Gary Woodland frustrated by first round

Gary Woodland shot 1-under 71 to open the Mas­ters Tournament on Thurs­day, but he wasn’t thrilled with how he got to that number.

He was erratic off the tee, forcing him to often scramble for pars, and he finished his round with a three-putt bogey.

“I’m frustrated with the way I played, but I’m encouraged by shooting under par playing the way I did,” said Woodland, who is tied for 18th, seven shots behind leader Jordan Spieth.

Woodland has put extra emphasis on putting and bunker play after switching to swing coach Jim McLean earlier this year. He was on point in each aspect Thursday.

He needed only 27 putts, tied for seventh in the field, and made a number of testy mid-range par putts – the kind that have always been problematic for him. He also drained a 21-foot bomb on No. 4, just his second birdie on the hole in his brief Masters career.

Woodland found greenside bunkers twice, and each time nearly holed his shot out. On No. 10, he hit it to a couple of feet immediately after Tom Watson had one-hopped his shot from the same bunker into the cup for a birdie. On No. 15, he just missed holing out for eagle, settling for his final birdie of the day.

“The bunker game was great, obviously,” Woodland said. “The putting was really good. It was driving the golf ball – which has been the best thing I’ve had going for me the past couple weeks – was just really off today.”

Woodland hit just eight of 14 fairways. A wayward drive on No. 5 led to his first bogey, and another one that ricocheted through the trees on No. 11 led to another bogey.

“It’s one of the worst ball-striking rounds I’ve had in a long time,” Woodland said. “I just didn’t have it all day. I drove it bad, which out here isn’t the end of the world, but I hit it way off line today. I was driving it in places you just can’t hit it.”

Playing in the third group off, Woodland quickly moved to the top of the leaderboard with birdies on Nos. 2 and 4. After giving a shot back on No. 5, Woodland got back to 2-under when he stuck his approach on No. 9 to 6 feet and made birdie.

The bogey on No. 11 dropped him to 1-under, then he missed a golden opportunity to get that shot back after reaching the par-5 13th in two. His 5-iron from 225 yards rolled just off the back of the green, and his putt back caught a ridge and rolled out. He couldn’t get the 12-foot comebacker to fall.

Woodland birdied No. 15 after his near-miss for eagle out of the sand, but he suffered his only three-putt of the day on No. 18 with his 6-footer for par lipped out.

“I got a little distracted, and that’s my fault,” Woodland said. “We’ll fine-tune the ball-striking on the range tonight and be ready to go tomorrow.”