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March 7, 2025: Aaron Rai of England on the 1st tee during second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard held at Arnold Palmer s Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, FL. Romeo T Guzman/CSM Orlando USA – ZUMAcg2_ 20250307_faf_cg2_045 Copyright: xRomeoxGuzmanx
Imago
March 7, 2025: Aaron Rai of England on the 1st tee during second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard held at Arnold Palmer s Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, FL. Romeo T Guzman/CSM Orlando USA – ZUMAcg2_ 20250307_faf_cg2_045 Copyright: xRomeoxGuzmanx
Raymond Floyd came four shots clear with six holes to play in 1990. Augusta had other plans. Nick Faldo clawed back every stroke, forced a playoff, and walked away with the green jacket. Floyd, the only man who ever came close to breaking golf’s most stubborn Wednesday tradition, walked away with nothing. That tradition has a new name on it now.
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Aaron Rai won the 2026 Par-3 Contest on Wednesday, finishing with four birdies in a row to end at 6-under par. He edged out Jacob Bridgeman and Johnny Keefer by one shot. With this win, Rai joins a list of players who have never gone on to win the Masters in the same week. It has not happened in 66 years, across 63 contests. Not once.
At 3:20 AM, @NUCLRGOLF posted the result on X. The framing was immediate, paired with the score.
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“#NEW — Aaron Rai has won the 2026 Masters Par 3 Contest No Par 3 winner has gone on to win the major tournament. Will Rai be the first?”
Brown Boys on top, Akshay taking the real thing https://t.co/48UMejq8YM
— Sid (@SidwardSports) April 8, 2026
The replies came quickly.
For 66 years, no player has managed to win both the Par-3 Contest and the Masters in the same week. Since Sam Snead took the first Par-3 title in 1960, the Wednesday winner has never gone on to claim the green jacket on Sunday. The numbers are clear. Out of 63 Par-3 winners, 21 missed the cut at the Masters. Only 10 finished inside the top 10. The last five winners finished 51st, T30, missed cut, around T50, and missed cut. Rai comes into the 90th Masters ranked in the world’s top 40, but his odds to win are +20000. The math is not on his side.
Rai’s recent results are strong. He won the 2025 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship with a playoff birdie at Yas Golf Links, earning his third DP World Tour title and €1.3 million. He made the cut on his Masters debut last year, finishing T27. His short game is reliable. His temperament, based on the 2025 season, is consistent.
There is a pattern among the biggest names at Augusta. Tiger Woods, despite five Masters wins, never won the Par-3 Contest. Jack Nicklaus, with six green jackets, also never claimed it. Nick Faldo, a three-time Masters champion, did not win the Par-3 either. Whether this is intentional or just a coincidence, most Masters champions have avoided winning the Par-3 Contest.
Some players have made their own decisions about the Par-3 Contest. Each year, a few give the bag to a family member, which disqualifies them from winning and lets them enjoy the event without any consequences. They get the photos, but not the risk. Rai did not take this approach.
Aaron Rai and the Par-3 Curse: Golf Twitter delivers its verdict
Fans on X didn’t argue about it. They took it as a given and started talking about what would happen next.
A cluster of responses went straight to the scoreboard. “Missed cut incoming,” read one. “MC staring him down, unfortunately,” said another. “Missing the cut” was a third. The framing wasn’t cruel. It was the reflex of an audience that has watched this play out too many times to expect a different ending.
One comment cut to the theology of it: “He’s cursed.” No elaboration needed. In golf, certain things require no argument.
The gamblers in the thread got their own send-off. “RIP to the 2 Aaron Rai bettors,” one fan wrote, a nod to the +20000 odds that already made Rai a long shot before history added its own weight. At those numbers, backing Rai was already an act of faith. Winning the Par-3 Contest turned it into something closer to defiance.
Not everyone came in swinging. One response landed differently: “LOL no, bit happy for him.” A small pocket of warmth in a comment section that had otherwise already issued its verdict. Rai shot 6-under. He closed birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie. Whatever the curse says, Wednesday was his.
The tension doesn’t resolve cleanly. Rai is not a tourist at Augusta. His ball-striking in 2025 was the kind that holds up on fast greens, and a T27 on debut suggested a course fit worth watching. But Floyd had six holes and a four-shot cushion. Thursday will tell Rai something that Wednesday couldn’t.
