Day grinds it out in first round

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Jason Day chips onto the No. 2 green during the first round of the Masters Tournament. The Australian said Thursday that he thinks he’s playing decent golf. MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF

Jason Day, playing for the first time since withdrawing from the Dell Match Play, had some decent statistics. He hit 10 fairways and 10 greens, and didn’t have a three-putt.

Day finished with 74 and like a lot of players who finished with scores in the mid-70s, he wasn’t kicking himself.

“It’s not bad,” he said of his first round in the 81st Masters Tournament. “If I get a good one going tomorrow, maybe a couple under … obviously (depending) on what the other guys do.”

Day said plodding was the only way to survive.

“Just grind … that’s the only real thing you can do, is just try and grind and have more birdies than bogeys,” he said. “I think I’m playing decent golf. I’ve got to get myself a little bit closer to the hole.”

Day was playing three days after getting the news that his mother would not need chemotherapy. She had a 3.5-inch mass taken from her lung during surgery last month, which prompted his withdrawal in Austin, Texas.