Heavy-handed putting and hay fever left the Ulsterman in a swirl, but he fought back. Philip Reidreports

GRAEME McDOWELL felt utterly miserable on the eighth tee. His head was swirling, and his nose was sniffling from the pollen that had plagued him for days. But he knew there was no place to hide: Augusta National tends to find out those who seek the easy way out. There was no escape, so the Ulsterman – who had endured a thoroughly miserable start to his third Masters – buckled down and sought salvation.

It came in a way, late on, with three birdies in his closing six holes to rescue – to an extent – his round and give him hope to go on.

An opening 75, even on a day when others made better use of largely favourable pin locations, was much better than he could have expected for much of a round that included two double-bogeys in his opening seven holes.

“I got off to a horrible start, I just didn’t feel myself and I drilled everything past the hole. I couldn’t get to grips with them (the greens), and I’d a couple of really careless three-putts that killed the momentum early on,” admitted McDowell.

In fact, after starting off with a solid birdie on the par five second hole, McDowell’s fortunes took a turn for the worse on the 240-yard par three fourth, where his tee-shot found a bunker. An “average”, as he put it, bunker shot was compounded by a three-putt that led to a double-bogey five.

On the sixth, he suffered another bogey after missing a short putt, and then he ran up another double-bogey on the seventh. There he pulled his tee-shot left into the trees and got a little too cute with his approach, which hammered into a tree and finished no more than 30 yards in front of him with his view to the green blocked out. From there, his approach finished left of the green; he hit a flop shot over a bunker to six feet but missed the bogey putt.

“I got a double-bogey from nowhere (on seven). My head was definitely swirling on the seventh. I wasn’t feeling too good about things and I couldn’t make a putt either, which is so frustrating. I was hurting at that time. I hit some sloppy shots but I also hit some very good shots as well and I just couldn’t convert. I was lead-handed with my putting.”

Things didn’t improve much on the start of the homeward run, as he ran up bogeys on the 10th and the 12th – at which stage he was six-over on his round – and staring at an early exit from this major.

“Five years ago, I’d have shot 80,” remarked McDowell, who showed the way he has matured since then by responding with birdies at the 13th, 16th and 18th, where he hit a superb eight-iron approach from 162 yards to three feet.

“I was using a Man U marker on the greens,” quipped McDowell, showing the guilty piece of metal with the Red Devils on it. “Maybe that’s what happened.”

On a more serious note, McDowell, who headed for the putting green in an effort to iron out his problems, felt the three birdies coming in put him in a position to at least aim towards making the cut and to take things from there.

“The birdies give you something to take away, even though it is a disappointing start. But that’s golf, you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth. It tested every aspect of my game out there today.”

McDowell has targeted a round in the 60s today in a bid to get back into the tournament.