Par 3 surprise: Rai wins

Aaron Rai spent Wednesday doing the one thing Masters players usually try not to do: win the Par 3 Contest. Rai shot 6-under 21 on Augusta National’s nine-hole short course and finished one shot ahead of Jacob Bridgeman and John Keefer on April 8, 2026. (golfweek.usatoday.com) The Par 3 Contest is the Masters’ loosest tradition, played on Wednesday afternoon before the tournament starts on Thursday. It uses a separate nine-hole course with holes listed at roughly 90 to 155 yards, so the day is built around wedges, family caddies, and crowd moments instead of survival golf. (sportingnews.com) That lighter setup is why the event often looks half tournament and half family picnic. Masters coverage and recap videos from Augusta showed children carrying bags, players laughing through shots, and a pace that looked nothing like the four-day major that begins the next morning. (youtube.com) (augustachronicle.com) This year’s scoreboard still got serious at the top. Rai’s 21 beat Bridgeman and Keefer by one, while J.J. Spaun finished another shot back in a tie with 18-year-old amateur Mason Howell. (sportingnews.com) (golfweek.usatoday.com) The loudest moments were the aces, not the winning score. The official highlights package counted four holes-in-one, from Justin Thomas, Wyndham Clark, Keegan Bradley, and Tommy Fleetwood, which is why the afternoon turned into a highlight reel even before the first competitive Masters tee shot. (youtube.com) Rai’s win also dropped him into one of golf’s strangest bits of trivia. No player has ever won the Par 3 Contest and then won that same year’s Masters Tournament, so the Wednesday trophy comes with a joke that it is the most charming curse in the sport. (youtube.com) (heavy.com) The history behind that joke is specific enough to stick. Yahoo Sports noted that Ben Crenshaw won the Par 3 Contest in 1987 and the Masters in 1995, while Vijay Singh won the Par 3 Contest in 1994 and the Masters in 2000, so even the two names most often mentioned did not do both in the same week. (sports.yahoo.com) Rai added a smaller history note too. The New York Times’ live coverage said he became just the third English winner of the Par 3 Contest, joining Luke Donald and Matt Wallace, which is a narrow club for an event that has been around since 1960. (nytimes.com) (youtube.com) So the week at Augusta opened with Rai holding the glass trophy, four players walking away with aces, and everyone else getting one last afternoon to smile before the real thing starts. On Thursday, the score resets, the family caddies disappear, and the course stops behaving like a postcard. (augustachronicle.com) (youtube.com)