8-year-old Frankie Fleetwood steals the show
Eight-year-old Frankie Fleetwood stole the show at Augusta National from his dad, Tommy Fleetwood, who merely had one of the many holes-in-one Wednesday during the family friendly Par 3 Contest on the eve of the Masters.
The young Fleetwood went viral last year when he lamented in a post-round interview that he couldn’t clear Ike’s Pond, which fronts the ninth green on the par-3 course.
So, all eyes were on him this year, even after Tommy had aced the fourth hole an hour earlier.
“I’m not so confident,” Frankie admitted, “but honestly on the range this afternoon I felt good, so I feel like I got a chance.”
Frankie made solid contact with his tee shot on the 120-yard hole, but he was off line and the ball splashed right of the green.
As he slumped in disappointment, the crowd packed shoulder to shoulder around the eighth and ninth holes implored him to take a mulligan, so Frankie reteed and took another big swing. This time, the ball missed the green by a couple of feet.
“Nearly got it. A few inches, maybe,” Frankie said.
“He was happy with his shots, and he was so close as well,” Tommy said. “Another year, right, Frank?”
As for the competition itself, Aaron Rai birdied the last four holes to shoot 6 under and win the Par 3 Contest, though that may not be such a good thing. Nobody who’s won the event has gone on to win the Masters in the same year.
Justin Thomas aced the second hole, Wyndham Clark had a hole-in-one on the seventh and Keegan Bradley, his playing partner, aced the eighth hole, becoming the first player in Masters history to make a hole-in-one in consecutive years in the Par 3 Contest.
Ex-NFL lineman Jason Kelce (Akshay Bhatia) and comedian Kevin Hart (Bryson DeChambeau) were among the celebrity caddies.
“It’s a special day,” Thomas said. “It’s really fun. Obviously, a beautiful day. And hopefully just a great start to a great week.” Thinking of the Middle East: Fleetwood and his family moved from England to Dubai in 2022 and settled at the Jumeirah Golf Estates, where he runs the Tommy Fleetwood Academy.
But when war escalated in the Middle East, and bombs began falling in the United Arab Emirates as he played in the US, Fleetwood was able to get his family on a flight back to England.
They joined him at Augusta National for the Masters this week. “The main thing is hoping that everybody is always safe,” Fleetwood said, “whether that be family, friends, whatever is going on — students — whatever that is.
I think we have no impact on what is going on in the world at any given time, but you just hope that anyone that is close to you or associated with you or anybody in general is safe. That’s the main thing.”
