Johnson doesn't see red with first-round 70

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Thursday wasn't the first time Zach Johnson induced a lot of comments from spectators at the Masters.

 But this day, the remarks were often as much for his attire as his golf game.

"Zach's in red pants? Are you serious?" said a fan behind the fairway ropes on the first hole.

 "What's up with the red pants, Zach?" someone asked out of Johnson's earshot in the bleachers at No. 8.

 "You can only wear those pants one place," chirped someone in the bleachers at 17.

 Sporting firetruck red trousers to with a navy blue shirt, Johnson navigated Augusta National in 70 strokes, 2-under-par. It was a solid round that, like most solid rounds, had potential to be a terrific round.

 "If I would have made my eagle putt and maybe made two more par putts, there's three shots right there and I would have been two shots off the pace," Johnson said.

 "Right now I'm five shots off the pace, which really is nothing in a major. Honestly, you can make that up in one nine."

 Chad Campbell, who played nine practice holes with Johnson here Wednesday, set that pace with a 65. But he bogeyed his last two holes, perhaps reminded by Augusta that this tournament never has and never will be won on a Thursday.

 It was a day in which the 96 players' average score was 72.25 and 38 of them broke par. Johnson's 70 left him tied for 20th with seven others, including Tiger Woods.

 The warm, sunny, still afternoon "was perfect today," said Johnson. "You could do anything on this course, except for skiing."

 His game was good, and he said so. Two of his bogeys were avoidable, but he missed par putts in the 3- to 4-foot range.

 His other bogey, on 10, was fairly impressive. Johnson's second shot on that par-4 hole went over the green and nestled near a tree. The only way he could hit the third shot was lefthanded.

 "Make bogey and get out of here," muttered someone in the gallery.

 So Johnson did just that, popping his southpaw shot to the fringe of the green, 20 feet from the hole.

 He two-putted for bogey ... and got out of there.

 "Actually a pretty good bogey," Johnson said later. He had some good birdies, too.

 After being perhaps one more rotation of the ball from a birdie on No. 1, Johnson birdied Nos. 2 and 3. The latter was achieved with a chip-in from 20 feet.

 He played the first nine in a bogey-free 3-under 33, then the switch flipped at 10 with the first of two straight bogeys.

 But it switched back at 14 when Johnson turned a deadly looking 70-foot uphill-then-downhill putt for birdie into a tap-in par. He followed that by using his 5-wood to reach the green of the par-5 No. 15 in two shots, and barely missed his 10-footer for eagle.

 A second-consecutive birdie came on 16, and Johnson had a fine par save on 17 when he left a greenside bunker shot of about 80 feet just three feet from the cup.

 The final hole was a disappointment, but it still featured some flair. Johnson hit what he called "my best shot on the day" on his approach, but it hopped off the back of the green and rolled 10 feet behind it at the bottom of a slope.

 He got out a wedge, then handed it back to caddy Damon Green in favor of a putter. He got through the fringe nicely and brought the ball within four feet of the hole, but couldn't make the par putt.

 Five minutes later, Johnson expressed no trace of disappointment in the finish, or his round.

 "More positives than anything," he said. "I really hit only one bad shot that cost me. "I'm just trying to put myself in position for Sunday, and really, I put myself in position for tomorrow."

 OK, but what about those pants? People were talking about them.

"Good," Johnson said. "My clothing manufacturer is Dunning Golf. We just wanted to stand out a little bit, and I think we accomplished that. The pants are great."

But would he wear that color of pants here on Sunday instead of a Thursday?

"That's not my decision," he said with a grin, using as much deftness as he showed hours earlier with his chip-in.