Many, Including Lefty, Have Major Problems: Defending Champion Phil Mickelson, Who Shot a 4-Over 76,

Apr 06, 06:36 AM

Current Headlines: By Chip Alexander, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Apr. 6--AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The sun was still rising and there was a chill in the air early Thursday morning at Augusta National Golf Club as Arnold Palmer prepared to hit the honorary first drive in the Masters.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Palmer said as the 77-year-old legend gazed out at the first fairway.

Beautiful? Yes, the Augusta National course is that. But it also can be a beast.

So it was in the opening round of the year's first major championship. While a few players were able to better par on a sunny, breezy day, while Justin Rose of Great Britain and Masters rookie Brett Wetterich shot 3-under-par 69s to share a one-shot lead, many did not come close to par.

Many, in fact, suffered. Misery, it seemed, was par for the course.

Defending champion Phil Mickelson opened with a 4-over 76. Shaky on the putting green before the round, Lefty was just as shaky on the course, pushing his drives, hitting eight greens in regulation and taking 30 putts.

"I didn't drive as well as I wanted to and I putted terrible," said a grim Mickelson, who did birdie the 15th and 16th holes.

But there was much Masters muttering this day. Two-time U.S. Open winner Ernie Els shot 78. Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion, had a triple-bogey 8 on his way to a 75.

Tiger Woods was a late starter, then stumbled late. After birdies at the par-5 13th and 15th holes, the world's top-ranked golfer was 1 under and that name "Woods" was on the leaderboard.

But Woods, pursuing a fifth Masters title, seeking his third straight major, bogeyed the last two holes for a tasteless 73.

"I threw away a good round of golf," he said. "I wanted to hang in there, shoot under par, keep grinding. I battled all day, then threw it away on the last two holes."

Many had the same sinking feeling as the course played ever-so-firm and frightfully fast. In other words, just as club officials hoped it would after adding more than 500 yards to the layout the last few years to toughen it up.

With a steady wind, with greens seemingly as hard as Washington Road outside the club gates, the average score in the opening round was 76.195 strokes.

"It was very tough but fair," Mickelson said. "It was manageable. But the firmness of the greens and the wind -- that's something we haven't had [in recent years]."

Golf architect Tom Fazio, who oversaw the redesign of the course, noted there has been no rain this week -- a rarity the past 10 years, when there often have been storms and rain delays. Augusta National, he said, again was the golf test that Masters founder Bobby Jones intended it to be, with a premium on ball placement off the tee, wise club selection and sound course management.

"Everyone certainly was hoping to see it this way," Fazio said. "It's like a new golf course, because of the speed.

"It's a major. It's a major major."

Two-time Masters champion Seve Ballesteros, approaching his 50th birthday, decided to play the tournament again this year for the first time since 2003. After three double bogeys and eight bogeys, he signed for an 86.

Asked about the degree of difficulty of the course, Ballesteros shrugged.

"How hard was it?" he said. "It depends on how you play it. It depends on who's playing it."

Rose, 26, and Wetterich closed a shot ahead of former PGA champion David Toms and David Howell, a steady type from Swindon, England, who offset a double bogey at the par-3 fourth with an eagle-3 at the 15th.

"Augusta National offers a beautiful mix," Howell said. "It's one of the most beautiful places to play golf and one of the most difficult."

Another five players were at 71, including former N.C. State star Tim Clark and Augusta native Vaughn Taylor.

Just nine players closed under par -- a year ago there were 18 in the first round.

Clark was the Masters runner-up last year after holing out a bunker shot in the final hole for a birdie. On Thursday, he rolled in a 60-foot putt from off the front of the 18th green for another birdie.

"The putt was tough and I had to use the slope of the bank," Clark said. "I putted and it was like a U-turn. It went just off the green and came back. It was exciting, but not as much as the bunker shot."

The long putt produced a roar from the gallery. But this day, Augusta National was too much the beast for too many.

Staff writer Chip Alexander can be reached at 829-8945 or chip.alexander@newsobserver.com.

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