Masters 2012: Tourney Favorites Who Will Improve on Shaky Thursday Performances

It wasn't the best of opening rounds for some of golf's biggest names and favorites on Thursday at the Masters.

Well, unless you predicted that Louis Oosthuizen, Peter Hanson, Paul Lawrie, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Francisco Molinari and Jason Dufner would all be hanging atop the leaderboard.

Kudos to you if you nailed that one, by the way.

If you didn't, fret not—a few favorites that struggled on Thursday will find their games once more and be in contention by Sunday.

Tiger Woods (Even)

Tiger's driver was not his friend today, but a major positive has to be how many times he was able to save par despite poor shots off the tee.

He has also only finished with an opening-round score better than 70 once, and he's won the event four times, so it's not as though his early play should come as a surprise.

He'll be fine, and yes, this very well could be the major Tiger morphs back into the Tiger of old and leaves the field in the dust.

Phil Mickelson (+2)

Mickelson had a really rough start, hitting only three of the course's first 13 greens and finding himself at four-over-par after 14 holes.

But Mickelson calmed down on the last four holes, managing to dip down to a two-over-par for the day after a beautiful birdie on 18.

Lefty is excellent at Augusta, so don't be surprised when he makes major adjustments and finds himself back in contention soon enough.

Luke Donald (+3)

Donald's day took a bizarre twist at the end, as he was accused for signing off on an inaccurate score and faced disqualification before it was determined it had been incorrectly entered into the tournament's scoring system.

Phew.

It didn't erase a disappointing day for the world's top-ranked golfer, however, who addressed his poor day after. From Bob Harig of ESPN:

"

"This place ... you know if you are a little off, it can eat you up,'' said Donald, who won the Transitions Championship three weeks ago, before the scorecard problem came to light. "My preparation has been as good as it's ever been. I almost wanted to start on the weekend because I was hitting it so nicely. Maybe I peaked a couple of days early. Hopefully, I will find something on the range and go low tomorrow.''

"

I'm not sure if Donald will compete with the Woods, Mickelsons and Rory McIlroys of the world before all is said and done. But come Sunday, I expect he'll find himself in the running.

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