AUGUSTA, Ga. — Like a spurned suitor seeking another chance, Bryson DeChambeau did all he could to make up with Augusta National Thursday afternoon. The Masters, in turn, blushed.

Taking advantage of calmer conditions earlier in the day, DeChambeau ripped off a career-low 65 in the first round, providing him a one-shot lead while assuaging a rocky relationship with a course he not so long ago boasted he should dominate and had been punished for saying it ever since.

With 30 players still on the course when play was suspended due to darkness at 7:51 p.m. due to a rain-delayed start, DeChambeau held a one-shot edge over tournament-favorite Scottie Scheffler, who endured wind-whipped late-afternoon conditions to score a 6-under 66. It was Scheffler’s career-low Masters total, better than any round in 2022, when he recorded his three-shot victory here.

Standing three shots back was another former champion, Britisher Danny Willett, whose surprise 68 repudiated his missing the cut five times since his 2016 title. New Zealander Ryan Fox was four shots back at 69, tied with Australian Cameron Davis.

Play resumes at 7:50 a.m. Friday with 10 groups still to complete their rounds. Among those still on the course were Danish Masters rookie Nicolai Hojgaard (5-under after 15), Max Homa (4-under after 13) and Britisher Tyrell Hatton (3-under after 14). Tiger Woods was 1-under with five holes to play.

The field, which will begin the second round at 8 a.m. expects to be wind-blasted again, with gusts forecasted at 35 mph, before conditions calm for the last two rounds.

DeChambeau, who went off with the day’s fifth group, was able to complete his round at 4:20 p.m. with the majority of the field exposed to 20-mph winds that grew more gusty as the late afternoon went on.

It was the Masters that helped send DeChambeau’s career in motion. After finishing as low amateur here in 2016, he turned pro the very next week. An opening-round 66 in 2019 was good enough for an early lead and emboldened him to infamously remark the next spring, “I’m looking at (Augusta National) as a par-67 for me.”

The course has punished him ever since. In his next 16 Masters rounds, he played to 23-over par, culminating in missed cuts the past two years. Galleries remained impressed. The comeuppance was brutal.

“You know, I messed up,” he said afterwards. “I’m not a perfect person. Everybody messes up. You learn from your mistakes and that was definitely one.”

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