Back not bothering Louis Oosthuizen

Louis Oosthuizen didn’t hesitate to bend over and pick up his young daughter, So­­phia, who was running toward him.

For a guy with a balky back that forced his withdrawal from two majors last year and another tournament already this year, it probably wasn’t the best thing to do on the eve of the Masters.

“I had a little bit of a scare when I picked up my little girl,” Oosthuizen said. “That’s tough not to do. But this morning it was all better.”

The back hardly hampered the 2012 Masters runner-up Thursday. Overcoming a bogey to start his round and another one late, the South Afri­can carded 3-under 69, good enough to have him tied for second after the opening round, one shot behind leader Bill Haas.

Oosthuizen made six birdies, including one on No. 18 that was just the fourth of the day on the closing hole.

“I hit that putt in the practice round and I had a good line on it,” Oosthuizen said of his 20-footer on the final hole. “It was just sort of all about speed.”

After losing in a playoff to Bubba Watson in 2012, Oosthuizen missed the cut last year at the Masters. The back injury surfaced midway through the summer, and the lingering effects caused him to withdraw from the Honda Clas­sic earlier this year and hardly made him an ideal candidate to jump into contention at Augusta National.

A hole on which he has history got him going Thurs­day. After making bogey on the first, Oosthuizen jump-started his round with a birdie on No. 2 – a hole he made double eagle on in 2012.

Standing over a chip just off the green, he had visions of posting 3 on the par-5 hole.

“Two weeks ago I played it and I chipped it in from exactly the same spot, a really similar spot, for eagle,” Oosthuizen said. “I stood there today and thought, ‘Well, this can have a chance.’ I used to be pretty bad before the 2 I made on that hole. After the 2, I’ve been making a few more birdies there. So I just needed that chip to get me going.”

Oosthuizen added another birdie on No. 3, then back-to-back birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 to get to 3-under on the front. He gave a shot back on No. 12, made birdie on No. 15 and then gave that back on No. 17 before finishing with the long birdie putt.

The performance was a significant improvement from recent weeks after Oosthuizen missed the cut in his two tournaments leading up to the Masters.

“I felt like I’ve been playing, hitting the ball well the last month or so really,” he said. “Last week, I really wasn’t bothered with the way I played, just the back nine on Friday I made a few errors. But I’ve been feeling this coming for a while, that I’m swinging well and playing well.”