I shot a 4-under-par 68 on Thursday and was in the lead for about an hour until John Huston eagled the last hole to shoot 67.

The highlight of my round came on the par-5 eighth hole, which I eagled. I hit a good drive and great 3-wood to about 12 feet from the hole and made the putt. I was one over par after seven holes so the eagle got the momentum going.

I went on to birdie Nos. 11, 13, 17 and 18 and bogey No. 14. My other bogey came on No. 4. On that hole, I hit a 5-iron that missed my spot by 3 yards and ended up in the bunker. When I first hit my bunker shot, I thought it was 3 feet short of the hole, but it went about 12 feet past. I missed the putt. It looked good at one time, but then was bad again. But that's the Masters.

Steve Stricker and I played in the group ahead of Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo. I didn't really notice the crowds out there. A couple of times, I heard them coming. You can hear them coming after Tiger putts out. And on No. 16, I knew I had to wait because Tiger had about a 6-footer for eagle on No. 15.

You've got to be patient when you've got guys like that behind you. Fortunately, we were finishing our shots before the fans ran up on the hole. There were a lot of people out there watching Tiger.

On the second hole, Steve four-putted. When I saw that, I thought, well, you're in the Masters. He hit a perfect putt. He hit it a little too high, but I thought it was perfect. It went 3 feet past the hole, and it was trickling. Then it went all the way down to the right front of the green.

I tried to keep that in mind with the way I putted the rest of the round. I tried to play conservative on longer putts that had potential to go 30 or 40 feet by the hole. I tried to make probably seven or eight putts out there today, and I made most of the ones I tried to make. And the rest of the time, I was just trying to get it up there close and in a spot that I wouldn't be threatened with a three-putt.

That's basically the way you've got to approach this. I don't know; I'm still new. But you've got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. So it worked today.

My neck was killing me last year when I played in the Masters. I couldn't look left, so I had to turn my whole body in that direction if I wanted to look that way. There's no problem this week, but I've had that same neck problem three times in the last year. The last time was in January at the Mercedes Championships. When I go to bed at night I say, oh Lord, let me wake up with a healthy neck.

Sometimes, when I hit a bad shot on Thursday I just laughed. Maybe it was because I didn't have any expectations this week, I don't know. There are times when I mess up and get too angry. But for the most part, I'm laid-back and try to enjoy it - whether it's good or bad.

I'll be playing in the final group today with John Huston. We go off at 2:38 p.m.