Brian Harman struggles in first round at Masters

Brian Harman knew that when it comes to the Masters Tournament, there’s no substitute for experience. The Sa­van­nah, Ga., native’s first tournament round Thursday confirmed this most convincingly.

The Masters rookie struggled to find birdies and suffered through some harsh consequences of errant shots in carding 4-over-par 76.

Meanwhile, his playing partner in the first pairing of the day, Char­ley Hoffman, posted 5-under 67 in his second Masters.

“You couldn’t ask for a better tee time,” said Harman, 28. “Charley took advantage of it this morning. It was scoreable but it was still very difficult, I felt. When you’re coming out of the trees, it’s a lot more difficult than it has to be.”

Harman found the trees, the water, the rocks, and several tough positions on greens where pin placements raised the degree of difficulty. Hoffman also hit a couple of trees, but he showed a deft touch in getting his way out.

Harman made no excuses about bad bounces.

“That’s golf. You’ve got to take the luck out of it and hit better shots,” he said. “I didn’t really execute anything like I wanted to. I drove it poorly, ironed it poorly, putted it poorly. I just didn’t quite have it today, which is obviously frustrating. It’s a day you really wanted to have it, and I just didn’t. I did my best. My game has not been great lately. I’ve been working hard on it. It just hasn’t quite come around yet.”

In his fourth full season on the PGA Tour, Harman came to Augusta with the expectation that even though he has missed the past four cuts, the next tournament is a new chance to succeed. The Masters, though, is not an ordinary tournament to prepare for. Two practice rounds Monday and Tuesday weren’t that similar to the opening round Thursday.

“It’s almost impossible to re-create tournament conditions on the practice round day. I knew that,” Harman said. “There’s no way to practice for the Masters other than playing in the Masters.”