Rai steals Par‑3 contest

Aaron Rai turned a casual Wednesday at Augusta National into a sprint at the tape, making birdie on the ninth and final hole to post 6-under-par 21 and edge Jacob Bridgeman and Johnny Keefer by one shot in the Masters Par 3 Contest. (cbssports.com) The Par 3 Contest is the Masters’ short-course warmup, played on a separate nine-hole layout at Augusta National that measures about 1,060 yards and has been part of tournament week since 1960. (en.wikipedia.org) It does not look or feel like the real tournament that starts Thursday, because players often hand the bag to wives, children, or friends in white caddie jumpsuits and treat the afternoon like a family walk with scorecards. CBS’s live coverage described exactly that mix of aces, kids running around, and players treating the day as one of the week’s loosest traditions. (cbssports.com) Rai still had to finish it, and he did it at the last possible moment, because Bridgeman and Keefer had already set the clubhouse target before Rai’s closing birdie moved him alone to the top. CBS had the winning margin at one stroke. (cbssports.com) The loudest moments were not the winning putt but the four holes-in-one, with Justin Thomas at the second, Wyndham Clark at the seventh, Keegan Bradley at the eighth, and Tommy Fleetwood at the fourth. CBS said that total topped the previous year’s count by one. (cbssports.com) Bradley’s ace carried its own bit of history, because CBS reported he became the first player to make a 1 in back-to-back years in the Par 3 Contest. Fleetwood’s came with his son Frankie on the bag, which turned a practice-day swing into one of those Augusta family snapshots that gets replayed all week. (cbssports.com) There is also a superstition hanging over this event that every golf fan at Augusta knows: no player has ever won the Par 3 Contest and then won the Masters in the same year. ESPN noted that streak was still intact entering recent editions, and Masters histories continue to treat the Wednesday winner as someone carrying a charming curse into Thursday. (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) So Rai leaves Wednesday with a crystal prize and a place on the Par 3 winners list, but the real test starts on April 9 when the Masters opens over 72 holes on the main course at Augusta National. Johnny Keefer, who tied for second in the Par 3, is also in the tournament field, with first-round tee times listed by CBS for Thursday morning. (en.wikipedia.org) (cbssports.com)