Ian Poulter had a hole-in-one to take the clubhouse lead at The Masters with an impressive opening round of 70.

Poulter, mocked for stating earlier this year that when he fulfils his potential “it will be just me and Tiger”, became the 11th player in the tournament’s history to make an ace on the 170-yard 16th.

Having followed a birdie at the long second with 13 pars in a row, it put the 32-year-old on three under par before he dropped a shot on the next after failing to get up and down having gone long with his approach to the 440-yard 17th.

At the head of the leaderboard with Poulter was Luke Donald, his former Ryder Cup team-mate. But after three birdies in his first six holes Donald, third on his Augusta National debut in 2005, bogeyed the next and dropped another stroke on the ninth.

Others to make an early claim for the first-round lead were Zach Johnson, the defending champion and 50-year-old former winners Ian Woosnam and Mark O’Meara.

Woosnam, the 1991 champion, has only just returned to competitive action after battling with chronic fatigue syndrome. A year ago he travelled to the Masters but had to pull out just before his opening round.

O’Meara, the 1998 champion and winner of the Open the same year, was partnering Poulter and from two over par after 10 holes, he birdied the next three and made a two on the 16th. A two that was, of course, totally overshadowed by Poulter’s one.

As for Tiger Woods, he made a quiet start with five pars in a row, the first of them a save after he slightly pulled his drive into the edge of the tree line and then pushed his approach wide of the green.

Nick Dougherty, competing at his first Masters, had briefly led when he birdied the second and third like Woosnam, but then came bogeys on the fifth and seventh in an outward 36.

Open champion Padraig Harrington, meanwhile, birdied the second with a chip to three feet, saved par with a six-footer on the next after his pitch failed to climb the slope fronting the green, but then double-bogeyed the 455-yard fifth.

Justin Rose, a shot off the lead until he double-bogeyed the penultimate hole a year ago, bogeyed the first and fourth in a disappointing start, before bouncing back in spectacular style with four successive birdies from the sixth.

Whether the first round would be completed today was in doubt after a one-hour fog delay at the start - or rather after honorary starter Arnold Palmer hit a ceremonial drive, which because of the conditions he accurately described as going “out of sight”.