Masters Tournament Par-3 contest

Par-3 Contest

Tournament information
Location	Augusta, Georgia, U.S.
Established	1960, 56 years ago
Course(s)	Augusta National Golf Club
Par	27
Length	1,060 yards (970 m)[1]
Organized by	Augusta National Golf Club
Format	Stroke play
Month played	April
Tournament record score
To par	−8 Jimmy Walker (2016)
Current champion
Jimmy Walker

The Masters Tournament Par-3 contest is a golf competition which precedes the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. The first Par-3 contest was held 56 years ago, before the 1960 tournament, and was won by three-time Masters champion Sam Snead.^[2] The contest takes place in a single round on a nine-hole, par-27 course in the northeast corner of Augusta National Grounds, which was designed in 1958 by George Cobb and club founder Clifford Roberts.^[1][3][4]

Traditionally the golfers playing in the contest have invited family members onto the course to caddy for them, sometimes allowing them to play shots on their behalf.^[5] Numerous holes in one have been made during the history of the tournament, including nine in the 2016 tournament.^[4]

Snead became the tournament's first multiple winner when he triumphed in the 1974 event. The most recent winner, in 2016, is Jimmy Walker who won with a course-record round of 8 below par, which included a hole in one. Snead, Sandy Lyle, Pádraig Harrington, Isao Aoki and David Toms are the five players to have won the tournament on more than one occasion. The result of the tournament has been decided by a playoff on 20 occasions, while the contest has concluded with a tie twice. Just 14 of the 59 winners (including ties) are non-American. No winner of the Par-3 contest has gone on to win the Masters in the same year.^[4]

Winners

Sam Snead (pictured in 1967) won the inaugural Par-3 contest in 1960, and went on to win the 1974 contest.

Fijian Vijay Singh (pictured in 2007) claimed the title in 1994.

Sandy Lyle (pictured in 2006) won two consecutive contests, in 1997 and 1998.

Irish golfer Pádraig Harrington (pictured in 2007) has won the contest three times, including one shared title and one title after a playoff.

Key

 – the contest ended in a tie.^[6]

* – the contest ended in a playoff.^[6]

(2), (3)...  – second, third victory for the winner, etc.

Year	Winner	Country	To par[7][a]	Ref.
1960	Sam Snead	United States	004 !−4	[2]
1961	Deane Beman	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1962	Bruce Crampton	Australia	005 !−5	[6]
1963*	George Bayer	United States	004 !−4	[6]
1964	Labron Harris Jr.	United States	004 !−4	[6]
1965	Art Wall Jr.	United States	007 !−7	[8]
1966	Terry Dill	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1967*	Arnold Palmer	United States	004 !−4	[6]
1968	Bob Rosburg	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1969*	Bob Lunn	United States	004 !−4	[6]
1970	Harold Henning	South Africa	006 !−6	[6]
1971*	Dave Stockton	United States	004 !−4	[6]
1972	Steve Melnyk	United States	004 !−4	[6]
1973	Gay Brewer	United States	007 !−7	[8]
1974*	Sam Snead (2)	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1975*	Isao Aoki	Japan	004 !−4	[6]
1976	Jay Haas	United States	006 !−6	[6]
1977*	Tom Weiskopf	United States	004 !−4	[9]
1978*	Lou Graham	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1979	Joe Inman	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1980	Johnny Miller	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1981	Isao Aoki (2)	Japan	005 !−5	[10]
1982*	Tom Watson	United States	004 !−4	[11]
1983	Hale Irwin	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1984	Tommy Aaron	United States	005 !−5	[12]
1985	Hubert Green	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1986*	Gary Koch	United States	004 !−4	[6]
1987	Ben Crenshaw	United States	005 !−5	[13]
1988	Tsuneyuki Nakajima	Japan	003 !−3	[6]
1989*	Bob Gilder	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1990	Raymond Floyd	United States	004 !−4	[6]
1991*	Rocco Mediate	United States	003 !−3	[6]
1992	Davis Love III	United States	005 !−5	[6]
1993	Chip Beck	United States	006 !−6	[14]
1994	Vijay Singh	Fiji	005 !−5	[15]
1995*	Hal Sutton	United States	004 !−4	[16]
1996*	Jay Haas (2)	United States	005 !−5	[17]
1997*	Sandy Lyle	Scotland	005 !−5	[18]
1998	Sandy Lyle (2)	Scotland	003 !−3	[6]
1999	Joe Durant	United States	005 !−5	[6]
2000*	Chris Perry	United States	004 !−4	[19]
2001	David Toms	United States	005 !−5	[20]
2002*	Nick Price	Zimbabwe	005 !−5	[21]
2003	Pádraig Harrington David Toms (2)	Ireland  United States	006 !−6	[22]
2004*	Pádraig Harrington (2)	Ireland	004 !−4	[23]
2005	Jerry Pate	United States	005 !−5	[24]
2006	Ben Crane	United States	004 !−4	[25]
2007	Mark O'Meara	United States	005 !−5	[26]
2008	Rory Sabbatini	South Africa	005 !−5	[27]
2009	Tim Clark	South Africa	005 !−5	[27]
2010	Louis Oosthuizen	South Africa	006 !−6	[27]
2011	Luke Donald	England	005 !−5	[28]
2012	Jonathan Byrd Pádraig Harrington (3)	United States  Ireland	005 !−5	[29]
2013*	Ted Potter, Jr.	United States	004 !−4	[3]
2014	Ryan Moore	United States	006 !−6	[30]
2015*	Kevin Streelman	United States	005 !−5	[31]
2016	Jimmy Walker	United States	008 !−8	[4]

Masters champions who also won a Par-3 contest

Arnold Palmer (pictured in 2009) won the Par-3 contest in 1967 having won the Masters four times between 1958 and 1964.

• No player has won the Par-3 contest and the Masters in the same year, a fact well known by the players.^[4][33]
  Raymond Floyd came the closest in the 1990 tournament, but lost in a sudden-death playoff.^[34]
• Ben Crenshaw and Vijay Singh are the only players to win a Masters after winning a Par-3 contest.
• Tom Watson is the only player to hold both titles at once, for four days, winning the Par-3 contest in 1982 as defending Masters champion.^[11]

Notes

• ^a Par is a predetermined number of strokes that a golfer should require to complete a hole, a round (the sum of the total pars of the played holes), or a tournament (the sum of the total pars of each round). E stands for even, which means the tournament was completed in the predetermined number of strokes.^[7]

References

External links

• About Golf – The Masters Par-3 Contest winners