Day shoots par, must regroup at Masters

Turned pro: 2006.

How qualified: Several qualifications, the notable being winning last year's PGA Championship.

Best Masters finish: T-2nd in 2011.

Best stat in the tournament: Day hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation in Thursday's first round.

Second round tee time: 9:59 a.m.

Jason Day, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, winner of two consecutive tournaments and favorite to win this year’s Masters, was rolling in Thursday’s first round at Augusta National.

Day was 5 under heading into the second nine, poised to potentially blow past clubhouse leader Jordan Spieth, who was in at 6-under 66.

Then Day’s round fell apart. He bogeyed 10, bogeyed 15 and posted his first triple bogey in 18 rounds in the tournament on the par-3 16th.

“I’m not too frustrated with how everything went,” he said. “Yeah, it’s not the way I planned it out today, but I played — I felt like I played some really good golf up until then.”

He finished exactly where he started: at par. The 31 on the first nine tied his lowest round at Augusta National, set on the second nine in 2011 in his first Masters. The 41 was a new high.

Day came to Augusta on the heels of winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational and World Golf Championship-Dell Match Play, two of six wins in his past 13 starts. The most famous of those victories came at last year’s PGA Championship, where he shot a majors-record 20 under to blow away the field at Whistling Straits.

Unlike in those wins, Day had trouble with his putter Thursday.

He three-putted three greens, including needing three from the treacherous green on No. 16 after putting his tee shot left into the water on the 170-yard par 3.

“You don’t want to miss the green right or miss it up at the top there right, so you try and be a little bit more aggressive,” he said. “And I hit a good shot, good swing. I just pulled it a little, and it went in the water.”

There were also three-putts for bogeys on 10, including missing a 2-footer for par. There was another on 15 when his third shot on the par 5 landed above the hole. He said he was between clubs on that approach, and the winds were affecting his decision. He couldn’t make the birdie putt from 35 feet or the par putt from 12 feet. He acted as if a spike mark affected his par putt.

Now, there are more than 25 players between him and Spieth. He said the key is to stay in the moment, something he stressed in a news conference in the days before the first round.

“I’ve just got to slowly try to inch my way back into this tournament if I can and be patient with myself, and hopefully I’m there by Sunday,” he said. “But it’s a major championship. Things happen. And unfortunately it happened at the wrong time today. But it is what it is, and I’ve got to move on and push forward and try and get back in the tournament.”