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Give him a 10: Big debacle for Big Easy at start of Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Ernie Els was 2 feet from a par to start the Masters.

Twenty-four measly inches.

Then, the unimaginable happened.

One miss. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another.

Finally, on his seventh putt - a one-handed swat that showed his total disgust - Els finished off a sextuple-bogey 10 that essentially ruined any hope of contending for a green jacket on the very first hole Thursday.

Talk about a hard one to take for the Big Easy.

"I feel bad for Ernie," defending Masters champion Jordan Spieth said. "It's obviously in your head. I've certainly had my moments, everybody has, from short range, where they just are not confident in where they are starting it. And on Augusta National's greens, with the wind blowing, it's a place you certainly want to be comfortable.

Els posted the worst score ever at No. 1, a 445-yarder known as "Tea Olive."

No one at the Masters had ever gone higher than 8 on the par-4 hole.

Making the whole scene downright surreal, none of the putts appeared longer than about 4 feet. Video quickly began making the rounds on social media showing Els knocking the ball back and forth past the cup, totally bedeviled by the slick, treacherous greens at Augusta National.

Apparently, the video didn't even show his first miss, the one that could've gotten him off the green with a par.

Tom Watson, playing in the Masters for the final time, said Els' putts were harder than they might have looked, especially on a blustery day.

"It's right at the top of the hill," Watson said. "It can really blow up there. It's probably the windiest green on the golf course."

After the fourth putt, Els stared at the ball with a disbelieving hint of a smile. By the end, he let his frustration get the best of him, making a half-hearted flick at the ball with one hand on the club from less than a foot away. Naturally, it lipped out, leaving him with a double-figure debacle and 17 more holes to play.

This one would've been tough to take for a weekend duffer.

Imagine how a guy who has won four major titles must've felt, though it wasn't the first time Els has come down with the yips at a major championship.

At the first hole of the 2014 British Open, he struck a spectator in the face with his opening tee shot and was still shaken when he got to the green. Els missed a 1-foot putt, and then missed again when he carelessly tried to back-hand the ball into the hole.

But that was only a triple-bogey.

This was much worse.

The sequence was so far-fetched, the high-tech shot tracker on the Masters web site couldn't handle it. The system at first showed only seven shots for Els, went down temporarily, and finally returned with all 10 shots logged in. Obviously, no one had expected a professional golfer to need that many strokes on one hole.

For Els, it was a far cry from his start a year ago, when he opened the Masters with a 5-under 67 that left him only three strokes behind eventual winner Spieth.

There was no chance of Els shooting a 67 this time around.

Not after a seven-putt.

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