AUGUSTA, Ga. – With friends and family members in tow, Ryan Moore made memories at the Masters on Wednesday.

Moore shot a 6-under 21 to win the Par 3 tournament at Augusta National, calling it a “perfect practice day.”

No one should consider it the perfect prelude to golf’s first major, though.

Since the Par 3 contest began in 1960, no winner has gone on to don the green jacket later in the week. Raymond Floyd (1990) and Chip Beck (1993) won the mid-week tournament and finished second on Sunday. But since no one has swept both events, making the Par 3 more of a curse than a forecast for the Masters.

“I’m not afraid of it,” Moore said. “You never know. Someone has got to break that curse at some point in time, so hopefully it’s me, if I end up winning. Who knows? I might go shoot 8 under or something, make a couple hole-in-ones. We’ll see.”

Moore made a relatively short putt on the ninth hole to get to 6 under. He finished one shot behind the Par 3 record held by Art Wall (1965) and Gay Brewer (1973).

Moore played the round with his 18-month-old son, Tucker, who got more attention as he pounded his plastic driver all around the course.

“It was fun having my boy out there and playing a round, you know, playing with a couple of friends,” Moore said. “That’s what it’s for, to kind of make you relax a little bit and just go and enjoy yourself the afternoon before.”

Kevin Stadler and Fuzzy Zoeller finished tied for second at 4-under 23. Bernhard Langer, Joost Luiten and Victor Dubuisson were another stroke back.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -Tennis star Caroline Wozniacki stood out at the Masters on Wednesday – and not because of her erratic golf game this time.

Wozniacki showed up at Augusta National with her blonde hair dyed bright pink. And she wore matching shoes!

A former top-ranked player on the WTA Tour, Wozniacki caddied for fiancé Rory McIlroy in the Par 3 contest. While other golfers’ kids were the main attraction during the fun event, Wozniacki’s flashy locks got all the attention.

Wozniacki also caddied for McIlroy last year, and drew laughs when she a swing at a ball and sent it dribbling into a pond. She didn’t any hacks this time, just making a putt on the ninth green.

The two sports celebrities were engaged over the holidays. They have set a wedding date but are keeping the details private for now.

TODDLERS RULE

Wyatt, Will and Abby Johnson (Rob Carr/ Getty Images)

The Par 3 contest might as well have been a cutest kid competition.

The annual event at the Masters delivered some of the most adorable moments of the week Wednesday.

Ryan Moore’s 18-month-old son, Tucker, pounded a plastic driver into the ground as he ran across the practice green. Scott Stallings’ 14-month-old son, Finn, putted balls with a small driver and was a star on several holes, stumbling around as he balanced the whole walking and swinging thing. Kevin Streelman carried his 4-month-old daughter, Sophia, to the first tee before handing her off.

All the kids were decked out in white coveralls, the traditional attire for caddies at Augusta National.

Jason Day’s 21-month-old son, Dash, watched his father on the practice range. At the end of the session, Day wrapped the boy’s hands around a cut-down driver and teed one up for him. He made solid contact every time, something only swing with one hand on the club. Day couldn’t keep the balls on the tee fast enough.

Whack! Whack! Whack!

Before long, the boy took his father’s hand and walked with him over to first hole.

The children were as much part of the Par 3 tournament as their dads, with the older ones carrying bags and even getting a chance to putt in front of hundreds of spectators.

“It’s really for the people,” said two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer.

Added 2008 Masters champ Trevor Immelman, who had his son and daughter in tow: “It’s great. My little guy’s been doing this since he was 1 or 2. They look forward to it all the time.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A quick stroll across the manicured landscape of Augusta National afforded a glimpse of why this Masters is so hard to figure out.

On the putting green in a quiet moment of practice was 20-year-old Jordan Spieth, one of a record 24 newcomers who has every reason to believe he can win. On the golf course for the final day of practice was Webb Simpson, a former U.S. Open champion and one of 21 players who have captured the last 24 majors.

And under the oak tree outside the clubhouse was Miguel Angel Jimenez, the 50-year-old Spaniard trying to make sense of it all.

