Chris Cowan the first to master the art of the skip on 16th hole at Augusta

That tradition of skipping the ball across the pond on the Par 3 16th hole has had a number of players putting their hands up as the first to do it.

Mark Calcavecchia and Ken Green claimed to have started the custom in a practice round in 1987 which was disputed by Seve Ballesteros and Lee Trevino who stated they’d done it in the early-80s.

But, then, photo evidence proved them wrong too. Tom Kite had been photographed skipping the ball across the water in a practice round in 1979.

So, it was Kite? No, that was a kite flying exercise too, as it has turned out.

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Ben Crenshaw has claimed he was the second player to do it. The first? That, apparently, was Canadian amateur Gary Cowan who, as reigning US Amateur champion, was in the field for the 1972 Masters tournament.

“Watch this,” Cowan said to Crenshaw during a practice round and proceeded to skip the ball across to the green.

Crenshaw confirmed Cowan’s claim. “I was there. Gary used a 3-iron, put the ball back in his stance and, bam, skipped it straight across the water.”

Langer planning Augusta farewell in 2025

Injury has forced Bernhard Langer into a change of mind, which means the German – winner of the Masters in 1985 and 1993 – will be back for one last shot next year.

Langer, who’d originally planned on making this 88th edition his last competitive appearance, ruptured an Achilles tendon on February 1st when he was playing pickleball as part of his fitness regime.

“Somebody was trying to lob me. I did a few steps backwards and hit an overhead and, as I landed on the ground with my feet, I heard this huge pop, very loud, like a shotgun. I knew straight away it was a torn Achilles,” recalled Langer.

The upshot is that Langer’s injury has sidelined him for a number of months, keeping him off the Champions Tour, and meaning only the second time since 1984 that he won’t tee up at Augusta National.

“I plan to play next year, that’ll be my last,” confirmed Langer, who attended the Champions Dinner hosted by Jon Rahm. Langer last made the cut in 2020.

Langer underwent surgery the day after the injury and hopes to be back playing for next month’s Insperity Invitational on the Champions Tour, while he is also in the field for the US Open at Pinehurst in June as the reigning US Seniors Open champion.

Bad break for Min Woo Lee

Talk about a dumb accident!

Australian player Min Woo Lee will seek to play through the pain barrier – on his third Masters appearance – after breaking a bone in his hand, a gym-related injury caused when he dropped a 20lb dumb bell last week.

“I was just doing like a side bridge glute thing and it was literally my last rep, last set thing, and I like threw the dumb bell down and somehow clipped my right ring finger . . . . so I went to the doctor and I thought it was okay because I could move it. It was just red. I thought it would be fine. Then they came in and said, ‘you’ve broken it’.

“[It caused] a lot of anxiety. This is the first time telling the public. We didn’t know as a team [whether] to tell or to not, and I felt like I should tell people because there was a lot of the pressure on me, I guess, playing well,” said Lee, who was runner-up in the Cognizant Classic last month. He now has his finger strapped up.

Quote-unquote

“G-Mac, just his grittiness and the way he goes about his process, he just gets the best out of himself every day. I thought that was super admirable” – five-time Major champion Brooks Koepka name-checking Graeme McDowell as one of the players who most influenced him when he started out on tour.

By the numbers - 5

The Crows Nest – available to amateur players competing in the tournament – can accommodate five individuals. The room can only be accessed by a ladder and features partitions and dividers that create three cubicles with one bed each and one cubicle with two beds. The area also has a games table, sofa and chairs along with a selection of golf books.