Trio's early visit to Augusta pays dividends

By Larry Fine

AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) - A two day 'fun' golfing trip by Trevor Immelman, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter paid dividends in Thursday's first round of the U.S. Masters.

South African Immelman and Britons Rose and Poulter, who made a spur of the moment visit to Augusta National two weeks ago, are high up the leaderboard after their opening rounds in the year's first major.

Immelman and Rose were tied for the lead after four-under-par 68s, while Poulter shot a 70 and made the biggest noise with a hole-in-one at the par-three 16th.

"We live a couple yards away from each other down in Lake Nona (Orlando) and opportunity presented itself to come up here and we came up here for two days and had an absolute ball," Immelman told reporters.

"Any time you play this course you learn something new, and so that time was well spent and it was a great experience."

Rose thought the early exposure to Augusta National took the pressure off during the tournament's practice days.

"I didn't do more than nine holes a day," Rose said. "Tuesday I didn't actually play the course, just went around with some wedges and stuff. So I felt like I wasn't chasing my tail trying to learn everything this week.

"I was itching to go from Monday afternoon. I was just trying to hold myself back and not get too excited too early."