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Chad Campbell watches his tee shot on the ninth hole during the first round of the Masters on Thursday.

A year ago, shooting a 73 would have been a relief on a course that players felt had become more like a U.S. Open. On a day like this, and a course like this, it felt like an opportunity wasted.

Campbell wasted a chance to make major championship history with his incredible opening round.

No one had ever started a Masters with five straight birdies, and Campbell added to that with four straight birdies on the back nine, including an 8-iron that narrowly cleared the bunker at the par-3 12th and settled 5 feet away. Then there was a beautiful pitch to a foot on the 15th that put him at 9 under for the round.

The course record at Augusta National is 63. No one has ever shot lower in any major. Campbell could not help but think of the record, and the gallery was there to remind him.

“They were yelling everything,” Campbell said. “You know, ’One more. Get to 10. 63.’ I heard it all. It was good, though.”

But he pulled his tee shot on the 17th into the trees and made bogey, then three-putted for a bogey from 40 feet on the 18th. Even so, it was the best opening-round score at Augusta since Chris DiMarco had a 65 in 2001.

Furyk putted for birdie on every hole and was the only player without a bogey on his card.

“That doesn’t happen very often here,” he said.

Woods was late to the party, not making a birdie until the ninth hole and cringing as so many birdie putts burned the edge. But he came to life with a two-putt birdie on the 13th, then a 20-foot birdie up the slope on the 14th, and another two-putt birdie from just off the back of the green on the par-5 15th.

“You could tell the way guys were tearing the place apart,” Woods said. “You could definitely go get it.”

He was not the least bit concerned dropping a shot at the end of his day, leaving him five shots behind. Woods has never broken 70 in the first round, yet he still has four green jackets.

And as fun as it was Thursday, no one is sure what to expect over the next three days.

“At some stage, you really expect to be tested right to the end of your limits,” Harrington said. “And sometimes, the last nine holes, they set the golf course up easy. But it’s somewhere between now and then, and I think you’ll find that were will be maybe a tougher wind and a tougher day.”