AUGUSTA, GEORGIA // Chad Campbell led the assault on the Masters scoreboard by challenging the tournament scoring record before bogeys on the last two holes left him with 7-under-par 65 on Thursday. Campbell began the round with five straight birdies, the best start in Masters history, and ripped off four in a row on the back side to get his score to 9 under. That sent him to the final two holes needing one more birdie to break the tournament record - a 63 by Nick Price in 1986 and equalled by Greg Norman a decade later.
But Campbell failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker at No 17, ending any hopes of breaking the mark, and a three-putt from 50 feet at the 18th cost him another stroke. "I'm definitely happy with the round I played," he said, "but I'm a little upset with the way I finished." He had a one-shot lead over Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan, with plenty of others lurking in the 60s. Tiger Woods, the world's No 1 player, teed off in one of the last groups and plodded through the front nine with an even-par 36. But Woods began to make his move after the turn, pushing his score to 3 under with three straight birdies. Furyk strung together four straight birdies on the back for a score that would have been good enough for at least a share of the opening-round lead in all but one of the last 12 years.
On this day, it was just an impressive score with plenty of company. "It was a day for scoring," said Padraig Harrington, who began his quest to win a third straight major with a 69. At 67 were the Japanese star Shingo Katayama, who had never broken 70 in seven previous appearances, and 1987 champion Larry Mize, who has made the Masters cut only once in the last eight years. Greg Norman shot 70 in his first Masters appearance since 2002, again stirring hopes that he might finally win that elusive green jacket at the age of 54.
*AP
