As Sergio Garcia sat down at the dais for his post-round press conference on Thursday, the first thing he noticed was the leaderboard on the wall to his left.

Under the No. 6 hole, someone mistakenly indicated that he made the shot of the tournament.

``I didn't know I hit a hole-in-one on 6,'' mused the Spaniard, who actually double-bogeyed the 180-yard, par-3 hole.

But let the record state that Garcia, a 20-year-old who has been suffering through a troubled sophomore year as a professional, showed signs of shaking free from his doldrums in the first round of the Masters.

He finished the day third behind Dennis Paulson after carding a 2-under-par 70, quite an improvement when matched against his recent numbers.

``I'm very happy the way I played,'' said Garcia, who missed the cut at The Players Championship and finished tied for 42nd at the Bay Hill Invitational recently. ``I feel like I probably left a couple out there, but 70 on this course with the wind we've had is always a great round.''

Garcia made the turn at even par but birdied holes No. 13, 14 and 15 to help place him in the top three heading into today's second round.

He said his philosophy in rebounding from forgettable showings is short and simple: Forget about it.

``I forget everything,'' said Garcia, whose second-place finish at the PGA Championship eight months ago ratcheted his expectations to new levels. ``I also have to forget the PGA. The PGA is gone, and just because I finished second in the PGA and I played very well isn't going to give me other tournaments or majors.

``You have to forget everything, and just keep working and trying to play well.''

Garcia got started early Thursday by posting birdies on the first two holes, using his driver to get within 4 feet of the pin on the first.

He faltered on three of the next four holes, including a missed 4-foot putt on No. 6 that left him with the double bogey.

But Garcia regrouped from there. After closing out the front nine with consecutive birdies, he bogeyed the 485-yard, par-4 10th when he missed a 6-foot putt for par.

It was his last bogey of the day. On No. 14, he used a 9-iron to put the ball within 8 feet, then drained the putt to go 1-under - his first time below par since the third hole.

Garcia fielded innumerable questions about his driving leading up to the Masters, but he put most of them to rest in the first round, when he missed three fairways by a combined 4 feet, according to his estimates.

``I've been driving the ball really well,'' said Garcia, who hit 66 percent of his fairways here in 1999 as an amateur and finished tied for 38th in his first Masters appearance. ``The problem with me this year is probably the irons.''

In that respect, Garcia said he gleaned a few pointers from fellow Spaniards Jose Maria Olazabal and Seve Ballesteros, both Masters veterans.

``They told me a couple of very good things, places where to be cute and places where not to miss it,'' he said. ``Of course, they gave me a lot of confidence and tried to tell me, `On this hole, be careful, maybe you want to have a 20-footer instead of an 8-footer,' and things like that. So that always helps.''

Garcia didn't appear terribly bothered by the wind, whose unpredictable patterns on certain holes was ``strange.''

``You can't be thinking too many things,'' said Garcia, whose best finish this year was a tie for ninth at the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship. ``You have to try what you see and just try to hit a good shot.''