Rickie Fowler and his toddler daughter, Maya, wound up with the hardware on Wednesday at the Masters Par 3 Contest. The six-time PGA Tour event winner finished with a score of 5 under in the 9-hole competition.

Fowler was in the third group of the day and maintained the lead through the afternoon. He will tee off at 10:06 a.m. ET with Patrick Cantlay and Min Woo Lee on Thursday in his first Masters appearance since 2020.

He has never won the green jacket at Augusta National and a player has yet to win the Par 3 contest and the Masters in the same year.

The crowd cheered as if it was a hole-in-one, but Bryson DeChambeau made par with his third stroke on hole No. 8.

After landing in the water twice, the 2020 U.S. Open winner put the ball on the tee yet again. A monster swing sent the ball flying and it plunked right into the cup. DeChambeau raised his hands with a wide grin and his group mates, Joaquin Niemann and Santiago de la Fuente, dapped him up and shook their heads in amazement.

The ace train kept rolling late in the day as Viktor Hovland dropped on the sixth hole, marking five for the day. After he hit the shot, former Secretary of State and noted Augusta member Condoleezza Rice celebrated with Hovland.

On Tuesday, the affable Norweigian said winning the FedExCup title and the $18 million bonus came as a bit of surprise given how many hours he spent grinding on the range at the Scottish Open and British Open last season.

“I was always trying to learn, but at the same time, I just felt like I got to basically the pinnacle of what my golf swing was able to do last year,” he said during a pre-tournament press conference, “and just when I keep looking back at my swings from 2020, 2021, I just really had more control of the golf ball, in my opinion.”

As one of the favorites at the 2024 Masters, Brooks Koepka is focused on adding a green jacket to his list of five major championships.

But during the Par 3 Contest, Koepka showed off his softer side, holding his young son Crew while standing alongside wife Jena Sims. It marked the national TV debut of Crew, who was born last July.

“It just reinforces that you’re a role model,” Koepka said about his new role as a father. “Not just to everybody outside the ropes, but at home, too. And I think that’s a big thing.”

Sims explained how Koepka is at home compared to his fiercely competitive nature on the golf course.

“He becomes a different person,” she said. “I wish the world knew the version of Brooks that I knew at home. He’s the best dad ever. He’s hilarious. He does smile believe it or not. He’s the best guy ever.”

More: Five things to know about Jena Sims Koepka

Tony Finau has his name etched in Par 3 history because he twisted his ankle while celebrating a hole-in-one back in 2018.

Finau was among those playing in the fan-friendly Par 3 contest when he got to the 7th hole. Great shots and holes in one are not uncommon in this event.

But after getting his ace, Finau admitted on Golf Channel’s Feherty his reaction was over the top.

“So when that thing hit the pin and disappeared, the excitement level for me was one like I don’t know if I ever experienced before,” Finau told Feherty. “At that moment, I’m kinda sprinting up the fairway and I’m thinking ‘I should check on my family. Maybe they’re celebrating with me.’ But then, what happened next was probably the most embarrassing and craziest moment of my life.”

Finau leaped up in the air and came down hard on his left leg.

“I ended up tweaking my ankle a little bit. …”, Finau said before getting cut off.

“You didn’t tweak it!” host David Feherty exclaimed. “You ruptured it out of the socket. … and then you just put it right back in!”

“I did,” Finau said.

But he still enjoys the competition, especially because he can play with his oldest son, Jraice. The 12-year-old competes in the PGA Junior League and made a putt for his father at Augusta while he was mic’d up answering questions.

“I just enjoy playing with him since he loves the game as much as I do,” the father said. 

The holes-in-one kept coming in the afternoon, as Lucas Glover dropped an ace on the seventh hole, marking the fourth ace on the day and the first time that hole had been aced since 2019.

A third hole-in-one for the day was recorded, this time on the 155-yard No. 5 hole, which is the longest hole of the competition. Staraka also had an ace last year.

Sepp Straka blasted his tee shot just past the hole, but drew it back and it rolled right in. Straka jumped into the air and celebrated with his group Chris Kirk and J.T. Poston.

Verne Lundquist is soaking up every moment as he makes his final appearance as a member of the CBS Sports broadcast team at the 2024 Masters.

With his wife Nancy by his side, Lundquist has been spending time with Augusta National Golf Club members who have become friends. He’s also been reminiscing with Sean McManus, the longtime CBS Sports chairman, who will depart when Lundquist does.

“It’s time. I’m not a spring chicken anymore. And my boss and I talked about it a couple of years ago. By the way, he is retiring at the same time,” Lundquist said during a recent fundraiser in Austin, Texas, for Ben Crenshaw’s Save Muny project.

