O/T: Masters Par 3 Contest

[John Mayhugh]

I was really looking forward to watching the par 3 contest.  What a disappointment.  Geoff Shackelford pretty much sums it up with this comment from his site:

"As a viewer all I could think was, every grown man who has discouraged kids from being able to use his country club course is sitting there saying, "see, this is why we have to keep the kids outta here. Them and their doting parents will make a mess of the place."

I love kids, but watching some tour player's 4-year old putt for them just isn't that entertaining.  It would have been nice to see a bit more of the golf course.

[Jim Johnson]

I was wondering what others have to say about the television coverage of the par-3 contest. This was the first year that it was televised?

I saw all of about 3 minutes of it yesterday on TV, but in that 3 minutes I saw a hole-in-one (Coody?)...pretty cool...and what looked like perhaps highlights from previous years, Weir and 2 others hitting their tee shots at the same time, caddies putting on the greens, etc....

JJ

[Jason Connor]

I was disappointed not to learn more about the course.

I know showing  3-year-old kids in mini white jump suits probably sells more than the architectural attributes of the par-3 at Augusta, but I was hoping to learn more about the par-3 course.

It is interesting that Maggert started it. As another Aggie, I'm a big Jeff Maggert fan and I remember following him at a 1997 U.S. Open practice round where his little kid was caddying.  Apparently Maggert just took him everywhere and started this Master's tradition.

As I saw Zach Johnson's 11-month-old stomping his putter on the green, I was wondering what the powers at be were thinking.

[Dean Stokes]

I have got to admit turning this off after around twenty minutes. I think getting kids into golf is great but there is a time and a place. The par 3 day has just become a joke -  it looked like a playground out there.
Take along a grown up child or a friend instead of your tour caddy but what use is it for the masters to televise toddlers playing in the bunkers and hitting putts because Dad doesn't want to jinx himself in the real thing!
Very disappointing.

[Jason Connor]

And the jinx thing annoys me. It's hard to win the Masters -- so it makes sense that no one has won both.

We are taught to play every hole to the best of our abilities.  I like Rory Sabattini's thoughts:  Someone is going to win both someday.  Why not me?

You're going to get a lot more notoriety when finally someone wins both than by playing this silly jinx game and putting a ball into the water on 18.

[Eric Smith]

I couldn't go this year and watching it on tv was nowhere near as enjoyable as being there - though is it ever?

I last went in 2006 and the kids really made the par 3 contest a special afternoon.  I loved being there and seeing the guys with their kids.  I believe that most everyone there enjoyed it as well, there was just too many smiling faces.

My friend who was with me used to be Tom Lehman's caddy back in the early 90's on the Hogan Tour and we had the opportunity to chat with Capt. Lehman, his son and Tom's wife Melissa after they walked off the 9th green (after Jim Gray finished interviewing him).  It was pretty neat, since the last time we'd seen them in person was in 1996, walking with Melissa on the back 9 on Sunday at Oakland Hills, when young Thomas Andrew was a year old.