Zach Johnson kept his head Thursday when others' were endangered

AUGUSTA, Ga. - If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs ...

The scene surrounding the 10th green at Augusta National was chaotic for a short while Thursday afternoon. Just as Zach Johnson had sent a 15-foot putt toward the hole to try to save a par in first-round Masters play, a blast of wind was strong enough to knock branches off trees near the green.

An older gentleman in amid the spectators sitting on folding chairs near the green got his shoulder clipped by what looked like a small log. He survived the blow without injury, after serious concern for his well-being by all around him. After the dust had settled, his wife seemed like the one in the couple who was most shaken by the incident than.

The putt? It went in the cup, for an impressive par-save after Johnson's second shot had gone left of the green and onto some straw, and his third shot barely reached the green's edge.

“I'd never seen anyone make par from left of that green,” said Johnson's manager, Brad Buffoni.

“Well, you seen it,” said someone else in the gallery. “I seen snow here in February this year, too.”

The rest of Johnson's round and the weather that accompanied it were less frightful. He finished with a 2-under-par 70 to end the day tied for 17th, four strokes behind leader Fred Couples.

It basically was the tried-and-true golf formula of avoiding serious trouble and not botching any short putts.

“For the most part, I made every putt from four, five, six feet,” Johnson said. “I really hit only two bad shots all day.”

He did have a par-5 at the 15th hole that was anything but conventional, though he said it wasn't a problematic par in hindsight.

Going for the green on his second shot with a wood, Johnson instead went to the right. The ball caromed off the side of the grandstand at a 90-degree angle, bouncing onto the 17th fairway about 50 yards from the 15th green. But he put his third shot safely on the top shelf of the green and two-putted for par.

He went par-par-par on his final three holes in more traditional ways.

“I'm satisfied,” Johnson said after thinking about it for a moment. “I feel my execution was good and my preparation was good. I made some putts. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied.

“I'm certainly not in the lead, but I didn't take myself out of it. There are still three days to go.”

Pat O'Brien, Johnson's putting coach, said “I like his energy. He's not forcing it as much as he was early in the year.”

Johnson's playing partners, Henrik Stenson and amateur Chang-won Han, combined to go 15-over-par. The same threesome will begin second-round play Friday at 8:29 a.m., Iowa time.