He recalled his first Masters in 1995, when Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal shared secrets to Augusta National, such as keeping the ball in the right spots on the green and “to realize here that the target is not the hole.”

“The more you play, the more you like, no?” Jimenez said as he leaned against his golf bag, looking relaxed as ever behind his aviator sunglasses.

But as he considered the rookies – Spieth and Patrick Reed, Harris English and Jimmy Walker – he dismissed the notion that experience was required for a green jacket.

“There are 24 guys here for the first time,” he said. “But there’s a reason they are here, no?”

Nowhere to be found, of course, was Tiger Woods.

Out of golf until the summer because of back surgery, out of the Masters for the first time in his career, the show goes on.

“Well, we miss Tiger, as does the entire golf world,” Masters chairman Billy Payne said. “He is always a threat to make a run and do well and win here at Augusta National. … Nevertheless, this is the Masters. This is what we hope is the best tournament in the world, one of the greatest sporting events. And I think we will have a very impressive audience and have another great champion to crown this year.”

The course closed for practice Wednesday afternoon, and a stream of fans made their way over to the Par 3 Tournament, where occasional cheers broke the silence. It was a precursor of what was sure to follow over the next four days at a major that rarely fails to deliver drama.

Even without Woods.

“It’s probably the most anticipated week of the year,” Rory McIlroy said. “It’s been eight months since we’ve had a major. It’s Augusta. … There’s a lot of guys that seem like once they drive up Magnolia Lane here, something lights up inside them.”

That could be Phil Mickelson, who last year won the British Open at age 42 and now has a chance to join Woods and Arnold Palmer with a fourth green jacket. It could be Adam Scott, trying to join Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only back-to-back winners.

Considering how this year has gone, it could be anybody.

Jason Day, Sergio Garcia and former Masters champion Zach Johnson are the only players from the top 10 who have won anywhere in the world. Only one of the last seven winners on the PGA Tour was ranked in the top 75.

“I think if you’re outside the top 50 in the world this week, you’ve got a great chance,” U.S. Open champion Justin Rose said with a laugh.

Rose, however, falls on the side of experience – knowing where to miss, knowing where you can’t afford to miss, where the hole locations tend to be on the contoured greens and using the slope to get the ball close.

“Always you can have the unknowns,” he said. “But I would say 15 guys are pretty strong favorites.”

Woods has become a polarizing figure in golf, especially at the Masters. Since he last won a green jacket in 2005, only once has Woods finished out of the top six. That’s what made him so compelling at Augusta. He always seems to be there.

And that’s why this Masters seems to lack definition.

No one is dominating golf at the moment. Walker has the most PGA Tour wins (three) this season, but this is his first Masters. Scott had a chance to go to No. 1 in the world three weeks ago at Bay Hill, but he lost a three-shot lead in the final round to Matt Every, who had never won in his career.

Never has there been this much chatter about Masters rookies. Then again, there has never been this many. And they’re not bashful about their chances.

“Doesn’t matter if you’ve played here once or if you’ve played here 50 times,” Reed said. “When it comes down to it, it’s just going to be that whoever is playing the best is going to walk away with the trophy.”

So maybe it’s not that hard to figure out, after all.

VICTORIA, B.C. – Canada has qualified for the World Junior Boys Championship by capturing one of two available spots through a qualifier being held at Victoria Golf Club.

Collectively, the boys stormed back Wednesday to steal first place honours from Mexico with a final round combined score of 3-under par. As a team the boys finished 11-over par, two strokes ahead of Mexico, who slipped down the leaderboard with a closing round of 9-over par.

Development Squad member Matt Williams was a model of consistency throughout the event, finishing at even par 210 (73-71-66). The 17-year-old Calgary native carded six birdies Wednesday en route to a 4-under 66 to finish as leading Canadian in 2^nd place.

Development Squad teammates Étienne Papineau (St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Qué.), Carter Simon (Sutton, Ont.) and Tony Gil (Vaughan, Ont.) also had strong final rounds. They finished tied for third, fifth and seventh respectively.

Team Mexico earned the second qualifying spot via the event. They were led by Alvaro Ortiz, who was the overall leading individual scorer with 4-under 206 (70-69-67).

