News

The Masters changes eligibility policy for its Par-3 Contest

Published

9 years ago

Mar 13, 2017

One of the most exclusive events all year just got more exclusive. As reported by PGA.com, Augusta National has issued notices to honorary invitees that only “players in the field and past Masters champions” will be allowed to play in the Masters Par-3 Contest, which takes place on Wednesday of Masters week.

Before this news, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship winners received invitations to the Masters tournament for five years and were considered “honorary invitees” after that period. Past U.S. Amateur champions were also considered honorary invitees. That title allowed the invitees to play in the Masters Par-3 contest, use the practice facility and play in practice rounds.

Those perks are no longer available to the honorary invitees.

The decision affects a number of previous participants including Ian Baker-Finch, David Duval and Curtis Strange. See what those players told PGA.com about the situation below.

Ian Baker-Finch: “As a person and an honorary invitee, I’m disappointed because it was my favorite day of the year. I loved it. I’ll still be there, though, and I’ll watch like everyone else.”

David Duval: “I would never clog up the golf course when guys are trying to prepare. That’s the problem I would have had [with the practice rounds]… I guess [the par-3 contest] could be easily expanded if they started it earlier. But you have to protect it. You have to protect the competitors.”

Curtis Strange: “We had our time, and now it’s their time. I think it’s extremely nice that we’re invited to come back with your spouse. It’s been nice for these guys who want to hit balls and play practice rounds. But times change. I think with time constraints, they want to make it for players in the field. My sense is that the Par 3 was getting a little bit crowded and taking a little bit too long, and they wanted to streamline it. I think that’s fine.”

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GolfWRX Staff

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19 Comments

TONEY P

Mar 31, 2017 at 11:13 pm

I actually agree with the tournament people. What’s next a Pro am.

Reply Report comment
Miuralovechild

Mar 15, 2017 at 9:44 pm

I wish someone would win the par 3 and the tournament so everyone could shut the **** up and talk about something else. The only thing more irritating is hearing about the undefeated ’72 Dolphins every year.

Reply Report comment
Dave R

Mar 15, 2017 at 8:47 pm

Yes let them do what they want,they will anyway!

Reply Report comment
Mad-Mex

Mar 14, 2017 at 11:17 pm

Its their tournament, they can do what ever they want, don’t like it? Am sure there is 100 people ready to take your ticket

Reply Report comment
Jo Jo

Mar 14, 2017 at 10:09 pm

No more Nate Crosby

Reply Report comment
ooffa

Mar 14, 2017 at 3:22 pm

Same boring course year after year.

Reply Report comment
- C
  
  Mar 14, 2017 at 4:39 pm
  
  Guess you’d want them to move the Players, as well?
  
  Reply Report comment
  - ooffa
    
    Mar 15, 2017 at 8:32 am
    
    Yes, that is correct.
    
    Reply Report comment
Double Mocha Man

Mar 14, 2017 at 11:22 am

I’m still waiting for them to “float” a Cadillac on one of the ponds.

Reply Report comment
- C
  
  Mar 14, 2017 at 2:40 pm
  
  That’ll happen the same year they let fans walk around with actual beer bottles/cans instead of the Masters labelled plastic cups.
  
  Hopefully, never.
  
  Reply Report comment
- Darrin
  
  Mar 15, 2017 at 2:24 pm
  
  You will be waiting a long time.
  
  Reply Report comment
C

Mar 14, 2017 at 9:31 am

So no more letting kids putt?

Reply Report comment
Matt K

Mar 14, 2017 at 8:42 am

You had your time Curtis, not “we.” What about the guy who just won the US Am two summers ago, would’ve had a life of amazing Aprils, or at least when his schedule allowed him to go to Augusta. Sad day for the tournament. Bob’s tournament just got that much closer to the Frys.com classic. What’s next… lets stop inviting the US Mid Am champ, nobody cares about that guy anyway, he’ll just shoot two 76s and be on his way. This probably sounds dramatic, but The Masters is the last bastion of tradition in golf. Hate to see them erode any part of it… cuz usually there’s more to come.

Reply Report comment
- C
  
  Mar 14, 2017 at 9:59 am
  
  “The Masters is the last bastion of tradition in golf.”
  
  Don’t tell that to the R&A.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Matt
    
    Mar 14, 2017 at 12:59 pm
    
    You definitely have a point there… St. Andrews edges Augusta as my favorite place on Earth. Should’ve said “American Golf.”
    
    Reply Report comment
- DeShamBeau
  
  Mar 14, 2017 at 6:40 pm
  
  “Traditional golf”. Hahahahahahahahahaha
  
  Reply Report comment
Forsbrand

Mar 13, 2017 at 5:13 pm

Let Michelle Wie play 🙂

Reply Report comment
- Don Julio
  
  Mar 13, 2017 at 11:20 pm
  
  Settle down.
  
  Reply Report comment
- Jack Nash
  
  Mar 15, 2017 at 11:34 am
  
  With her tabletop putting style?
  
