Matt Wallace beats Sandy Lyle in playoff to win Masters Par 3 Contest

Matt Wallace needed three extra holes to win The Masters Par 3 Contest against Sandy Lyle

Masters Rookie Matt Wallace is guaranteed to be leaving his first trip to Augusta National with at least two prizes for his victory during the Masters Par-3 Contest on Wednesday.

A highlight of Wallace’s five-under-par round was a hole in one on the eighth hole of Par-3 tournament which helped him in to playoff against 1988 Masters Champion Sandy Lyle, who he would go on to beat with a birdie on the third playoff hole. 

Although you’d be forgiven for being momentarily confused about who the champion is. Not helped by the fact Wallace’s group was so late on, but Lyle had actually already been declared the champion because of a glitch in Augusta National’s scoring system – meaning he was announced on air, and on social media, as the winner. 

Once that situation was rectified and it transpired the 28-year-old had also made it to five-under-par, the two players headed back to the eighth hole and secured pars.

On the ninth hole Wallace and Lyle both failed to find the green but once more walked off with pars and headed back up to the eighth tee. 

This time, Wallace almost repeated his earlier feat with a near-ace, and with Lyle in the water, a tap-in birdie was enough for him to secure victory. With his win, he receives a crystal bowl, and also will receive a prize for his hole in one. 

Wallace will now be hoping to make history this week as the first person ever to win the Par-3 and The Masters in the same week. If he did manage to pull it off, he’d also be just the fourth rookie in the history of the event to claim a green jacket. 

He tees off alongside Bernhard Langer and Alvaro Ortiz at 12:10pm (17:10pm BST).