Meet the Masters patron who made impressive catch of errant ball at Par 3 contest
Brian Snyder should’ve brought his mitt. The Masters very famously does not allow cell phones on the course, but Augusta National doesn’t mention anything about baseball gloves being prohibited.
Perhaps that’ll change after Wednesday.
Let’s set the scene: Midway through the Masters’ annual Par 3 contest, Snyder and three of his buddies from Chattanooga, Tennessee were perched up high in the hill behind the 9th hole, their chairs stationed on slippery pine straw that sent a few walking patrons to their behinds.
The No. 9 hole is unique, even by Par 3 standards. Because it’s the last hole in what is basically an exhibition, everyone has fun. So the golfers often let their kids hit shots — most of which end up in the water. And they let their caddie for the afternoon — often a wife, girlfriend, relative or friend — take a hack at the 135-yard hole that was playing closer to 113 yards on Wednesday.
Famously, Jack Nicklaus’ 15-year old grandson, Gary, aced the 9th hole back in 2018 and the Golden Bear himself cried happy tears after the ball dropped. Wednesday wasn’t nearly as special, but it was a tad more bizarre.
Which led us to midway through the afternoon when the caddie for Australian Cameron Davis grabbed an iron and took a hack. And, well, he must’ve thinned it. The ball did not have that beautiful rainbow trajectory. It looked like a missile staying on course.
The ball kept rising and rising.
Holy cow, Snyder thought to himself, it’s coming right at me.
“I saw it the whole way. I stood up and I was like, ‘Well, should I catch this thing or just let it bounce?’ ” Snyder said.
That’s a lot to process in a second, but Snyder knew this: This was a caddie hitting in a contest that doesn’t mean much. He also knew he was about 50 yards from the pin. He wasn’t reaching over and robbing a home run. He was catching a ball in the last row of the bleachers.
“I caught it right there,” Snyder said, pointing at his right hand outstretched a few feet off the ground. “I kind of bobbled it but I caught it. … If it was a pro, I might have let it hit me in the butt or something.”
Asked if he could show the ball, Snyder reached into his merchandise bag and pulled out a white Titleist with black stripes and in big black Sharpie were the words “Good Luck.” The message obviously did not serve its purpose.
As for the ball itself, Snyder isn’t sure what he’ll do with it. There likely isn’t much of a market for caddie shanks on eBay. But Snyder and his friends noticed a cameraman perched on stand.
“Did you follow that the whole way?” they hollered to him.
He shook his head. They started laughing.
“You don’t see that very often,” said Snyder’s buddy, Jay Jones. “After it airs on ‘SportsCenter,’ maybe you can put it up (for sale).”
Credit Jones for the moment. After 14 long years of receiving an email from Augusta National informing him he didn’t luck out on Masters tickets, he finally won the lottery this year and decided to take three of his friends. That included Murphy, who was not just attending his first Masters, but his first in-person pro golf tournament of any kind.
“See,” Jones says, “he’s good luck.”
Just like the ball says.
Who won the par 3 contest?
This event always makes golfers seem more superstitious than any other time. Since the Par 3 contest began in 1960, no winner has ever went on to win the Masters tournament that week.
Players know that. So they’ll often have their caddie or child hit their final putt to disqualify their scoring for the event. But Rickie Fowler did not seem to care about the poor precedent.
On the 9th hole, he hit his tee shot to about six feet. Rather than have his wife take the final putt and DQ him from the contest, Fowler held up his putter, squinted his eyes and keyed in on his line. The same routine he’d do in any tournament.
And he sunk the putt for birdie, going on to win the tournament with a 5-under round of 22.
In reality, though, the tandem of Gary Woodland and his son should have been named champions.
Woodland — who aced the 6th hole on Wednesday — was tied with Fowler at 5-under when he put his final tee shot about 8 feet below the hole. Woodland is likely among the superstitious group. He let his son putt his ball out.
His son drilled it. If the Par 3 contest was a tandem event, Woodland and his son would be holding the trophy.
This story was originally published April 10, 2024 at 8:21 PM.
