If you can't make it to Augusta, Ga., for the Masters, the next best thing is watching the coverage in HD. Settle in with a snack (Chex Mix) and an Arnold Palmer (lemonade & iced tea mixed) for coverage carried this year on ESPN (Round 2 from 3-6:30 p.m. with a replay at 7 p.m.

NOTES FROM ROUND ONE

What are the chances? What kind of odds do you think you could have gotten if you called that Chad Campbell would be off to the BEST START IN THE HISTORY OF THE MASTERS. That's correct, in all of it's 73 editions, no one, not Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus or even Tiger Woods has ever began a Masters with five, count 'em five, straight birdies to open the tournament. Chad Campbell, enjoy the moment.

Leaderboard: Campbell finished the day atop the leaderboard at 7-under par 65 by tossing in nine birdies against two bogeys. The round could have been even better as the birdie runs were on holes 1-5 and then 12-15, but the round ended with consectutive bogeys on Nos. 17 and 18.

Mike Check: Mike Tirico comes on the ESPN broadcast and is the only voice you hear for the first 12 minutes. He does the open, the welcome, the highlights, some play-by-play calls, it's all Mike all the time, at least for the first 12 minutes.

When Tirico finally gives way (maybe he needed to take a breath or a sip of water) he introduced the CBS cast that will be involved in the daily broadcast and threw it to David Feherty, who immediately cold shanked it.

Feherty calls an Aaron Baddeley shot, except that he identifies Baddeley as Adam Scott, then snorts and corrects himself.

Tailor Made? How could the powers that be at Nike, his hot Swedish bikini model wife, his children, dogs and caddie Stevie "George Best" Williams let Tiger on to the range, much less the first tee, in an outfit that can only be charitibly called "Ugly"?

Wood wore a Black shirt with what appears to be a thin purple stripe running horizontially through it every four inches or so and powder blue sleeve caps. All this with a pair of black pants that aren't in the same hue (ain't HD wonderful?).

Doug Sanders, in this get up, he is not.

Early surprises: Larry Mize, who is 50, shot a 5-under par 67 that left him tied for fourth at the end of day one. The 1987 Masters winner had 6 birdies and a bogey while hitting 12 of 14 fairways, 11 of 18 greens and only 24 putts.

More surprises: Greg Norman finished the day tied for 20th after a first round 2-under par 70 that could have easily been much, much better. Norman had a tough day early trying to figure out the greens and couldn't get much to drop until a birdie 2 on the par-3 sixth hole. The Great White Shark posted three birdies and a bogey to get off to a solid if not spectacular first round.

Tradition: One of the things that makes the Masters unique (same venue year after year, Pimento Cheese sandwiches, "patrons" instead of "fans", etc.) is that the powers that be recognize the importance of traditon.

Arnold Palmer strode to the first tee in the early morning light to open up the season's first major with a ceremonial drive. The charasmatic Palmer, with his four career Masters victories, is and will always be a crowd favorite.

After driving it down the first fairway, Palmer gave it a little punch in the air for emphasis and the first tee let out the first of many roars that would be heard throughout the day at Augusta National.

Speaking of... What's with Harry Connick, Jr., of all people waxing poetic about The Masters in a narration piece. It's not that I don't like Connick, I thought he was fine as Debra Messing's husband on "Will & Grace," where he was neither Will nor Grace.

And the text of the piece was fine, but with all the history and tradition that the season's first major has to offer in its 73rd incarnation, why not have a collection of former winners handle the narration.

I personally would rather hear the words about how wonderful the event is from the champions that made this event what it is.

There are 38 players under par after round one and 50 players at even or better.

3 Par: Tim Clark, winner of the Par 3 contest on Wednesday, is T-6 after a 4-under par 68. As noted historically, since the Par 3 contest was instituted in 1960 no player has won the Par 3 contest and the Tournament Proper in the same year.

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