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By Melanie Hauser
PGATOUR.com Correspondent

SPRING, Texas -- The hard part was just getting in the tournament.

Phil Blackmar (left in blue shirt) and John Cook (white shirt) joined the Champions Tour this week. (Paul Lester Photography)

After that it was a piece of cake for Phil Blackmar.

Really. There was a cake waiting on the first tee Friday at noon to celebrate his -- and John Cook's -- Champions Tour debut.

If only the entire day had been as sweet.

After earning a spot through a Monday qualifier, Blackmar bowed into the over-50 competition at the Administaff Small Business Classic with an opening 73. Not bad. Not great.

But certainly not what he'd hoped for after birdies on three of the first five holes.

"It was really exciting. But obviously, it was a little disappointing how it ended,'' the 6-foot-7, former University of Texas player said. "I got off to a great start then kind of lost the putter during the middle of the round, then hit some bad shots and kinda lost the swing, too. I had a lot of chances to salvage the round, but didn't.''

What started fast fell apart after he missed short birdie putts at the seventh and eighth holes. Then he three-putted the ninth hole for bogey. Then he three-putted the 11th from off the green and three-putted the 12th from on the green.

Then he snapped his tee shot at 13 into the water.

"At that point, I was just trying to figure a way to get in,'' he said.

That he did. And with a smile on his face.

"In the past, had I had a couple of three putts and snap hooked it in the water, I probably would have slammed a couple of things, gotten pissed off and not been much fun to be around,'' Blackmar said. "I think I handled it well today. If I can go out and not get down on myself I'm going to have fun and play well.''

Just the fact that he's playing again is a good thing. A very good thing.

There was a time when Blackmar wanted nothing to do with golf. Those Charter Hospital ads where they list six signs and tell you if you have any of them seek help? He had five. His wife chuckled that he had all six.

At least that's the way he tells it.

So he put golf down. At least playing it. He still walked the fairways talking about it for the USA television network until they got out of golf.

And, no, he wasn't thinking Champions Tour. Not at the start, at least.

''I really did not think I would want to play," Blackmar said. ''I thought that I'd had enough. With each passing year, I've grown more and more fond of golf again. For the last two or three years, I've actually enjoyed the game a bit for the first time in a long time."

Blackmar has spent the last year practicing and playing with buddies in Corpus Christi. He's watched his youngest son play baseball and spent time with the rest of the clan, including wife Carol, who coaches golf at Texas A&M-CC. And he's played a bit. He missed the cut at the Shell Houston Open, a tournament he won a decade ago, but, earlier this month, he finished sixth in a Heartland Players Tour event in Azle, Texas.

And, until a few weeks ago, he was ready to debut. He had gotten into the tournament on an exemption.

Then he was out. A victim of Mark Weibe's success. Weibe won the SAS Championship the day before Blackmar turned 50, which meant he got Blackmar's spot.

So Blackmar played his way in -- as one of six players coming through Monday's qualifier. And he threw out nine birdies in the pro-am. To us, that's good. To a player? They see it differently. You only have so many birdies in the bag and, well, players don't want to use them up before the tournament starts.

So when you see nine of them go in . . .it's not the Sports Illustrated jinx, but it makes you wonder.

"You hate to do that in a pro-am because it seems that rarely are you able to continue that,'' Blackmar said. "The way Round 1 started I thought well, maybe, here we go. Even after I got 3-under (after five) I thought I had chance.

"Then I kind of started pulling my putts and lacked a little commitment through the stroke after that. And it kind of got worse from there.''

The same goes for his powerful swing, which is grooved on the range but gets out of whack midway through the round.

"I'm actually fairly close to playing well,'' he said. "It's kind of right there. I need a swing key to get through the round. I don't know what's going on.

"I think my backswing gets a little longer, my tempo gets a little faster. If I could figure out what changes from driving range to middle of the round . . ."

And he tried Friday, working late on the range.

He'll play this week and next at the AT&T Championship, then that's it until next year. He can't possibly earn enough points to get into the season finale in Sonoma, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. But that's ok. He'll just be ready for 2008.

"My whole goal is not to look at the past, not to look toward the future,'' he said. "I'm taking it one at a time, trying not to try too hard.''

He's just trying to smile and enjoy it. After all, he's in.

The hard part is over.