Tiger Woods made a promising start to the defence of his title and Paul Casey took an early lead in The Masters on Thursday

Woods sensationally won a 15th major title at Augusta last year and the legendary American was just two shots off the lead through 10 holes in his first round.

The 44-year-old birdied the 13th, 15th and 16th after starting on the back nine and moved to four under with another gain at the first after play was suspended for almost three hours due to heavy rain in Georgia.

Casey jumped to the top of the leaderboard on six under with an eagle three at the second, the Englishman's 11th hole of his opening round.

He set that up with a magnificent booming drive off the tee, sending his second shot to around four feet of the hole and then making no mistake with the putter.

Four birdies in his opening seven holes on the back nine had left Casey well poised early on before he replaced Webb Simpson as the leader.

Simpson was five under through 14 holes, while Lee Westwood, Jon Rahm and Louis Oosthuizen were just a further stroke back alongside Woods.

Rahm dropped shots at two of his first three holes but made an impressive recovery, while tournament favourite Bryson DeChambeau - playing in the same group as the Spaniard - was one under having similarly rallied after double-bogeying the 13th.

Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka are among the big names due to go out later in the day and facing the prospect of having to return on Friday to complete their first rounds due to the miserable morning weather.