Nick Dunlap was set to be in the field for the 2024 Masters as an amateur until he won the American Express and turned professional. The amateur said he enjoyed the experience, even if it didn’t give him the full experience he’ll get this week.

“I went to Augusta before the Cognizant, I think that was maybe a month or two months ago,” Dunlap said. “It wasn’t quite in tournament shape. The greens were a little slow and the fairways a little longer, but there was still that awe about this place.”

It’s not the Par 3 Contest without all the cute kids running around in their signature white caddie uniforms. Here is a full gallery of some of the best from Wednesday’s action.

In what was one of the cuter moments of the day, Ben Crenshaw’s grandson got a little love from lefty Bubba Watson and made one miraculous putt.

Christo Lamprecht, at 6-foot-8, is one of five amateurs in the field. That means he has a couple special privileges this week others won’t be able to enjoy.

On Monday, it was the annual Amateur Dinner, where he and the other four ams got to enjoy a dinner with Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley. Then, Lamprecht got to partake in another tradition reserved for amateurs: staying a night in the Crow’s Nest.

It’s a room that is reserved for amateurs the week of the Masters. Measuring only 30 feet by 40 feet, the tight space is historic sitting above the Augusta National clubhouse.

“The Crow’s Nest is going to be fun,” Lamprecht said. “Only night I’ll be staying here, but I’m looking forward to it. Just sitting around with a bunch of amateurs and talking about our experiences and stuff, just being little kids in a toy store.”

He was 2 under through the first six holes on the Par 3 Contest, but then put it in the creek on the seventh hole while talking on live TV.

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Gary Woodland aced the fifth hole during the Par 3 Contest on Wednesday. He also spoke on ESPN+.

But the 2019 U.S. Open Champ never feared anything except the fear of failure. That is until he began being jolted awake with the fear of dying.

“I had gone four and a half months of every day really thinking I was going to die,” Woodland told Golfweek back in January. “Every day it was a new way of dying, new way of death. The jolting in the middle of the night scared the heck out of me.”

It turned out he had a lesion on his brain, and on Sept. 18, Woodland underwent a craniotomy, slicing his head open all the way down to his ear and cutting about a baseball-sized hole in his skull to remove the majority of the tumor.

“Then put it back with plates and screws. So I’ve got a robotic head, I guess,” joked Woodland, who required 30 staples in his head.

On Wednesday, he was all smiles.

“It’s great to be back,” he said. “There’s no place like it. And sharing it with my kids is priceless.”

Scottie Scheffler won the 2022 Masters, but might not make it through the weekend at Augusta.

Scheffler’s wife, Meredith, is due in a few weeks with the couple’s first child. While mic’d up during the Par 3 Contest, Scheffler confirmed he would immediately withdraw from the Masters if Meredith should go into labor.

“That is very true. Extremely factual. I’ll be outta here,” Scheffler confirmed. “Yeah, I think first child wins over quite a many things in my life.”

Scheffler’s sister, Sara, is his caddy during the Par 3 Contest.

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Luke List made the 108th hole-in-one in the history of the Par 3 Contest on the 6th hole, which was playing 140 yards.

Played on a nine-hole, par 27, 1,090-yard course, the contest is a family affair, with players mostly using wives, girlfriends, sons and daughters as their caddies.

Famously, no one has ever won the Par 3 Contest and then gone on to win the Masters in the same week.

Here’s a look at a full photo gallery.

Grayson Murray, who claimed his second career PGA Tour victory in January by winning the Sony Open in a playoff, watched with delight as his caddy (and, more importantly, fiancee), Christiana Ritchie, made a lengthy putt during the competition.

Murray smiled and pumped his fist as the ball dropped in the hole, and then he and Ritchie shared a smooch.

The two got engaged in December 2023.

Although Wednesday has been sunny and nice, the National Weather Service in Columbia predicts a 90% chance of rain Thursday, with potential 40 mph wind gusts and heavy rainfall.

“If there’s any day that won’t be normal and we will have to deviate from the plan, it will probably be Thursday,” said John Ussery, assistant director of the Augusta Traffic Engineering Division. “Our biggest concern is if a bad storm comes through and they evacuate the course. Then we’ll have to deal with all of the traffic at a time that we’re not used to dealing with that much traffic.

“We’ll be ready and we’ll have everything prepared and staged, so if we do need to turn things around quickly, either in or out, we can do that.”

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Jordan Spieth’s son Sammy is just two, but he already has a penchant for swinging the big club.

Prior to the first hole on the Par 3 Contest, Sammy ignored Dad’s plea to hit his putter and inside wound up and scorched a drive toward some onlookers.

Spieth laughed as he told ESPN’s Marty Smith about his son’s emotions about the day.

