Cam Smith wasn’t going to let a bad position sink his chances. With his ball in the sand, Smith managed to hit a birdie, taking a lead in the Par 3 Contest on Wednesday.

Smith need to both get the ball out of the sand and avoid the lip of the grass with his shot. He navigated both issues perfectly to sink the birdie and take the lead.

The Par 3 Contest is meant to be fun, and Scottie Scheffler decided to take advantage of that Wednesday.

The Masters favorite decided to share a tender moment with his son Bennett just before hitting a ball off the tee.

Both Scottie and Bennett lined up shots, with Bennett shooting it the wrong way.

It’s still incredibly early, but José María Olazábal and Wyndham Clark hold the early lead at the Par 3 Contest. Both men sit at -1, though Olazábal has played one more hole so far.

A number of competitors are no longer scoring at the event, cutting the field pretty low early on. That list includes Justin Thomas, who was at -2 through five holes after his early hole in one.

What a start for Justin Thomas! On the second hole of the Par 3 Contest on Wednesday, Thomas picked up a hole in one.

The shot was incredibly placed, as Thomas put just the right amount of spin on the ball to make it charge back into the hole after bouncing past it.

An absolute legend on the ninth hole.

Scheffler heads into the 90th Masters as the favorite yet again at +600, but he is not among our picks to win … because that would be no fun.

Here’s a look at which players our experts are picking to walk away with the coveted green jacket at the 2026 Masters Tournament:

• Jay Busbee: Bryson DeChambeau (+1200)

• Dan Wolken: Ludvig Åberg (+1400)

• Jay Hart: Jon Rahm (+1000)

• Ryan Young: Ludvig Åberg (+1400)

Read more on why our experts made their picks here.

Round 1 of the 2026 Masters Tournament tees off on Thursday. Here’s a look at the groupings and Round 1 tee times:

• 7:40 a.m. — Johnny Keefer, Haotong Li

• 7:50 a.m. — Naoyuki Kataoka, Max Homa, Carlos Ortiz

• 8:02 a.m. — Jose Maria Olazabal, Rasmus Neergaard‑Petersen, Aldrich Potgieter

• 8:14 a.m. — Ángel Cabrera, Sami Valimaki, *Jackson Herrington

• 8:26 a.m. — Charl Schwartzel, Max Greyserman, Ryan Fox

• 8:38 a.m. — Vijay Singh, Matt McCarty, Rasmus Højgaard

• 8:50 a.m. — Kurt Kitayama, Kristoffer Reitan, Casey Jarvis

• 9:02 a.m. — Bubba Watson, Nico Echavarria, *Brandon Holtz

• 9:19 a.m. — Cameron Smith, Sam Burns, Jake Knapp

• 9:31 a.m. — Keegan Bradley, Ryan Gerard, Nick Taylor

• 9:43 a.m. — Dustin Johnson, Shane Lowry, Jason Day

• 9:55 a.m. — Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood, Akshay Bhatia

• 10:07 a.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele

• 10:19 a.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley

• 10:31 a.m. — Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, *Mason Howell

• 10:43 a.m. — Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Alex Noren

• 11:03 a.m. — Samuel Stevens, Sungjae Im

• 11:15 a.m. — Andrew Novak, Tom McKibbin, Brian Campbell

• 11:27 a.m. — Mike Weir, Wyndham Clark, *Mateo Pulcini

• 11:39 a.m. — Zach Johnson, Michael Kim, Nicolai Højgaard

• 11:51 a.m. — Danny Willett, Davis Riley, *Ethan Fang

• 12:03 p.m. — Adam Scott, Daniel Berger, Brian Harman

• 12:15 p.m. — Fred Couples, Min Woo Lee, *Fifa Laopakdee

• 12:27 p.m. — Sergio Garcia, Aaron Rai, Jacob Bridgeman

• 12:44 p.m. — Harry Hall, Corey Conners, Michael Brennan

• 12:56 p.m. — J.J. Spaun, Maverick McNealy, Tyrrell Hatton

• 1:08 p.m. — Jon Rahm, Chris Gotterup, Ludvig Åberg

• 1:20 p.m. — Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka

• 1:32 p.m. — Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, Justin Thomas

• 1:44 p.m. — Scottie Scheffler, Robert MacIntyre, Gary Woodland

• 1:56 p.m. — Harris English, Marco Penge, Si Woo Kim

Note: Players with asterisks denote amateurs

Did you know … no golfer has ever won the Masters Par 3 contest and gone on to win the Masters Tournament in the same year?