AUGUSTA, Ga. - Back and forth the ball went, passing the cup four times in all, simply refusing to go down.
When Phil Mickelson finally finished with the seventh hole, he had a triple-bogey on his scorecard. That summed up Lefty's wild ride on the opening day of the Masters.
Seeking to become only the fourth player to win as many as four green jackets, Lefty put himself in quite a hole with all sorts of erratic shots Thursday at Augusta National.
He took another 7, this one a double-bogey, after dumping it in the water at No. 15. And this being Mickelson, one of the most exciting if infuriating players in the game, there was an curling 40-foot birdie putt at the 10th that prompted him to shout, "Are you kidding me!"
But the bad shots far outweighed the good, and Mickelson trudged to the finish with a 4-over 76 - one of the worst scores of his Masters career.
The start didn't put him in great position to join Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods with four Masters titles. Jack Nicklaus, with six green jackets, is the only player to win more.
"I've got a lot of work to do tomorrow just to make the cut," Mickelson said. "I've got some issues."
He has broken par only once in his last six rounds at Augusta National, but Mickelson is not ready to give up on this Masters despite a daunting eight-stroke deficit after Day 1.
"I don't feel like my game is off. I really don't," he said. "I feel very confident with the way I'm hitting it and striking it, but my scoring is just - I'm making way too many mistakes like that."