Mickelson, the world's best player without a major on his resume, was in third place after the first day of play at the rain-delayed 67th Masters. The left-hander trailed leader Mike Weir by three strokes after playing 29 of the scheduled 36 holes in 3-under par.

It's a familiar position for Mickelson, the 32-year-old who has won 21 times on the PGA Tour. He's finished third in the season's first major the past two years, but said it's too early to assess his position in this tournament.

"I'm not going to look at it until the end of the second round," said Mickelson, who shot 1-over-par 73 in the first round, and was caught waiting to play Augusta National's 12th hole when play was suspended by darkness, stranding 75 players in the 93-man field on the course. "You get a pretty good idea of where you stand with half the tournament finished. I want to see how I play the last seven holes before I really try to find out where I stand."

He had roller-coaster first round that included three birdies and four bogeys and left him tied for 12th in a pack of 13 players. Mickelson moved into contention with a front nine of 4-under 32 in the afternoon built on the birdies at No. 1 and the run at Nos. 3-5.

At the first hole he dropped a putt of some 25 feet from behind the green, nearly half of which passed over the fringe. He watched as playing partners David Toms and Peter Lonard chipped from the fringe and went well past the cup.

"I thought the margin for error might be a little less," he said of the decision to putt. "I might come up a little short, a little long, but it wouldn't go way off the green. I hit a good shot and it just crept onto the green and it tracked in the hole.

"It was one of those you don't expect to make and it saved maybe two shots because I was looking at a possible five."

His birdie streak came courtesy of some fine iron shots. He hit a sand wedge to six feet on the 350-yard third, then laced a 5-iron to 10 feet on the 205-yard fourth.

The most impressive came at the 455-yard fifth where he drove in the cavernous fairway bunker, but came out with a pitching wedge of 135 yards to 12 feet.

"I ripped a pitching wedge out of there and was able to just get it up," Mickelson said. "That's a very deep bunker. I was very fortunate to hit the shot that I hit."

His only bogey came at the 495-yard, downhill 10th where he failed on a six-footer to save par after hitting his drive in the right rough and approach in a greenside bunker. Mickelson missed a putt of similar length for birdie on the eighth.

Mickelson faces a tough tee shot at the 165-yard 12th hole to begin play this morning, but has a pair of par-5s in Nos. 13 and 15 for a chance to improve his position.

"We wanted to play 12," he said. "I would've hit before our guys finished 11, in an effort to play 12 because very rarely do we get in that calm conditions. The group in front of us didn't get off the green. I didn't have a chance to hit.

"I've got some birdie opportunities on the par-5s."