By Harry King

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Down $100 after nine holes, Ken Duke missed only one fairway on the back and finished the Thursday of his first Masters a “hundy” ahead of his Little Rock dentist friend.

For years, Duke and Dr. Paul Burton have played this game at Chenal Country Club — longest drive for a Ben Franklin per hole and anything off the fairway is a loser. Scoring is arbitrary at times and no money ever changes hands, but from the spectator side of the ropes on No. 7 at Augusta, Burton reminded Duke that four drives with too much fade had him in the red.

Duke, whose career was going nowhere until he hooked up with Bob Toski in the fall of 2005, hit the fairway on 8-9-10-11-13-14-15-18, but Burton tossed two of those holes because Duke teed off with a 3-metal.

Duke’s only miss during that stretch was another right on No. 17 and caddie Mike “Wally” Niebuhr worked backwards from the marker that said 137 to the front of the green on the left. Adjusted for a wind off the left, the yardage was 162 to the pin, Niebuhr said.

“Hit it about ‘55?” Duke asked.

“Correct,” Niebuhr said.

At contact, Duke admitted to a pull and the ball ignored his plea to clear the bunker. “Bad shot,” he told his caddie.

From the bunker, he purposely half-chunked his escape and it tumbled out of the fringe to within 3 feet of the hole. Duke converted, one of four nifty up-and-in pars during a tidy 1-under-par 71. It could have been better — he missed at least three birdie putts of less than 10 feet — but he also holed birdie putts from just off the green on Nos. 3 and 6. On the final hole, he had the same birdie putt that Tom Kite needed to tie Jack Nicklaus in 1986 and missed it the same way, low and left.

Duke’s extremely short putting stroke worked well on the fast greens and only on No. 9 did he have to make a second putt of any length. Loosey-goosey playing companion Fuzzy Zoeller helped the first-timer relax, cracking jokes throughout the round and talked fishing with Duke while walking the fairways.

“Just the history here, mind boggles everyone,” Duke said moments after the round.

Duke’s start was inauspicious — a drive that trickled into the right bunker, a bad choice of clubs from there, and a chip from the right side of the green that rolled off the left side. He saved bogey with an excellent chip.

“I didn’t need to start with a six,” he said.

Burton and his old college roommate were part of a stout Arkansas contingent that walked with Duke, who interacted with several people, calling to some friends from Fayetteville, encouraging them to walk and talk with him on No. 11.

Almost every Duke booster offered a positive story about the 40-year-old and all agreed that he is unchanged despite banking $4.2 million the past two years.

Brent Winston of Sheridan, who is still chasing the dream, cried when the car with him and his buddy turned down Magnolia Lane and headed for the Augusta clubhouse.

Steve Eddington, who worked at Henderson State University when Duke was a student, brought up the story about the 16-inch steel rod inserted in Duke’s spine because of scoliosis and how he was wearing half a body cast when it was time for the district golf tournament. Playing for Arkadelphia High School, Duke was so rigid that he had to squat to put his tee in the ground. He played without turning, hitting the ball only with his arms. Supposedly, he won the tournament.

He is unlikely to win this week, but he is off to a solid start.

Harry King

The dean of Arkansas sports writers, Harry King updates his column five days per week with the latest on the Razorbacks. A 35-year veteran of The Associated Press, King joined the Arkansas News Bureau in May of 2002. He’s covered the Razorbacks since the Arkansas-Texas game dubbed the Big Shootout in 1969.

By Harry King

NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Several years have gone by since I saw Ken Duke hit a golf shot in competition.

On that day, he drove past the North Little Rock animal shelter on his left, up and down the road now known as Championship Drive, on his way to a golf course with fairways that once were pocked with hard-baked cracks. A mish-mash of practice balls clattered into a metal basket after he inserted the appropriate tokens.

Duke paid $300 to play in the Arkansas Open and the year might have been 1995 when he won and pocketed about $5,000.

Thursday, he will travel 330 yards down Magnolia Lane lined with 61 large magnolia trees that sprouted from seeds planted in the 1850s to the clubhouse at Augusta National Golf Club and tee it up on an immaculate and revered layout. He’ll warm up with new practice balls dumped from Masters-green sacks, specific for the player — Nike for Tiger, Callaway for Phil, and so on.

At 40, Duke will play in The Masters for the first time. For the crass and curious, Trevor Immelman pocketed $1.3 million when he donned the green jacket in 2008.

At Burns Park that long-ago day, Duke was pigeonholed as a 20-something who would toil on the fringes of the big time until circumstances dictated that he get a real job. Nothing much happened to change that opinion until the fall of 2005 when Duke took a friend’s advice and contacted famed teacher Bob Toski, who plied his trade at a no-frills facility in Florida.

The first time they met, Duke banged only a couple of balls before Toski unloaded a swing criticism laced with choice words. It is blankety-blank impossible to play a right-to-left shot with an open stance, teacher told student.

Toski stuck two golf club shafts in the ground a couple of feet apart, just outside of Duke’s swing plane, and told Duke to drive the ball between them. The first few swats were nowhere close. On the fifth try, Duke hit a shaft, broke it, and complained about the difficulty of the task.

Toski, then in his late 70s and wearing flat-sole loafers, grabbed the driver and piped it right between the shafts. If you can’t get it on line in the first six feet, Toski said, you can’t play the PGA Tour.

In response, Duke squared up his alignment and went to a baby cut as his preferred shot.

He was the Nationwide Tour Player of the Year in 2006, a standing that earned him a PGA Tour card. Playing 31 events, he made 24 cuts and banked $1.9 million. Last year, he won $2.2 million and was 28th on the money list, good enough to get into The Masters.

Duke played Augusta last October as a guest of Joe Ford. “It was my first time ever going there to play or watch,” he said in an e-mail. “I have asked a lot of people about the set up and what to look for.”

He’ll get some help early in the week, playing a practice round with 2000 champion Vijay Singh. He also plans to seek out former champions Mike Weir or Zach Johnson for 18 holes.

“I’m just going to enjoy the moment,” he said.

He still goes to see Toski when something goes awry and Toski usually goes straight for the stack of shafts. The former Henderson State University player said thanks by taking Toski — Duke calls him “Mr.” whether in conversation or correspondence — to Augusta for a round last week, his first on the course since a non-tournament outing in 1956.

That year, Jack Burke Jr. won with 289 — still the highest winning total in tournament history — on a course that measured 6,965 yards. This week, it will be 7,435 yards for Woods, Mickelson, and the former Arkansas Open champion.

Harry King

The dean of Arkansas sports writers, Harry King updates his column five days per week with the latest on the Razorbacks. A 35-year veteran of The Associated Press, King joined the Arkansas News Bureau in May of 2002. He’s covered the Razorbacks since the Arkansas-Texas game dubbed the Big Shootout in 1969.