In shades of Hogan, Texan Campbell soars steadily

Chad Campbell is as laconic and precise with his short game as the legendary Ben Hogan. On Thursday, he put together a round even Hogan would've been proud of, at least for 16 holes.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- To answer your question, he was trying not to think.

A record five straight birdies to open the round. A string of four more on the back nine. Nine under through 16 holes.

Chad Campbell was in a zone and everyone on the course was reminding him he was careening toward tying the course record of 63. Instead, he backed up. Finished bogey-bogey for an opening 7-under-par 65.

And, by the way, the first-round lead at the Masters.

Campbell had everyone’s attention from the start. The man who does plain -- shirts, burgers, you name it -- better than anyone, was spectacular. He started by drilling a 7-iron to 2 feet at the first and followed with a two-putt from 30 feet at the second, a wedge to 5 feet at the third, a 2-iron to 18 feet at the fourth and another 7-iron -- this one to 5 feet -- at the fifth.

The run was one better than Ken Venturi’s four-birdie start in 1956, the year he closed with an 80 to finish second to Jackie Burke.

“I was pretty excited,’’ said Campbell, who leads fellow Texan Hunter Mahan and Jim Furyk by a shot. “You can't get too excited after five holes; you have a lot of golf left. I was trying to hit good golf shots to try to give myself as many opportunities as I could.’’

He added four more on the back, but the glue to his round came at 10 and 11 with a pair of 10-foot par saves. He hit a bad first putt at the 10th and made a 10-footer coming back, then had a chip run 10 feet past the hole at 11 and made it coming back.

That done, he went on another tear. He hit 8-iron to 5 feet at the dangerous 12th, then left himself a 10-footer at 12, had a 12-footer at the 14th and ended the run, chipping up to six inches at the 15th.

“I thought he was going to get to 10 no problem the way he was playing out there,’’ Mahan said. “For sure, when you see 8s and 9s go up there, that's going to get your attention. That's the great thing, you still feel like a fan sometimes watching the leader boards; at least Thursday, you do. It was neat to see. It's neat to see red numbers like that out here.’’

Mahan had a couple runs of his own -- at the sixth, seventh and eighth and again at 13-16 -- to grab a share of the lead, but stumbled with a double bogey at the 11th. Even so, he came to the 18th tee tied with Campbell, but bogeyed to fall one back.

“I felt like I was swinging great coming in,’’ said Mahan, who is playing in just his third Masters. “I just wanted to play golf and didn't want to make more of a big deal of playing a major than what it needed to be. I just wanted to play golf and keep it simple.’’

On Thursday, it translated to nine birdies, the same as Campbell and one birdie short of the record of 10 set by Nick Price in the third round in 1986. Price set the course record of 63 that year -- Greg Norman tied it in 1996 -- and had a putt for 62 on the final hole of that third round, but it didn’t go.

That afternoon, Price said, “I think Bobby Jones put up his hand, and said, ‘That’s enough.’”

Jones might have been hinting something similar Thursday, but nine birdies is pretty strong. So what does that say about the players who did it?

“I guess that's for you guys to judge,’’ Mahan said. “I don't know. I'm just trying to keep going, you know, just try to keep playing. You know, I'm just trying to literally play one shot at a time and not get ahead of myself or behind myself. As simple a cliché as that sounds, it works. It definitely works for me.’’

Campbell takes the same approach. He’s a great wedge player and a streaky putter and when he gets on a roll, he’s dangerous. But never really flashy. He just plays along and suddenly there’s a 61 or a 65.

The man whose swing has been likened to fellow Texan Ben Hogan’s -- coincidentally, he plays out of Shady Oaks in Fort Worth, where Hogan practiced -- once hit 66 greens in a Nationwide event. And his first TOUR win was that TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP where the kid who grew up in tiny, windblown Andrews -- it’s 30 miles from Midland -- blew the field away by five shots.

“He's a perfect guy to model when you go out and play golf because you can never tell if he's 8 under or 8 over,’’ Mahan said.

The only emotion you saw Thursday was a grin or two and a couple of downcast looks and head shakes with those closing bogeys. Campbell hooked it off the tee at 17 and didn’t have a shot. He left his approach in the bunker, blasted out and two-putted. At 18, he pulled his tee shot into a bunker, put the ball on the green and three putted.

“Obviously happy that I'm in the lead, but definitely never want to finish the round with two bogeys,’’ he said. “Kind of leaves a little bit of a sour taste in your mouth.’’

He paused.

“I still feel like I'm playing well, and just kind of keep it going,’’ he said. “There's a lot of golf to be played.’’

And just maybe a few more birdies out there.