Canada and Mexico will tee-it-up at the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup this June along with 10 other nations.

For the full leaderboard from the qualifying event being held at Victoria Golf Club, click here.

AUGUSTA, Ga. –  Jordan Spieth speaks with reverence when hanging out with the greats of the game at Augusta National.

It’s always “Mr. Watson” this, “Mr. Crenshaw” that.

But, in his first trip to the Masters, Spieth feels he’s got as good a chance as anyone to capture a green jacket.

That’s the way it is with these kids today.

They’re not very patient.

A new wave of 20-somethings is taking golf by storm, eager to make their mark and not at all beaten down by the aura of Tiger Woods, who hasn’t won a major championship since 2008 and isn’t even at Augusta this week as he recovers from the latest in a series of injuries.

Nine players under the age of 30 have won PGA Tour events since the official start of the season last fall, including a pair of victories by brash 23-year-old Patrick Reed.

That list doesn’t even include perhaps the best of the youngsters: Rory McIlroy, already a two-time major champion at age 24, and Spieth, who last summer became the youngest Tour winner since the Depression before he even celebrated his 20th birthday.

“It helps me when I’m on the course when I can see younger and younger guys winning golf tournaments,” Spieth said. “I believe that it doesn’t take as much experience as maybe guys would have thought five years ago, six years ago.”

Arnold Palmer is certainly impressed with a group that also includes Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Harris English, Chris Kirk, Scott Stallings, Russell Henley and Chesson Hadley.

“I’ve been watching these young guys,” Palmer said Tuesday, “and it’s amazing how they hit the golf ball, how well they play. I’ve never ceased to be pleased and surprised to see the physical conditioning that these young people are coming with, to see their ability, to see how they play the game.

“I look at them and you think about a 23, 22, 25-year-old, and you see the shots they are hitting and how far they are hitting the golf ball, I’m startled, surprised and pleased.”

Spieth credits players such as Woods and Phil Mickelson for inspiring this new generation _ and not just in the United States. Look at someone such as Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who turned pro a year ago and, before the season was done, had tied for sixth at the British Open.

He’s only 22, and getting ready for his first Masters as a paid player.

“Everybody in the field has a chance to win it,” said Matsuyama, who was the low amateur at the 2011 Masters. “I feel like I’m one of those, too, that has a chance.”

Spieth feels the same way, even though he’s playing the Masters for the first time.

The last Augusta rookie to claim the green jacket was Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. The only other ones to do it were the first two winners: Horton Smith in 1934 and Gene Sarazen in ’35.

“It’s getting younger,” Spieth said, talking about the potential contenders. “The game is getting better, younger, and vastly spreading to different and more places. I think that we’ll continue to see younger and younger players step up and be able to win early, such as we have.”

Reed is as confident as anyone. He’s won three times in seven months going back to last season, including a World Golf Championship, and declared on national television that he already feels like one of the top five players in the world.

For the record, the Masters will be his first major.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve played here once or if you’ve played here 50 times,” Reed said. “When it comes down to it, it’s just going to be one of those things that whoever is playing the best is going to walk away with the trophy.”

Of course, if he was a betting man, he’d be betting on himself.

“Experience always helps,” Reed said, “but at the same time, with how many young guys are coming out and winning and all that kind of thing, I feel like … whoever it playing the best – whether you have experience or don’t – is going to pull off a victory.”

Woods’ troubles – personal issues, a body that’s starting to break down, the longest drought of his career in the majors – has certainly contributed to that new swagger among the youngsters.

There were plenty of talented players who came along at the same time as Woods, but they knew their chances of winning the biggest tournament were pretty much nil when he was on his game.

Now, there’s no such roadblock standing in the way.

These guys feel like they can win any tournament.

“It’s changed now,” Spieth said. “With the younger guys not being scared to win, I think that can only be better for the game.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – With rare exception, no other major championship inflicts as much emotional pain as Augusta National. The perks of winning include a lifetime exemption to the Masters and a spot in the most exclusive locker room in golf.

The scars of finishing second linger because players return to the same course year after year.

Think back 10 years ago.