“He’s pretty excited about how big and green the course is. Yeah, I’ll be babysitting today and I’m sure I’ll only get to play like three or four holes, but it’s a lot of fun,” Spieth said.

It didn’t take long for the fun to start. The opening group of Adam Scott, Trevor Immelman and Ian Woosnam started things off and Woosnam nearly aced it, spinning one back to a few feet.

Woosnam, a fixture at the Masters from 1988 to 2022, missed only the 2007 and 2020 tournaments during that stretch. He made 12 straight cuts between 1989 and 2000 but didn’t make the cut again until 2008, which turned out to be his last time playing the weekend. He no longer plays in the event, but takes part in the Par 3 Contest.

Other than his ’91 win — after which he received his green jacket from Nick Faldo — his best finish at Augusta was a tie for 14th, which he did twice.

Scott, who was accompanied by his 9-year-old daughter Bo, tapped in for birdie, and Immelman and Woosnam followed suit to start things off in fine fashion.

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Augusta National’s Par 3 course underwent some dramatic renovations in 2022 and early 2023.

The Augusta Chronicle reported that the club had filed documents with the Georgia city’s Planning and Development Department outlining plans for two new cabins, with cabin being a relative term. One of the cabins was listed in engineering drawings as being a 6,284-square-foot structure, with the other measuring 5,556 square feet. Both border the Par 3 Course.

The Chronicle reported the cabins’ locations would change the Par 3 Course’s first four holes, according to the plans. The new No. 1, instead of playing northward, appears on a city-filed map to point northeast toward the pond, with the new No. 1 green placed on or near the old No. 4 tee. The new No. 2, instead of playing west-to-east, points northwest. The new No. 3, instead of playing southward, faces southeast back toward the pond. The new No. 4 tee, on the opposite side of the No. 3 green, seems to be placed to allow fewer shots to travel over open water to reach the green. The fifth hole would appear relatively unchanged, according to maps.

As for the rest of the Par 3 Course? When the whole Par 3 Course was basically dug up in June, it wasn’t clear what all the club had in mind. The club has since remained mum on details, as is customary. But come April 5, when the world tunes in to watch the annual Par 3 Contest with families dressed in white caddie bibs as their players try for crystal hardware, the rest of the world will get a first televised look at a very different nine-hole layout.

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After the Par 3 Contest was canceled in 2020 and 2021, the 2022 edition was shortened because of weather, with Canadians Mike Weir and Mackenzie Hughes splitting the title at 4-under 23. It was the first time since 2012 there were multiple winners because of a suspension of play.

But in 2023, Seamus Power made the first hole-in-one of the day on the eighth hole, and he did it again on the ninth hole. Bubba Watson aced the fourth. After Power aced the ninth, defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler canned a shot on there, too. Later on, Tom Hoge joined Power with an ace at the eighth.

There are now 107 holes-in-one during the Masters Par 3 Contest. Power’s back-to-back aces are the third time it has happened.

As for the winner, Hoge went 4 under in his last four holes to shoot 6-under 21 and claim the victory. Watson and Kurt Kitayama tied for second at 5-under 22.

As part of its Road to the Masters series, EA Sports PGA Tour is adding the par-3 gem at Augusta National Golf Club in a future update. Last year, the video game became the first in nearly a decade to feature Augusta National as a playable and licensed course. Now, the par-3 course is getting its due.

Some details haven’t been announced, like whether the Par 3 Contest will be a playable mode and the official release date.

The Champions Dinner tipped its hat to Spain on Tuesday evening.

On what would’ve been the 67th birthday of Seve Ballesteros, the table of 33 champions welcomed its newest member — Jon Rahm — before flooding the room with memories of Augusta’s first European victor.

“It was a great night; an emotional night,” said Larry Mize, the 1987 winner. “Ben (Crenshaw) made sure that tonight was all about Jon, Seve and Jackie Burke.”

Rahm sat at the head of the table, side-by-side with Ben Crenshaw, marking the first time a LIV golfer played host to the dinner. Here’s more on the festivities.

While the Par 3 is fun for the whole family, the merch tent is also a popular spot for those who play in the event. And what do the families look for? As Tony Finau put it, “Anything that says Augusta National is more treasured than anything that says Masters on it.”

The cash register won’t stop ringing at the merchandise shop all week at the 88th Masters Tournament but if you’re lucky enough to get inside the club’s pro shop, that’s where the ANGC gear is sold. Contestants have access so we asked the pros what are their go-to items in the shop. Hoodies, hats and the club’s pin flag were among the most popular item while the run on Scotty Cameron putters back in the day, which Kevin Streelman and Will Zalatoris highlighted, was a real thing. Here’s the latest answers to the Golfweek Masters Survey.

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