The Augusta National greens inflicted more pain on Jason Day than his recently injured thumb, sending the world No.4 crashing back to earth in the opening round the of Masters.

Day, one of the bookies’ favourites despite not having played tournament golf since winning the WGC World Match Play Championships in February, struggled with his usually crisp putting and posted a three-over 75 to be seven shots off the lead.

“I just wasn’t quite as sharp as I’d like today. I felt like I didn’t play that bad, just the putter wasn’t very good,” he said.

“I’ve just got to kind of work out the kinks.

“I couldn’t quite see the ball going in the hole, and it was a bit of a struggle seeing my lines. That’s just golf. Some days you have it. Some days you don’t.”

Despite spending more time putting in his time off than anything else, Day needed 32 putts in his round, including a terrible four-putt from 25 feet on the 10th for a double bogey.

He insisted his thumb was not an issue.

“It’s just kind of hard to prep for greens like this. They’re fast, as fast as they can get, but I came in here last Wednesday so I should be prepared for it,” Day added.

“I can only just look at things and see what I can do to improve and go on from there.”

Day refused to throw in the towel and was confident he could return early on Friday for the second round and make a run at the leaders.

He’s no stranger to going low on Friday at Augusta, having shot a 64 in 2011.

“I’m not going to quit until the week’s done. I still feel like I’ve got a fighting chance,” he said.

“The leader is at four-under, I’m only at three-over right now and I definitely have a lot of golf to be played.”