His name could be found way up the leaderboard, yet it didn't even make the official Masters spectator guide.

Patrons, meet Arron Oberholser.

"He's one of those young guys who's great that no one really knows about," Fred Funk said.

Oberholser is one of four players who didn't make the deadline for the guide because of his late inclusion in the field, but his first-round 69 settled him in third place after his first competitive round at Augusta National.

It was quite a beginning. Oberholser stood at the first tee at 10:12 a.m. and saw no need to get all weak-kneed like many other Masters rookies. He had played only one previous round at Augusta National - and it was from the member tees.

He was not afraid. Nor was he exuding overconfidence.

"No one expects me to win this championship," Oberholser said. "I don't expect myself to win this championship. I have goals, sure. But they are very small ones. Baby steps, basically."

Add in a baby's pride, too.

"I can swallow my ego," Oberholser said. "Maybe some guys can't. But this place will wreck egos. Which is why I am not coming to this place thinking anything, but taking it as a learning experience."

No expectations. Just play. Learn while you do. It worked last year, when he finished in the top 10 at the U.S. Open in his second start in a major.

"I thought if you hit solid shots you were going to be rewarded," Oberholser said. "You just had to know where to put it on the green. You just had to know where not to hit it more, actually, than where to hit it. So if you can hit it below the hole, you're in good shape."

Oberholser came into Thursday seventh in scoring average on the PGA Tour, despite being only 148th in driving distance.

"The way the course played today it made all the medium hitters look long," said Funk, another shorter hitter on tour.

"He's 3 under, which is a fantastic day for a first-time guy. Maybe the world finds out about him this week."

Oberholser's drives averaged an extra 11 yards Thursday.

"I just think that what the changes have done is, it's really helped the medium hitter," Oberholser said. "The guy who hit it accurate in these conditions around 285 to 300 yards like myself, it's really helped us out. Because if you hit the fairways, then you can do what you want to do with the golf ball."

One thing the 31-year-old learned is that the course did not play so restrictively that it took away creativity.

"The creativity is still out there," he said. "I just think you're hitting it with a longer iron in your hand. I think one of the greatest things about this place that I can see so far is how many options around the greens you have. You can do it several different ways around the greens to make par."

Oberholser found a teaching tool in playing with Vijay Singh, Thursday's leader. Two of the three lowest scores of the day came from their group. Both have similar languid swings.

"When you have a good visual reference like that it's great to play with a guy like that," Oberholser said. "He's slow-moving. He moves about the course very methodically and not too quickly. You can feed off a guy like that."

Reach Jeff Sentell at (706) 823-3425 or jeff.sentell@augustachronicle.com.