AUGUSTA, Ga. — Phil Mickelson brought two ugly streaks with him to the first tee on Thursday. He stopped one, and could be on his way to ending the second.
Mickelson, highlighted by an uphill, 278-yard 3-wood that set up a tap-in eagle at the par-5 eighth hole, opened the 79th Masters with a 2-under-par 70. Dating to the first round of the 2013 Masters, Mickelson’s last five rounds at Augusta National, until Thursday, had all been over par. He missed the cut here last year, for just the second time.
“I hit the ball really well today. I didn’t really get anything going on the greens,” said Mickelson, who needed 31 putts. “It was a good way to start the tournament. I feel good with the way the game is, and if I could just, over the course of the next three days, get hot with the putter a time or two, I should be able to make a run.”
Runs and high finishes have been missing from Mickelson’s game for a while. Since winning the 2013 Open Championship, Mickelson has no wins. Worse yet, he’s earned only one top-10 finish in his last 31 PGA Tour starts, a streak that started with a tie for 41st at the 2013 Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston. The lone top-10 since then was a runner-up at last year’s PGA Championship.
His 70 left Mickelson tied for 12th after the first day, six shots behind leader Jordan Spieth. But the three-time Masters winner sounded encouraged.
“If I continue to hit the ball like this I’ll have a number of opportunities,” Mickelson said. “But eventually you have to get hot on the greens.”
First things first
Charley Hoffman had the tournament’s first tee time, and was making only his second career start in the Masters. A situation that might have produced a stomach knot instead found Hoffman completely at ease. The reason? The legends he ran into while warming up for his round.
“It was cool getting up this morning and warming up with Jack, Arnie, and Gary Player,” Hoffman said. “My mind wasn’t really on golf. I was watching those guys.”
The day began, like it has for four straight years, with ceremonial tee shots being struck off No. 1 from honorary starters Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus. Best drive among the trio — who combined for 13 Masters titles — belonged to Player.
After a number of photos the Big Three cleared the tee and made way for Hoffman, the 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship winner who shot a 67 to sit in a four-way tie for second, three shots behind Spieth. His best round at the Masters (Hoffman tied for 27th in 2011) came after he worked up the nerve to ask Nicklaus and Palmer to autograph a flag he intends to auction off for his foundation.
Rank amateurs
When Corey Conners lost in the semifinals of the 2013 US Amateur in Brookline, he left The Country Club tantalizingly close to qualifying for the Masters, since US Amateur finalists receive Augusta invitations. So Conners used that near-miss as motivation and advanced to the US Amateur final last year. He lost to Gunn Yang, but the run got him into this year’s Masters and US Open, delaying his decision to become a professional.
Conners, paired with fellow Canadian Mike Weir, birdied the 18th hole and opened with 80. Yang, in the customary pairing with defending Masters champion Bubba Watson, shot 85, the worst score from any of the six amateurs in the field. Low amateur was Byron Meth, who won the final playing of the US Amateur Public Links. Meth had 74.
McIlroy roars back
Rory McIlroy kicked off his quest to complete the career grand slam by shooting 71. The world’s top-ranked player was 1 over for the day through 12 holes, but birdied both back-nine par-5s to get it in red numbers. “Pretty satisfied with today’s work,” said McIlroy, winner of the last two major championships. “It could have been a round that got away from me.” . . . Player said that past champions were given a small piece of the famous Eisenhower Tree, which hung over the 17th fairway before being damaged last year in an ice storm and subsequently removed. “I hated that tree,” Player said. “Don’t tell [club chairman] Billy Payne that.” A piece of the tree will remain on display at Augusta National, and a piece also will be shipped to the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kan. . . . Keegan Bradley birdied his last hole to shoot 71 . . . Ben Crenshaw, the two-time winner who will end his Masters career on Friday, finished double bogey/triple bogey to shoot 91, worst in the 97-player field . . . Don’t want to wait until 3 p.m. on Friday for the television broadcast to come on? The tournament is offering live streaming of six featured groups over its digital platforms beginning at noon.
Michael Whitmer can be reached at mwhitmer@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeWhitmer.