Success is relative for Bill Haas

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Craig and Kevin Stadler (“Walrus” and “Smallrus”) became the first father-son combo to play in the same Masters, but perhaps they’re not the first family of this week’s festivities.

Check out the Haas household.

Bill Haas overcome a first-hole bogey Thursday to shoot a four-under-par 68, good for the first-round lead. Father Jay Haas played in 22 Masters, making 19 cuts. Uncle Jerry Haas participated in 1985. An uncle from his mother’s side, Dillard Pruitt, teed it up here in 1992 and ’93.

Oh, and great-uncle Bob Goalby won the 1968 event, avoiding a playoff after Argentina’s Roberto De Vicenzo signed for the wrong Sunday score.

Bill Haas, 31, said Goalby encourages him by saying, “You’re a better player than the scores you shoot.”

Jay got Bill on Augusta National when he was in high school, and Bill remembers getting a “full day’s worth” — 27 holes plus the par-three course. He caddied in the 1999 Masters for his father, who finished tied for third in 1995.

“He’s the person I idolized golf-wise,” Bill said. “I wasn’t interested in the Masters. I was interested in my dad’s score at the Masters.”

Jay won nine times on the PGA Tour. At 60, he is still cashing large checks on the Champions Tour.

“I don’t beat him much, honestly,” Bill said. “Even now.”

Jay never won a major, tying for third in the 1999 PGA Championship and fourth in the 1995 U.S. Open.

“I think he deserved a major,” Bill said. “But as a family, we all know that he left it out there.”

Bill dominated at Wake Forest and was viewed as cocky when he reached the tour in 2006. His fine career includes a heavyweight champion’s payday of $11.44 million at the 2011 Tour Championship.

His only flaws are a suspect short-iron game and a fiery temperament that sometimes costs him. That’s where Scott Gneiser hopes to help. Gneiser carried David Toms’ bag for 16 years, but he just joined Haas.

“We’re still in our honeymoon phase,” the caddie said. “If something goes wrong, we shake it off and get to the next hole instead of going nuts on each other.”

There goes that

Jason Dufner’s bid to win a second consecutive major derailed on the par-five 13th. Dufner sent a well-hit second shot rolling just off the back of the green. But he blew his eagle chip past the hole and down a hill toward Rae’s Creek. His subsequent chip hit the slope above him and rolled back into the water.

He chunked another chip and eventually made a quadruple-bogey 9, the highest score on any hole Thursday.

With a back-nine 44 that gave him an eight-over 80, the reigning PGA Champion will start Friday tied for 90th in the 97-player field.

Oldies and goodies

In a tournament packed with a bunch of young newcomers, the 50-and-over crowd made a bit of a stand in the first round.

Miguel Angel Jimenez was leading the tournament for a time before stumbling on the back nine. 1992 champion Fred Couples was on the leaderboard himself before tying the 50-year-old Jimenez with a 71 that left both players three shots off the lead.

And two-time Bernard Langer managed to shoot even par in his 31st Masters.

“A 72 is not that shabby,” the 56-year-old Langer said.

Power still counts, but sometimes the older players can make up for it by knowing where to put the ball and being crafty.

“Can a 50-year-old win here?” the 54-year-old Couples asked. “I think so. I’m one of them.”

Foul play

Luke Donald got hit with a two-stroke penalty after his round. He failed to exit a greenside bunker on No. 9 and touched the sand with his club before his second attempt. The penalty pushed Donald’s score to an ugly 79. “Pretty dumb mistake,” Donald tweeted. … Brandt Snedeker assessed himself a one-shot penalty on No. 13 when his ball moved after he took a practice swing. There was no wind, he said, so he could not invoke a new rule that permits players to replace their ball if wind is the culprit. Snedeker still shot a two-under 70.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.