Par‑3 aces and Aaron Rai

Aaron Rai spent Wednesday doing the one thing Masters players are supposedly not meant to do: win the Par 3 Contest. He shot 6-under 21 over nine holes at Augusta National’s short course and beat Jacob Bridgeman and John Keefer by one stroke. (golfweek.usatoday.com) The Par 3 Contest is not the Masters itself. It is a Wednesday exhibition at Augusta National, played over a separate nine-hole course made entirely of par-3 holes, with players often bringing spouses, children, and caddies into the act. (en.wikipedia.org) (golfweek.usatoday.com) That loose setup is why the scorecard and the spectacle can pull in different directions. Of the 80 players who entered this year, 63 did not post an official score, because many let family members hit shots or otherwise treated the afternoon like a picnic with golf clubs. (sports.yahoo.com) The loudest moments were the aces. Justin Thomas made one on No. 2, Wyndham Clark and Keegan Bradley added their own, and Tommy Fleetwood made the fourth hole-in-one of the day on No. 4. (sports.yahoo.com) Fleetwood’s shot carried an extra bit of trivia. Yahoo’s live coverage noted that he became the first player to make a hole-in-one in back-to-back editions of the Masters Par 3 Contest. (sports.yahoo.com 1) (sports.yahoo.com 2) Rai, though, was the one player who kept the score part serious all the way through. Golfweek described him finishing at 6-under while wearing his trademark two gloves, which is unusual enough on the Professional Golfers’ Association Tour that it has become his easiest identifier from a distance. (golfweek.usatoday.com) (pgatour.com) His win also added to one of Augusta’s favorite bits of folklore. No player has ever won the Par 3 Contest and then won the Masters in the same year, a streak that was still intact entering 2026. (espn.com) (en.wikipedia.org) That is why the joke around a Wednesday winner is half congratulations and half warning. Yahoo framed Rai’s result as “unfortunate” for exactly that reason: the prize comes with a history that says the green jacket never follows it four days later. (sports.yahoo.com) The contest itself has become more about churn than dynasties. Wednesday was the 64th playing of the event, and Golfweek noted that it has now produced 58 different winners, which means almost every year adds a new name rather than another repeat champion. (golfweek.usatoday.com) Rai arrived with at least some real tournament credibility beyond the novelty. The Professional Golfers’ Association Tour’s Masters betting profile said he finished tied for 27th at Augusta National in 2025 at 1-under, so this was not a first look at the course, only a much shorter and friendlier version of it. (pgatour.com) So the Wednesday ledger now reads like this: one tidy 21 from Aaron Rai, four aces from four bigger names, and one old superstition pushed back into the spotlight before the first competitive tee shot of the 2026 Masters. (golfweek.usatoday.com) (sports.yahoo.com)