Dennis Paulson leads Round One

“The wind is swirling and blowing. It’s gusting, it’s calm. It’s not easy to putt either. The wind’s moving the ball and there’s a lot of grain on the green. Makes for a very difficult day,” added Woods.

Spanish wonder-kid Sergio Garcia, who shot a sparkling two under 70 to put himself well up the ladder, was also baffled by the sudden changes in direction.

“I can tell you there’s plenty of strange things going on out there… ,” said the 20-year-old, who was top amateur here last year. “When you think the wind is moving left to right just hit it. You can’t be thinking too many things. You have to trust what you see and try and hit a good shot,” he said.

Phil Mickelson, who ended the day a shot behind Garcia, was equally bemused by the winds. He told of watching his playing partner Lee Westwood when a mystery breeze suddenly blew across part of the green.

“I was standing on the green watching him knock in a four or five footer and his pants just started bristling back and forth and I’m 15 feet away and didn’t feel a thing,” said Mickelson.

“So that’s the type of mystical winds we have here at Augusta National. It’s been legendary in the past and created some wonderful stories.”

Triple Masters champion Nick Faldo had to work for his even-par 72. “It was very demanding. The wind was doing all sorts of things out there,” said the Englishman.

As conditions got worse the late starters suffered most.

Greg Norman, who believes he has only two more chances in him to win the green jacket he so covets, paid the price for his late start. Unable to gauge the gusts he spent most of the howard nine simply trying to get out of trouble.

On the 500 yard par-5 15th he hit his second clear through the green and into the water 20 yards away.

Although he managed to salvage a par he overhit the tricky par-3 16th green, dropping another shot.

By the time he staggered off the 18th he had almost certainly shot himself out of contention with a 80 — eight over, his worst round in 20 years here.

But one man who coped with the winds was six-time winner Jack Nicklaus who until he dropped a shot on the 16th had scored every hole in regulation.

Two more dropped shots saw him finish level with Woods — 36 years his junior.

The weather forecast promises more of the same on the second day, with the winds which got up to 18 mph on Thursday, perhaps just slightly less.