Improbable monster birdie putt on 18 pumps up Clark

You never expect them to go in, but when they do they turn a good round into a great one. Such was the case for South Africa's Tim Clark, who curled in a 60-foot birdie putt from off the 18th green to cap an opening-round 71.

By Melanie Hauser, PGA TOUR.com Correspondent

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It was one of those Augusta shots.

A big breaker you play into a bank and around a curve. Doesn't matter if you're 8 feet off the green like Tim Clark was or on the green. They're maddening. And oh so sweet when they drop.

Especially from 60 feet. At the 18th hole.

"It was like a U-turn," Clark grinned. "It was exciting. But not as much as the bunker shot last year."

Perhaps. After all, he finished second to Phil Mickelson a year ago.

Then again, the propitious birdie on the final hole of a tough Thursday at Augusta National left Clark sitting one shot off the mid-afternoon lead at the Masters.

"I tried not to make any mistakes," he said of his opening 71. "I was putting cautiously. I realized you don't have to go out and attack the golf course, especially on the first day."

A few good rounds here will cure a lot of ills. It will also send shivers down your spine. And when you're a kid? It's the stuff dreams are made of.

Clark remembers watching the 1986 tournament -- at 2 something in the morning South African time -- when he was 10. "I just dreamed of walking and watching on this course. But to be here and play ... is a dream.

"Watching back in South Africa, it seemed surreal. I never imagined there was a town around here and I thought I was in a different country. And people don't realize the undulations until they get here.

But whatever you do, don't mistake him for a kid. He's 31 now and this is his fifth Masters. He tied for 13th in his second Masters in 2003 and was T-39 two years ago.

With the wind whipping a bit, the course turned really tough on opening day. Clark didn't manage a birdie until the sixth hole when he hit a 5-iron to 8 feet for birdie. But he gave it back at the ninth when he three-putted from 30 feet.

He strung together pars on the back until he got to 18.

Clark, who underwent surgery on a his wrist a few years go, has battled a bit of a stiff neck this year. The cool morning weather usually doesn't help, but today it didn't matter.

"I felt pretty good today," he said. "Concentrating on your game so hard, you don't feel the little aches and pains."

But you do see -- especially after an opening 71 -- a chance to be fighting for that little kid's dream come Sunday afternoon.

"Of all the tournaments you can win," he said, "this would be the want you'd want to win because you can come back every year."