Sergio Garcia scrambles to 3-over 73 in first round of U.S. Open

This time, it was Sergio Garcia's golf ball that went out of bounds, not his words. It happened twice, in fact, on successive holes. And he did bounce back.

Garcia finished his first round of an eventful U.S. Open week with a 3-over-par 73, which was good in light of the fact he was at one point 6 over and appeared headed for an early exit. That would have been understandable, given that Garcia admitted on Tuesday he didn't know if his psyche was up to competing for a championship after his mouth had put him in so much trouble.

His pre-tournament news conference was dominated by questions about his recent racially insensitive comment regarding Tiger Woods, and his own remorse for it. He mentioned that he had been unable to apologize in person and had left a note for Woods. On Thursday he said he had not heard back yet. "I haven't really seen him, so . . . " he said.

The player from Spain acknowledged that he heard a few hecklers, but added, "I felt the people were very nice for the whole day. I think that almost all of them were behind me and that was nice to see."

He needed all the support he could get after hitting tee shots out of bounds on Nos. 14 and 15, making a 6 and 8, respectively. On the first one, he said that he slipped. On 15, he acknowledged that the out-of-bounds markers are not far off the fairway. "It was a terrible shot," he said. "The out of bounds is close, but it you hit a bad shot, even if it's far away, you're going to find it."

But he made the turn (having begun on the back nine) and birdied the par-4 first hole and made eagle on the par-5 second, proving again that, one way or another, Garcia never is boring.