  Reply Report comment

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News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

2 days ago

May 12, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Scottie Scheffler leads the betting ahead of the second major championship of the year, with the World Number One a +345 favorite to get his hands on a second PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy who won the Masters back in April is a +800 shot to complete half of the calendar slam at Aronimink Golf Club this week, while Jordan Spieth can be backed at +5900 to become a career grand slam winner.

Here is the full betting board for the 2026 PGA Championship courtesy of DraftKings.

Scottie Scheffler +345 – (Check 0ut his WITB here)

Rory McIlroy +800 – (Check out his WITB here)

Jon Rahm +1300
Cameron Young +1500
Bryson DeChambeau +1700
Xander Schauffele +1850
Matt Fitzpatrick +1950
Ludvig Aberg +2000
Tommy Fleetwood +2600
Collin Morikawa +3500
Brooks Koepka +3900
Justin Rose +4300
Russell Henley +4600
Si Woo Kim +4700
Justin Thomas +4800
Robert MacIntyre +5300
Patrick Cantlay +5300
Viktor Hovland +5400
Tyrrell Hatton +5500
Jordan Spieth +5900
Sam Burns +6000
Hideki Matsuyama +6200
Adam Scott +6400
Rickie Fowler +7000
Chris Gotterup +7400
Patrick Reed +7400
Min Woo Lee +7800
Ben Griffin +8000
Sepp Straka +8400
Shane Lowry +9000
Akshay Bhatia +9200
Maverick McNealy +9200
Joaquin Niemann +9200
Jake Knapp +9200
Jason Day +9600
Kurt Kitayama +10000
J.J. Spaun +10000
Harris English +10500
Nicolai Hojgaard +11000
Gary Woodland +11000
David Puig +11000
Michael Thorbjornsen +12000
Jacob Bridgeman +12000
Keegan Bradley +12500
Corey Conners +14000
Alex Fitzpatrick +15000
Sungjae Im +15500
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Harry Hall +15500
Alex Noren +16000
Thomas Detry +16500
Marco Penge +16500
Kristoffer Reitan +17000
Alex Smalley +17000
Wyndham Clark +17500
Sam Stevens +17500
Keith Mitchell +17500
Daniel Berger +18500
Ryan Gerard +20000
Nick Taylor +20000
Rasmus Hojgaard +21000
Dustin Johnson +21000
Pierceson Coody +23000
Aaron Rai +24000
Jordan Smith +24000
Angel Ayora +24000
Bud Cauley +25000
Matt McCarty +26000
Jayden Schaper +26000
Brian Harman +27000
Taylor Pendrith +27000
Ryan Fox +27000
J.T. Poston +27000
Cameron Smith +29000
Ryo Hisatsune +29000
Michael Kim +29000
Max Homa +29000
Denny McCarthy +29000
Tom McKibbin +30000
Rico Hoey +32000
Matt Wallace +32500
Ricky Castillo +33000
Haotong Li +33000
Michael Brennan +34000
Max Greyserman +36000
Stephan Jaeger +37500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +37500
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +39000
Aldrich Potgieter +40000
Andrew Novak +42000
Patrick Rodgers +42500
Daniel Hillier +42500
Max McGreevy +46000
Billy Horschel +48000
Chris Kirk +48000
Ian Holt +49000
Casey Jarvis +49000
William Mouw +50000
Steven Fisk +50000
John Parry +50000
Nico Echavarria +52500
Garrick Higgo +52500
John Keefer+55000
Matthias Schmid +57500
Austin Smotherman +57500
Sami Valimaki +60000
Andrew Putnam +60000
Lucas Glover +62500
Daniel Brown +62500
Jhonattan Vegas +75000
Emiliano Grillo +80000
Mikael Lindberg +85000
Adrien Saddier +100000
Bernd Wiesberger +100000
Elvis Smylie +110000
Stewart Cink +130000
Kota Kaneko +130000
David Lipsky +150000
Chandler Blanchet +150000
Andy Sullivan +150000
Joe Highsmith +180000
Adam Schenk +200000
Travis Smyth +200000
Davis Riley +225000
Martin Kaymer +400000
Brian Campbell +400000
Padraig Harrington +450000
Kazuki Higa +450000
Jordan Gumberg +450000
Ryan Vermeer +500000
Austin Hurt +500000
Tyler Collet +500000
Timothy Wiseman +500000
Shaun Micheel +500000
Y.E. Yang +500000
Michael Block+500000
Mark Geddes+500000
Luke Donald+500000
Bryce Fisher+500000
Jimmy Walker +500000
Jason Dufner +500000
Jesse Droemer +500000
Jared Jones +500000
Garrett Sapp +500000
Francisco Bide +500000
Zach Haynes +500000
Paul McClure+500000
Derek Berg +500000
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Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site for the second major of 2026: The PGA Championship from Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The tournament’s location, just outside Philadelphia, and its status as a major championship mean GolfWRXers are in for a treat: WITBs from a strong field, custom gear celebrating the PGA Championship, and the rich culture of the City of Brotherly Love — we have noted a relative absence of cheesesteak-themed items thus far this week, but most of the rest of the usual suspects are well represented.

Check out links to all our photos below.