It has been an exciting day's golf and a good opening round for a lot of European players at Augusta.

But where a lot of the big names have lived up to expectations, the best story of the day was Davis Love and his opening round of 67, five under par.

He hasn't been in good form lately and missed the cut in his last two tournaments. But he played some magnificent golf and didn't drop a shot.

Another to impress for much of the day was Ireland's Padraig Harrrington who stormed out in 31 and got to six under with some great iron shots.

It looked like he would finish with a round in the mid 60s, which would have been a fantastic achievement, but he came unstuck towards the end of his round.

A loose shot at the 13th, where he dropped a shot, signalled the start of his downfall and he lost momentum after that, finishing with a 69 - still a very respectable score.

Tiger Woods shot a 70 and said that he was happy with his round, although he had some bad tee shots at the 1st, 14th and 18th.

He went off to the practice ground afterwards and although he is not on top form, he is still a big threat.

Spain's Sergio Garcia, who lies in joint second place, got to the 14th tee in three-under but before a couple of bogeys and three birdies took him to 70.

It was the first time the Spaniard got into the 60s at the Masters and he is playing confidently

His fellow Europeans Jesper Parnevik and Jose Maria Olazabal are on two-under par after 70s - a total matched by Darren Clarke.

Angel Cabrera, one of the European Tour's longest hitters, is another who will look back on his first round of four-under par with some satisfaction.

He birdied three of the four par-fives - the eighth, 13th and 15th which is always the key to a good round.

The improvements to the Augusta National course have been universally well received by the players.

However the 18th, one of the two holes which have been lengthened did cause problems for players with more fives than before.

With the course likely to play in a similar fashion for the next three days, we can be guaranteed plenty of exciting play.