Augusta's Charles Howell is three shots off the lead in the Tour Championship

Charles Howell gave a little sheepish wave with his wedge after stealing a birdie on the 18th hole.

“It was a good shot that got lucky,” Howell said of the closing 2 that lifted him into a tie for fifth after Thursday's opening round of the Tour Championship at East Lake. “I probably deserved more of a (par) after that tee shot.”

Officially it was that 23-foot pitch-in and two other birdies that put the Augusta native near the top of the leaderboard with 3-under 67, but the saving grace of the round were three pars on the back nine that might seem ordinary by just looking at the scorecard.

As any golfer knows, they don't draw pictures on a scorecard. It doesn't say “how,” just “how many.”

But the psychology of a par save is perhaps the most uplifting thing in golf. Getting away with an errant shot and avoiding bogey can be just the catalyst a player needs to keep a round alive and turn it into something special.

“Sometimes when you make a nice par save you feel like you stole one and kind of got away with one,” said Howell. “In a weird way it kind of builds you up a little more, like ‘I can make a mistake and still make par.'”

Howell's round Thursday was a perfect example of that. He eased into the round with eight consecutive pars and finally made a tap-in birdie on the par-5 ninth.

But he nearly erased it immediately when his second shot found the bunker on 10. He poured a putt in from 10 feet to save par.

Then on 11 after his birdie putt released 10 feet past the cup on slippery downhill green, Howell drained the comebacker then made birdie on the next hole.

His last Houdini act came on 16 where his first wild drive of the day went into the trees right. After a punch-out clipped a pine tree, Howell's wedge checked up 22 feet short of the pin, But he made the putt and kept his bogey-free round going.

“You're going to have to make some saves around here,” Howell said. “There's too many difficult holes.”

Everyone still in contention after the first round at East Lake made a save somewhere. Adam Scott made big par-saving putts on 10 and 11 to keep him hanging around until he made birdies on 14, 17 and 18 to shoot 67.

“It means a lot at these kind of golf courses that are set up so difficult and not necessarily easy to make up shots on,” said Scott, who won at East Lake in 2006. “So saving a shot is huge for momentum just to keep a round going and buy yourself some time until you can get in a situation where you can make yourself a birdie.”

Some have argued that the most important shot in Darren Clarke's victory at the British Open in July was the 12-footer he made for par to avoid a shaky three-putt on the very first hole Sunday.

A month later, Jason Dufner certainly learned the value of a par save. Just one of them on the 16th or 17th holes in the final round last month at Atlanta Athletic Club would have won him the PGA Championship. Thursday Dufner credited the par saves in his 66 with keeping him within two shots of PGA winner Keegan Bradley again in Atlanta.

“Any time I was in trouble, I was able to make a par,” Dufner said. “I kind of dodged a tree here or dodged a tree there or had a good lie.”

Hunter Mahan had the even rarer scorecard anomaly Thursday – the “good bogey” – when he took his shoes off and hit his second shot out of the lake on the 17th hole. He followed that recovery with a closing birdie and 67 of his own.

“If you're in trouble on a hole and kind of hitting it everywhere then make a 15-footer for par, it's a huge momentum boost,” said Mahan. “It makes you feel like you can get it up-and-down from anywhere. Especially when you're hitting it good and not getting anything out of it, making that one big par save can kind of turn the tide a little bit and pump you up.”

The red numbers always hog the publicity and the highlights. But more likely than not, this Sunday the Tour Championship and a $10 million bonus check will probably come down to a clutch par as it did last year when Jim Furyk got up-and-down out of a bunker on 18 with rain dripping off of his cap.

“Psychologically you can really benefit from a big par save,” said Mahan.

Financially, too.