Four holes-in-one — viral gold

Four different players made holes-in-one in one Wednesday afternoon at Augusta National: Justin Thomas, Wyndham Clark, Keegan Bradley, and Tommy Fleetwood all aced the Masters Par 3 Contest on April 8, 2026. The official highlight reel from the Masters led with all four shots because that is the whole point of this event: one burst of golf before the serious tournament starts on Thursday. (youtube.com) The winner was Aaron Rai, who shot 6-under-par 21 over the nine-hole course and finished one shot ahead of Jacob Bridgeman and Johnny Keefer. Rai got the crystal trophy, but the clips that traveled fastest were the aces and the family moments around them. (golfweek.usatoday.com) (cbssports.com) The Par 3 Contest is not the Masters Tournament itself. It is a separate nine-hole exhibition played on the short course at Augusta National on the Wednesday before the first round, with holes that run roughly 90 to 155 yards. (usatoday.com) (msn.com) That short course changes the math of a great shot. A full Masters hole can take two or three elite swings to reach the green, but a 120-yard par-3 can turn one clean strike into an instant highlight that even non-golf viewers understand in five seconds. (usatoday.com) (youtube.com) The other thing that makes Wednesday different is who carries the bag. Players often use wives, children, parents, friends, former champions, or celebrity guests as caddies, and in 2026 Bryson DeChambeau even had Kevin Hart on the course with him. (espn.com) (usatoday.com) That is why the contest can look half like a tournament and half like a family picnic in white caddie jumpsuits. Golfers let kids tap in putts, children run across greens, and many players stop caring about the posted score once a son or daughter takes a swing. (golfweek.usatoday.com) (wgac.com) That family-first setup also scrambles the leaderboard. Golfweek reported that 85 players entered in 2026, but only 17 posted an official score because handing a shot to a child or another guest means the player is disqualified from winning, even though the round continues. (golfweek.usatoday.com) The aces still matter because they add to one of the contest’s longest-running stats. ESPN said there had been 115 holes-in-one in event history before play began in 2026, and four more in one afternoon pushed that total sharply higher in a single year. (espn.com) (youtube.com) There is also a weird bit of Masters folklore attached to the trophy. No winner of the Par 3 Contest has ever gone on to win the Masters Tournament in the same year, so Rai left Wednesday with a trophy, a smile, and a superstition working against him before Thursday’s opening round. (sports.yahoo.com) (espn.com) So the scene at Augusta on April 8 had two tracks running at once. Aaron Rai won the contest on paper, but the day people will remember is the one where four balls disappeared into four cups and the Masters looked, for a few hours, less like a major championship and more like a backyard game played on the prettiest short course in golf. (skysports.com) (youtube.com)