PONTE VEDRA BEACH - Like several of his peers in the Players Championship field, Clearwater's John Huston needs a good week to qualify for the Masters.
"If I play well, it'll take care of itself," said Huston on Thursday after shooting 72 at the TPC-Sawgrass Stadium Course.
"If I'm not playing any better than I have been, I really don't need to be there anyway. It used to be that you could go into the Masters not playing well and you can find it. But now I don't think that's the case. It's too long.
"If you're not playing well, I don't think any miracle is going to happen."
Huston, who is ranked 56th in the world, needs to be among the top 50 after the Players Championship to get a Masters invite. Huston likely will need a top-15 finish to move up. And he was frustrated he didn't put himself in better position. Huston was tied for 47th.
"I'm hitting a lot of good shots, I'm just not hitting enough good shots," said Huston, who is 58th on the PGA Tour money list with $304,850. "I'm just not finishing off rounds. I was 3-under par both days at Doral and didn't finish under par. I was 2 under (Thursday) and didn't finish under par. I just can't get it in."
NO LOVE: Davis Love's defense of his Players Championship was derailed almost from the beginning.
He started his round bogey, double bogey and finished with 77 - 13 strokes higher than his final-round 64 last year that won him the tournament. Love said a back problem flared up during the round.
"If I feel like I did at the turn, I might not play (today), but I don't know," said Love, whose score was better than just six players who completed 18 holes.
"I'd like to get out there, get five birdies in a row like I did last year. If you can get to even par before the weekend, you might have a chance."
AROUND THE TPC: John Daly opened with 69 and has been at par or better in all of his opening rounds this year. ... Daly was one of four players in the field who did not record bogey. The others were Jerry Kelly, Bob Burns and Padraig Harrington. ... Masters champion Mike Weir had an unusual-looking scorecard: he made 14 consecutive 4's before finally making 5 at the 15th hole. He didn't have a 3 and shot 74. ... Steve Elkington, who won the Players in 1991 and 1997, shot 69 with just 20 putts. ... Three players age 50 or older are competing: Jay Haas (72), Craig Stadler (70) and Peter Jacobsen (72). ... The 18th hole averaged 3.993, the first time in Players Championship history dating to 1983 the hole played under par. The most difficult hole of the day was No. 10 at 4.354.
