By Bob Harig, in Augusta for the Cayman Compass
AUGUSTA, Georgia – The smile on his face could not be erased by the score on his card. Justin Hastings was looking more at the big picture, and shooting 76 in his first round at the Masters was not in any way going to diminish such an occasion.
With considerable support from his small, island nation, Hastings teed off Thursday alongside two-time major champion Dustin Johnson and Canada’s Nick Taylor, holding his own through much of the round before a couple of late missteps.
“It was solid,” said Hastings, 21, who is from Grand Cayman. “I feel like I did a lot of things good. The driver just held me back a little bit. Then we stumbled a little bit on 16, which killed a little bit of momentum. But overall did a lot of things good, and I feel good about tomorrow.”
Hastings, who qualified for the Masters, as well as the US Open and British Open, by winning the Latin America Amateur Championship in January at Pillar Golf Club in Buenos Aires, seemingly was up to the challenge, the daunting stage notwithstanding.
A double-bogey 6 at the fifth hole and a birdie at the eighth helped him to play the first nine holes in 37, 1 over par.
He held steady at the number until the par-5 15th, where he was over the green in 3, then had trouble getting the ball in the hole from there, having to settle for a bogey.
The next hole, the par-3 16th, was worse, as he came up short with an iron shot in the water, leading to a double-bogey 5.
“Yeah, my head hurts right now. But yeah, it’s just like you slip up once or twice and you get punished for it,” he said. “A prime example is on 16; you catch a 9-iron heavy, you make double, and that’s the difference between — I don’t know what it is, but it’s a big difference between 74 and 76.
“You’ve got to be sharp at all times, and hopefully that can be a little bit more so tomorrow.”
Hastings said it was impossible to stay down given all the support.
“I had quite the fan club out there following me around, so that’s always cool,” he said. “You can hear the certain voices when good things happen. No, obviously super grateful. A lot of people from back home coming out to support.
“Like I’ve said all week, that’s something I’m super proud to be from there and it’s cool to see people from back home coming out to support.
“I couldn’t even begin to name everybody, but parents, grandparents, cousins, friends, and honestly, just people that are from the Cayman Islands that I may not even know, but I see the flag and it’s worth the trip out. I think that’s what’s cool about where I’m from.”
Hastings visited Augusta National twice before Masters week and used the opportunity in the days leading up to the event to try and learn as much as possible.
The San Diego State senior, who is likely to turn pro sometime later this year, said a practice round with Patrick Reed on Tuesday was very helpful.
“He really preached to me about just playing your own game,” said Hastings of Reed, who won the Masters in 2018. “He told me about a story where he got one of his first tour starts as an amateur and he played with some seasoned veterans and kind of adjusted his game plan based off what he saw them do.
“He said that your game is what got you here, and you have to trust that and stick with it, and I think that was a great piece of advice. I did my best to stay true to it today.”
Hastings will have some work to do in order to make the 36-hole cut on Friday. The top 50 players and ties advance to the weekend, and that number was at 2 over par when he finished. It is likely to go higher but Hastings probably needs a score at or under par to have a chance.
He will play the second round with Johnson and Taylor at 08:03am Cayman time.
