AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) John Daly sauntered toward the clubhouse at Augusta National with a dazed, windblown stare.

His monstrous drives were no match for the swirling gusts that bedeviled the first round of the Masters. When Daly looked up at the scoreboard, he couldn't believe it showed a 77 - eight shots off the lead.

"I felt great," Daly said, shrugging. ``The golf course did not reward good golf shots. But that's the way Augusta is when the wind is blowing."

Besides, a round of golf at perhaps the world's most famous course is a lot better way to spend the afternoon than confined to an alcoholic treatment center. That's where Daly was a year ago after a drunken rampage during The Players Championship.

He didn't even have a TV set to watch the Masters while undergoing treatment at the Betty Ford clinic for an alcohol addiction that has plagued his meteoric career.

"This," Daly said of his first round, ``is nothing compared to what I've gone through."

So what if a bunch of putts slid by the hole? Who cares if a gust of wind blew his ball a couple of inches before he putted at No. 17, costing Daly a one-shot penalty? Compared to all the tumult in his life since he won the 1991 PGA Championship, this wasn't the end of the world.

"I'm just going to keep playing the way I'm playing, keep hitting the way I'm hitting," said Daly, who came to Augusta playing some of the most consistent golf of his life. "Just keep on believing."

After a year's absence from Augusta National, Daly was eager to get back on the course. Tee times were bumped back 90 minutes because of heavy overnight rains, forcing him to wait a little longer.

Davis Love III and Jesper Parnevik were barely out of the tee box when Daly burst through the crowd to thunderous applause, a couple of minutes before his playing partner, Ian Woosnam, arrived.

"I was excited to be back," Daly said. ``This is a golf course I just love to play. I'm just glad to be here this year. Maybe not being here last year will give me more opportunities in the future to come here."

His bag is adorned with a couple of messages: "God, Serenity, Courage, Wisdom" and "Keep It Straight, John.'' He wore an angel pin on his right collar and a wishbone pin representing the "Make-A-Wish" foundation on the left.

"I've got an angel on my shoulder," Daly said with a wink. ``And I want to have the `Make-A-Wish' kids instead of the devil on my other shoulder. You know, I always seem to have one side against the other."

When Daly blasted his first drive about 300 yards down the middle of the fairway, the return to Augusta was complete. But this couldn't be a storybook beginning to his latest comeback.

After sandwiching one bogey between eight pars on the front nine, Daly struggled throughout the back nine.

His approach at No. 10 sailed over the green, he pitched back past the cup and missed a short par putt. Two pars followed before he knocked a 4-iron in Rae's Creek, leading to another bogey at a hole where workers had to resort to a most un-Augusta-like device - noisy leaf blowers - to keep the green clear.

"I hit a pretty good 4-iron," Daly said. ``I thought the wind would take it to the left, but it went into the creek."

His most frustrating moment came at 17. Daly hit a towering drive over the Eisenhower tree, leaving himself with a short pitch to the green on the 400-yard hole. But his second shot didn't roll as close to the flag as he hoped, leaving himself with a 20-foot putt for birdie.

As Daly stepped over the ball, a strong gust flapped his olive-green pants in the wind. He stepped back a few feet to compose himself, only to watch helplessly as his ball moved a couple of inches, an automatic one-shot penalty since he already had addressed the ball.

"I don't agree with that rule," he said. ``I didn't have anything to do with the ball moving, but that's just one of those crazy rules in golf."

Daly salvaged his day with a birdie at No. 18, his only one of the tortuous 4-hour, 26-minute round, to finish at 5-over.

"I didn't shoot myself out of the tournament by any means," Daly said, knowing he will get a much earlier - and more advantageous - tee time Friday. "I did the best I could. I did not throw away any shots. I hung in there."

With that, he headed to his car.

"I'm tired," Daly said.