Bryson De Chambeau and Brooks Koepka share the lead after the opening day of the 2019 US Masters, with the American duo shooting 66s to lead by a stroke from Phil Mickelson on six under par. Both players produced stunning back nines at Augusta National to set the early pace. De Chambeau birdied his final four holes - with six birdies and a bogey from 12 through to 18 - while Koepka picked up shots on 10, 12, 13, 14 and 15 to move to the top of the leaderboard. Tournament favourite Rory McIlroy already has plenty of work to do however. He bogeyed the final two holes of a rollercoaster round to sign for a 73 and leave himself seven shots off the lead. It was a day when the four-time Major winner struggled to find his equilibrium, writes Philip Reid. Tiger Woods is firmly in contention following an opening round of 70, while Shane Lowry will be lucky to make it into the weekend as he marked his return to Augusta with a disappointing 78. Lowry tees off at 4.37pm today with McIlroy playing in the day's final group at 7.0pm - you can follow all of the action with the Irish Times liveblog from 2.0pm this afternoon.
The prospect of an all-English Europa League final in Baku has moved closer to reality after both Arsenal and Chelsea won the first leg of their quarter-final clashes last night. An early Aaron Ramsey goal helped the Gunners to a 2-0 win over Napoli at the Emirates, as Unai Emery's side continued their strong home form. Meanwhile Marcos Alonso's late header gave Chelsea a 1-0 win away to an unlucky Slavia Prague side on what had been an uncomfortable evening for the Blues. In the Premier League tonight, Newcastle travel to play Leicester City, while there are five League of Ireland fixtures including Waterford's trip to play Premier Division leaders Shamrock Rovers.
Elsewhere in his column this morning Matt Williams has hailed Ireland's flourishing rugby sevens sides, after the men joined the women by qualifying for the top tier HSBC Sevens World Rugby Series in Hong Kong last Sunday. However, he also despairs at why it took Ireland to become so competitive at the sport, 20 years after the world sevens circuit was first being established by the IRB. He writes: "To attend an HSBC Sevens Rugby World Series weekend is to experience a cross between a Super Bowl half-time show on steroids and the Roman Colosseum. . . While World Rugby's long-term policy on sevens has been an outstanding success, history will show that the IRFU policy on sevens rugby at the beginning of the 21st century will be looked upon as one of the worst policy decisions ever made in Irish rugby history."
There are two Pro 14 fixtures tonight, with a second-string Munster side travelling to play BennettonTreviso (kick-off 7.0pm, Eir Sport), while Ulster take on Edinburgh at Murrayfield (7.35pm, Eir Sport). Iain Henderson returns to captain the province in a crunch clash in Conference B.
And Phil Babb will make his Aviva Stadium debut tonight as Liverpool Legends take on a Republic of Ireland XI in a bid to raise money for the Sean Cox Rehabilitation Fund. "There's a very human side to this story and football is the global sport that allows people to put their differences aside and rally together when they need to," he said.
