Nico Echavarria wins, aces highlight play at Masters Par 3 - ESPN

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Sammy Spieth, age 3, hit a better tee shot by his standards than playing partners Justin Thomas and Max Homa did by theirs on the second hole of the Par 3 Contest at the Masters. He teed up a driver, gripped it cross-handed and sent his ball about 30 yards down the middle, while Thomas and Homa hit their wedges short and right into a bunker.

Sammy's dad, 2015 Masters champion Jordan Spieth, didn't bother to tee off. He had enough to manage with a team of caddies — all wearing white Augusta National coveralls — that included Sammy, 1-year-old daughter Sophie and wife Annie, who is expecting a third child in July.

The record book will show that Masters rookie Nico Echavarria won the Par 3 on Wednesday, beating J.J. Spaun with a birdie on the second playoff hole after each shot 5-under 22. While the Masters is arguably the easiest major to win because of its small field that includes aging past champions, the Par 3 is much easier, because most players don't even try.

Gary Player certainly does. The oldest living Masters champion at age 89, he made three straight birdies — flirting with aces on Nos. 6 and 7 — to get his name onto the leaderboard, although he ultimately didn't post an official score.

The same was true of 70 players in the field of 90. That trend likely will continue as long as the winner on Augusta National's tranquil, 1,090-yard par-3 course fails to win the green jacket. The contest began in 1960 and no one has won it and the Masters in the same year.

«I've never really been, like, buy into the jinx too much, but I also don't think I've ever turned in a card,» Thomas said.

Rory McIlroy was joined by wife Erica and 4-year-old daughter Poppy, who holed a birdie putt on the ninth hole when she