Jim Furyk holds round together with key putts

Jim Furyk salvaged his round and remained in contention at the Masters Tournament on Thursday with some deft scrambling and a magic touch with his putter.

The 16-time PGA Tour winner led the tournament through eight holes at 4-under, made his only bogey of the day at No. 9, then parred out on the second nine to preserve 69 that was good for a tie for second at the time he finished.

“I hit some good shots ... I had some good shots for birdie that I couldn’t convert but I also put myself in difficult spots,” he said about his best opening round at Augusta since he shot 66 in 2009.

Furyk admitted to some first-round jitters but quelled them when he made a birdie putt at the third hole that he estimated as 70 feet.

“That seemed to calm me down,” he said, in a huge understatement.

Furyk later rattled off three birdies in succession to take the lead for a brief time. He lasered his tee shot at No. 6 to within a foot and tapped in; made a 10-foot putt at No. 7; then followed a poor pitch with a 25-foot putt at No. 8.

He was especially pleased with the birdie at No. 8, since he was in front of the green in two shots and barely got his next shot onto the green.

“It was a nice birdie after messing up the pitch shot,” he said.

Furyk’s only bogey came on the next hole, when he flew his approach shot over the flag and into the first row of patrons. Because of the hole position, Furyk had to aim 30 feet to the right, and elected to use a putter with about 10 feet of fringe in front of him.

The fringe acted like Velcro on the ball and stopped it inches short of the putting surface.

“There was this little piece of grass that sort of grabbed it,” he said. “If it had gone a half a ball more, it would have trickled onto the green and rolled down to the hole.”

Furyk’s next attempt to putt off the fringe went 5 feet past the hole, but he made that for his bogey.

It wasn’t the last difficult putt of that range, and three of them came at Amen Corner.

After two-putting No. 10 for par, Furyk missed the 11th green on the right and hit his chip a bit too hard, with the ball rolling 6 feet past. At No. 12, his tee shot landed behind the green, and his chip was marginal, leaving him an 8-foot putt. Then at No. 13, after laying up from the right rough, his pitch left him with a 30-foot putt for birdie, which he hit 5 feet past the hole.

Furyk made all three par attempts.

“[Nos.] 11 through 13 was where the round could have gotten away from me,” he said. “It was a solid putting day. These greens do put a lot of extra stress on you.”

Furyk had two-putt pars at Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 18, and had to execute one more up-and-down, off the right side of the 17th green.

He didn’t three-putt, had eight one-putts and missed only three fairways – a decent start at any major championship.

“You get some nerves going at the first major of the year,” he said. “Today was getting my feet wet and getting used to the speed [of the greens]. They were a touch quicker than I saw on Tuesday or Wednesday. So I wanted to hit a bunch of putts out there and get solid.”