Is it a jinx or a coincidence?

Whatever it is, no one has ever won the annual Par-3 Contest, scheduled today, and gone on to win the Masters Tournament four days later.

It's been 40 years since then-chairman Clifford Roberts introduced the Par-3 Contest at the charming course Roberts and George Cobb designed adjacent to the ``big course.''

``It's weird, isn't it?'' asked Nick Price. ``You would have thought someone would have done it.''

``That's amazing,'' said 1979 Masters champion Fuzzy Zoeller. ``It's history that somebody can't win the Par-3 and the tournament. But they also said I couldn't win the tournament in my first year (1979), and we blew that deal.''

There have been some close calls. Raymond Floyd won the Par-3 in 1990 and then lost a sudden-death playoff to Nick Faldo. Was it because of the jinx?

``I don't believe in superstitions,'' Floyd said Tuesday after his practice round. ``It will happen one day. Somebody will win it and then win the tournament.''

The only other golfer to finish second after winning the Par-3 was Chip Beck in 1993. Beck was a distant four shots behind Bernhard Langer at the end of 72 holes. Beck hasn't played in the Masters since 1995.

In the 37 other Par-3 contests, no Par-3 winner has gone on to finish third in the tournament, though two finished fourth and one finished fifth. In all, eight Par-3 winners finished in the top 10 in the tournament. Eleven missed the cut.

``It's worked so far, so there must be something to it,'' Davis Love III said. ``I think it's coincidence more than anything. It's hard to win the Masters. If you win the Par-3, it's still hard to win the Masters. But until somebody does both, it's a pretty neat record.''

Talk of a jinx ``is hogwash,'' said 1987 Masters champion Larry Mize. ``I don't buy it. It doesn't hold water. It's all in your mind. What does the Par-3 have to do with the tournament? If you win the Par-3, that means you're playing good, so you should do well in the tournament. If I win the Par-3 this year, I think I'll go out and win the tournament so the jinx will end.''

``There is nothing to it,'' Steve Elkington said of the so-called jinx. ``Most of the top players don't turn their scores in anyway. They usually fool around. They show off for the crowd. I do a bit of the same. I try some crazy shots and don't putt out sometimes. To me, the Par-3 is a way of letting off a little steam.''

Zoeller is annually one of the most popular players in the Par-3 Contest because of his antics. Sometimes, he'll let someone in the crowd hit a shot. Sometimes he'll hit shots simultanously with another player. He's been known to try to skip balls over the water on the ninth hole.

``I've never finished a Par-3,'' Zoeller said.

Lee Janzen doesn't think he's ever posted a score, either.

``I have no intention of winning it when I go out there,'' Lee Janzen said. ``I just want to go around pretty quick, get it done and get back to concentrating on the tourament.''

The jinx has grown to such stature that there is a theory that someone leading the event late in the round might make a high number on a hole so as not to win it..

``If I was leading, I'd try to win it,'' Price said.

Not everyone in the field has a chance to win both the Par-3 Contest and the Masters in the same year. The Par-3 tournament is optional, and a small number of players opt to skip it.

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Par-3 winners

Here are the winners of the Par-3 Contest and how they finished in the Masters that year.

• 1960: Sam Snead, T-11th
• 1961: Deane Beman,missed cut
• 1962: Bruce Crampton, T-29th
• 1963: George Bayer, T-28th
• 1964: Labron Harris, 43rd
• 1965: Art Wall Jr., T-45th
• 1966: Terry Dill, T-17th
• 1967: Arnold Palmer, 4th
• 1968: Bob Rosburg, T-30th
• 1969: Bob Lunn, missed cut
• 1970: Harold Henning, missed cut
• 1971: Dave Stockton, T-9th
• 1972: Steve Melnyk, T-12th
• 1973: Gay Brewer, T-10th
• 1974: Sam Snead, T-20th
• 1975: Isao Aoki, missed cut
• 1976: Jay Haas, missed cut
• 1977: Tom Weiskopf, T-14th
• 1978: Lou Graham, missed cut
• 1979: Joe Inman, T-23rd
• 1980: Johnny Miller, T-38th
• 1981: Isao Aoki, T-45th
• 1982: Tom Watson, T-5th
• 1983: Hale Irwin, T-6th
• 1984: Tommy Aaron, missed cut
• 1985: Hubert Green, missed cut
• 1986: Gary Koch, T-16th
• 1987: Ben Crenshaw, T-4th
• 1988: Tsuneyuki Nakajima, T-33rd
• 1989: Bob Gilder, 37th
• 1990: Raymond Floyd, 2nd
• 1991: Rocco Mediate, T-22nd
• 1992: Davis Love III, T-25th
• 1993: Chip Beck, 2nd
• 1994: Vijay Singh, T-27th
• 1995: Hal Sutton, missed cut
• 1996: Jay Haas, T-36th
• 1997: Sandy Lyle, T-34th
• 1998: Sandy Lyle, missed cut
• 1999: Joe Durant, missed cut

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