Jason Day felt he was at fault as the head-to-head battle between golf's top three players turned into a fizzer.
World No.2 Day was grouped with No.1 Jordan Spieth and No.3 Rory McIlroy for the first time as the top three players in the world at the World Golf Championships tournament in Miami.
But the sort of scoring fireworks the organisers may have hoped for failed to eventuate in Thursday's first round.
At least Day managed to be better than a year ago when he dumped four balls in the water in the first round on the Blue Monster course, only getting wet once, but his even-par-72 was far from inspiring.
Spieth shot a 69 and Rory McIlroy double bogeyed the last to settle for a 71.
They are all looking up to Australia's Marcus Fraser and American Scott Piercy who lead at six-under 66.
Day admitted the atmosphere was not as big as he expected.
"It was good at the start and then it kind of declined coming in. And I was the first one to go. So I don't think my attitude helped those guys a lot," Day said.
"I certainly didn't help the situation with my body language and all that stuff out there, so I've got to understand I need to pick myself up and kind of fight for my score a little bit more."
For Day, the trouble came when his usual clutch scrambling ability deserted him, only managing to save par two of six times he found himself in trouble.
"It wasn't that bad from tee-to-green. A couple of silly shots that I hit out there, but I mean, overall, I was scratching my head really on the greens and around the greens," he said.
"You don't get it close enough, you're not putting well, then you're walking off scratching your head at the end of the day, and that's kind of how I was."
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