took a little gloss off what might have been. Still, the 24-year-old Ulsterman avoided any big numbers and, hitting the ball beautifully off the tee, will know that his putter can only get warmer as the days advance.

Patience was the key for McIlroy, although that three-putt bogey on the finishing hole irked. As if to rub salt into the wound, his five-footer for par there hit the cup. “It didn’t turn as much as I thought it would and it caught the side of the hole,” admitted McIlroy, who felt it was a day for “grinding” on the greens than anything else.

Still and all, an opening 71 was acceptable enough to McIlroy who felt that the prospect of the course firming up in the days ahead would only lead to creating a larger number of contenders.

“I think it brings the guys that don’t hit it as far into the mix a little bit more. Because it’s not just about power then, it’s about precision, it’s about putting your ball in the right place and it becomes more of a mental challenge than anything else, just playing to your spots. It almost becomes like chess, where you’re just making these moves. That hasn’t been my forte in the past, but I’ll learn to love it this week,” said McIlroy.

At least McDowell had a hint of a smile after his round. As he left the 11th green, two over on his round, the round threatened to spiral out of his control. However, birdies at the 13th and 17th and a fine up-and-down to save par on the 18th left McDowell – who has enjoyed, or rather endured, a mixed relationship with the course over the years in attempting to put together a score – in a good place.

It constituted a decent day's work. "I hung in there really well today," he said. And he did too. After all, this is a course that has delivered its share of body blows to him through the years. As he put it: "I've banged my head against the wall for a few years and realised it doesn't really work for me here at August . . . if I was to design a golf course for me to win a Major championship, it probably would not look like this.

'Little fastness'
"But who knows? A little firmness and a little fastness this weekend, if I can get hot with my iron play, I think I can compete this weekend."

In the run-up to this season’s first Major, McDowell took a softly-softly approach. He limited himself to only 26 holes of practice. “I know this course now; you play it well, you hit it to your spots and you chip and you putt and you try to enjoy the test for what it is. It’s a challenge. It’s going to eat you up. It’s going to throw you bad breaks.

"That's just Augusta. Bad shots are going to catch slopes and go close, and good shots are going to catch slopes and go far away. That's just Augusta. I tried to embrace it and have fun with it (in the first round) and generally I did that well."

McDowell’s round threatened to slip away from him when he suffered back-to-back bogeys on the 10th and the 11th, where he hit an uncharacteristically poor drive. Yet, it was his ability to birdie only one of the four par fives – the 13th – that he claimed as “the killer,” adding: “My iron play was not as sharp as it needs to be. I didn’t hit it close enough. I putt my putter under a bit of pressure . . . but, all in all, not a bad start. Level par is not a bad score for these flag positions, which I thought were tough for day one.”

McDowell was steady as you like on the outward run, reeling off nine successive pars but, rather frustratingly, failing to birdie either the par-five second or eighth. Perhaps a little impatience crept in, with those birdies on the 10th and 11th. “It’s probably easier to lose patience on a Thursday, I think, because you’ve spent three days preparing for hopefully what you’re going to do as opposed to what you don’t want to do.”

He added: “I’m walking off 11, two-over par, yet I’ve got some great chances ahead of me. But also, I’ve got some water and tough shots ahead of me: 12 and 13, if you play well, you can make some birdies, or if you play badly you can make two doubles. It’s a great golf course from that point of view. That’s what makes the back nine so special; it’s risk/reward.”

In the end, a level-par round got him into safe territory but with a wish that the continued sunshine, which is forecast to continue without a hint of rain, will do him a favour. “I think it has to be firm and fast for me to have a chance to compete. I don’t feel like it’s been like that the last three or four years since this golf course has got longer. It’s probably set up worse and worse for a guy like me. I need a little release in these fairways and I need the greens to be probably fairly punishing for guys. They are still a tad receptive; I look for them to be firm and fast.”