Augusta National, Playing Easy for Now, Has Three Atop Masters Leaderboard

Viktor Hovland was one of three players to shoot seven under on Thursday.AUGUSTA, Ga. — The gallery was thick from the start, as it almost always is at Augusta National Golf Club’s first tee. And, as it almost always is when Tiger Woods is lurking at a Masters Tournament, nearly no one was there for the rest of his group, Viktor Hovland or Xander Schauffele.

They probably should have been — especially for Hovland, the only man of the three never to have won a major tournament or finish as a runner-up. By day’s end, after all, he would be in a three-way tie for the lead.

“If you get a little too cocky and you want to push a few spots that you probably shouldn’t, it will punish you very…