When Greg Norman's round of 70-that-could-easily-have-been-66 was over, the female half of one of sport's biggest power couples felt as drained as when she hit those nerve-racking shots at major tennis tournaments.

Chris Evert has dealt with triumph and heartbreak at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and French Open. She's an 18-time champion and 16-time runner-up at tennis majors, but as a first-time spectator Thursday at the Masters Tournament, serving as her husband's lead cheerleader was far more agonizing.

"I'm not used to spectating," Evert said. "I'm used to going out there and being the action one. It's a lot of patience involved just watching. Now I know how my family felt all those years."

-- Gene Frenette, Morris News Service

Augusta National Golf Club was about as forgiving as it has been in some time Thursday, and several of golf's biggest names didn't take full advantage of it.

With a scoring average of 72.50, 38 players finished the first round under par. ... Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia are not among the group under par because both finished at 1-over-par 73. And it looked for some time like Tiger Woods would join them.

-- Daniel Shirley, The Macon Telegraph

Steve Wilson knew he'd be nervous, but he thought his hands would stop shaking after a couple of holes. They never did.

Wilson, 39, a gas station owner from Mississippi who earned an invitation to the 73rd Masters by winning the 2008 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Milwaukee Country Club, struggled to a first-round 79 on Thursday at Augusta National.

"It's like your hands are shaky," he said. "You don't want everyone to see that, so you speed up and hit before you're ready. Hopefully, that will go away tomorrow."

-- Gary D'Amato, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

At this rate, the roars are going to come from people howling about how Augusta National became too easy. Maybe it won't get that far, but scores sure went low on Thursday through the efforts the two most inexorable forces in golf: Mother Nature and the Masters committee, not necessarily in that order.

-- Mark Herrmann, Newsday