The Masters Par 3 Contest keeps growing in stature

Perhaps no sport shows the human side of athletes better than golf, and perhaps no day brings out that human side more than Wednesday afternoon at the Masters. 

Since 1960, the Masters Par 3 Contest has served as a table-setter for golf’s biggest event. It’s the last chance for fans to get a look at players before the real tournament begins and, more importantly, it’s the last chance for players to relax and enjoy themselves before embarking on the mentally treacherous journey toward a Green Jacket. 

Players bring along their wives, girlfriends, children and grandchildren for the most adorable nine holes in golf — a reprieve from the stresses of a major championship week, when normally pros are grinding away on the driving range or the practice green in an attempt to find one last competitive edge before their Thursday tee time. But not at the Masters. Instead, they’re tasked with two main objectives: Smile for the camera, and don’t lose sight of the little ones. 

“[My favorite thing is] just the collection of all the kids in our group,” Kevin Kisner said in the 2025 Golfweek Masters survey. “Saving them from running in the water, picking up clubs and ice creams while trying to hit a golf shot in between all of that.”

“It’s usually just crying kids,” Jason Day said in the same survey. “Always an adventure trying to hold the baby between shots.”

For its first 48 years in existence, the Masters Par 3 Contest was a more private affair. It wasn’t part of the annual television coverage and fans were only given a glimpse into the leisurely round via photographs or the written word. That changed in 2008, when ESPN televised the Masters Wednesday festivities for the first time — and it instantly became a hit. 

Why? Not because of the golf being played (even though there is rarely a shortage of aces). No, the Par 3 Contest is a hit because it peels back the curtain into players’ everyday lives better than any other event.

Fans become accustomed to seeing their favorite golfers in the context of a professional tournament with money and glory on the line, performing with laser focus and the utmost intensity. But once a year, every April, those players are seen through a different lens: As dads, grandpas, sons or best buddies. 

It’s a microcosm of the circle of life.

Many of the game’s biggest stars made their Masters debut when they were young — 20-somethings who brought their parents or their girlfriend along to carry their bag around the miniature nine-hole track tucked in the northeast corner of the August National property. And then they grow older. They become husbands and fathers themselves, and soon many of them have a whole crew of rugrats outfitted in the iconic white jumpsuits who insist on trying their hand at imitating their dad.

“It's full circle, right?” Jordan Spieth told Golfweek ahead of the 2025 Masters Par 3 Contest. “I used to play it with myself, Justin [Thomas] and Rickie [Fowler], and we were jut doing hole-in-one bets. Now, I've just got to make sure that [my son] Sammy doesn't hit somebody. It's very, very different. Very full circle. I used to see the kids out there [and think] ‘Man, that seems too far away.’ Now I have two walking around with a third on the way. . . It's a special day. This place is unlike any other. We don't do this anywhere else.”

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Masters Par 3 Contest a family affair