Englishman Luke Donald wins Par 3 Contest at Augusta – Golf news
Englishman Luke Donald will be looking to break the jinx at The Masters at Augusta after he won the nine-hole Par 3 Contest with a score of 5-under par on Wednesday.
Since 1960, no one who won the Par 3 Contest ever went on to win The Masters. However, Luke says jinxes do not bother him.
He said, “I wouldn’t play in it if I believed in jinxes. I see it as a challenge more than a jinx. Yeah, I’m not really a superstitious guy, so, you know, it’s a great start.”
Donald, who won the Accenture Match Play Championship at the start of 2011, was pleased with his game. He said that his pace depicted the form he had been carrying all year long and after winning the tough Par 3 Contest, he was happy with himself.
He also quoted the example of Nick Price, who for the very first time made the course lowest of 63 on Augusta National- something people thought was not possible, but he did it.
Luke said, “I think these kind of things are there to change. Someone is going to break that record and hopefully it will be me. So these things happen and again, it’s another little feather in the cap. I mean, it’s not like winning the Tournament, but it’s
still nice to pick up a trophy.”
One stroke behind him was Raymond Floyd and Angel Cabrera, who are the living example stating that the jinx is a reality. Floyd won the Par 3 Contest in 1990 and even managed to push the Masters into a play-off, but lost to Nick Faldo and proved that the
jinx was very much alive. Cabrera won the 2009 Masters but that year he did not win the Par 3 Contest.
Meanwhile Rickie Fowler, Peter Uihlein, Adam Scott, Edoardo Molinari and Ryan Moore fired a score of 3-under each to take a seat two strokes behind the leader.
As the tradition goes, these golfers are safe and so is Graeme McDowell, who skipped the contest for the Manchester United-Chelsea game of the UEFA Champions League.
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