For a third time in his Masters career Padraig Harrington has won the Par 3 Contest at Augusta National and with it the stigma that no one has ever then gone to win the Masters the same year.

Harrington held the lead at five under par and 22 strokes for the nine holes before being joined by American Jonathon Byrd.

Unfortunately, it turned into be a weather-shortened Par 3 Contest with electrical storms again playing havoc with the year’s first Major and also looking to disrupt Thursday’s opening round.

Padraig Harrington with his children and on route to his third success in the Par 3 Contest. (Photo - www.europeantour.com)

Harrington’s success was his third after the 40-year-old Dubliner had tied with David Toms in 2003, but bad weather prevented a play-off then as well.

Twelve months later in 2004 Harrington he beat Argentina’s Eduardo Romero in sudden death.

So for a third time in his career Harington is staring at trying to rewrite Masters history if he is be fitted on Sunday with the famed Green Jacket.

Last year’s Wednesday champion Luke Donald did not even take part this time because he wanted to focus on the main event, while Open champion Darren Clarke was another non-participant because he wanted to rest a sore groin.

Lee Westwood and Thomas Bjorn had British variety TV presenters ‘Ant and Dec’ – Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly – carrying their bags, with Bjorn acing the ninth and last hole.

Harrington had eight year old son Patrick and four year old Ciaran for company along with Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa and American amateur Patrick Cantlay.

“This is my 13th time playing it and the least amount of wind, so the scoring was on,” said Harrington.

“The whole thing is memorable. I didn’t hit anything stone dead or anything like that.”

There was two holes-in-one recorded and that takes to 75 the number of aces since the  inception of the Par 3 Contest in 1960.

Trophies are awarded to the winners and to each contestant whose tee shot is
nearest the flagstick on each of the nine holes.

It was also the second time in the history of the Par 3 Contest that there were dual winners due to the suspension of play with the last time this happened was in 2003.

Here is the result of the closest to the pins:

HOLE NO.                         PLAYER                                    DISTANCE FROM THE PIN

1                                          Fred Couples                             11 inches

2                                          K. J. Choi                                    14 inches

3                                          Charles Coody                           4 inches

4                                          Mark Wilson                              Hole in one

5                                          Fuzzy Zoeller                            66 inches

6                                          Randal Lewis                            3 inches

7                                          Phil Mickelson                           7 inches

8                                          Hubert Green                           21 inches      

9                                          Thomas Bjorn                           Hole in One.