Everyone remembers Phil Mickelson’s birdie curling into the cup, and Lefty leaping with legs splayed to celebrate his first major.

Equally compelling was the image of Ernie Els on the putting green preparing for a playoff. He turned toward the 18th green when he heard the gallery erupt in cheers for the winning birdie, and then the Big Easy hung his head, scooped up his golf balls and walked quietly away.

Tom Weiskopf was runner-up four times, the most of anyone who never wore a green jacket, including 1975 when Jack Nicklaus holed that 45-foot birdie putt on the 16th.

Years later while working as a TV analyst, Weiskopf was asked what Nicklaus was thinking. “If I knew what he was thinking, I would have won this championship,” he said.

Here are the five most heartbreaking losses at the Masters:

5. KEN VENTURI: Venturi isn’t the only 54-hole leader at the Masters to shoot 80 in the final round, which he did in 1956 in what remains the closest an amateur ever came to winning a green jacket. He three-putted six times to finish one shot behind Jack Burke Jr., who rallied from a record eight shots behind to win. Venturi later said if he had won, he would have stayed an amateur forever.

He was a pro in 1958, the leading money winner on tour and one of the favorites. Venturi finished two shots behind Arnold Palmer in the Masters known for Palmer playing two balls behind the 12th green while successfully appealing a ruling. And then in 1960, Venturi was in the clubhouse at 5-under 283. Palmer birdied the last two holes to beat him by one shot. Venturi, who died last year, had to settle for a lone U.S. Open title.

4. SCOTT HOCH: Hoch was never a regular contender at the Masters, though his one close call ranks among the most famous missed putts in Augusta National history.

Often overlooked is a short par putt Hoch missed on the 17th hole in regulation in 1989. He made par on the final hole for a 69 and headed for a sudden-death playoff with Nick Faldo. The playoff began on the 10th hole, with an advantage immediately to Hoch when Faldo struggled to make a bogey.

Hoch had two putts for a green jacket. He rolled his birdie putt by the cup – some references say 2 feet, others 3 feet, but it was just over tap-in range. Hoch studied it from both sides, backed off – and then missed it, flipping his putter in the air. Faldo won with a birdie on the next hole.

3. ED SNEED: Sneed had three PGA Tour wins and had never finished better than 18th in the 13 majors he played. But he looked like a world-beater at Augusta National in 1979 when he took a five-shot lead into the final round.

Sneed still led by three shots with three holes to play when one of the greatest collapses at the Masters unfolded. He closed with three bogeys for a 76 to slip into a sudden-death playoff – the first at the Masters – with Tom Watson and Masters rookie Fuzzy Zoeller. They all made par on No. 10, and Zoeller won with a birdie on the 11th.

“Ed Sneed needs one par in three holes to win the Masters, and we never heard from him again,” Gary Player said recently.

2. ROBERTO DE VICENZO: One year after the Argentine captured the British Open, De Vicenzo was on the cusp of winning the 1968 Masters until he made a bogey on the 18th hole to fall into a tie with Bob Goalby.

The bogey turned out to be the least of his problems. He still closed with a 65, only that’s not what was on the scorecard kept by Tommy Aaron. The birdie 3 that De Vicenzo made on the 17th to take the lead had been entered as a 4, and De Vicenzo signed his card. Under the Rules of Golf, if a score on the card is lower than what a player made, the penalty is disqualification. If the score is higher, it stands. The 65 became a 66. Instead of a playoff, he was a runner-up.

That led to one of the most famous lines in golf from De Vicenzo: “What a stupid I am.”

1. GREG NORMAN: No other player symbolizes heartbreak at Augusta National than the Shark.

His best opportunity was in 1996, when Norman set a major championship record by blowing a six-shot lead in the final round to Nick Faldo. Ten years earlier, Norman ran off four straight birdies late in the round to tie Jack Nicklaus, only to hit 4-iron from the 18th fairway into the gallery to make bogey.

But the most crushing blow was in 1987.

At the previous major, the 1986 PGA Championship, Norman lost on the final hole when Bob Tway holed out from a bunker. At the Masters, he had the upper hand on the second hole of a playoff against Larry Mize, who had missed the green at No. 11 well to the right. Mize chipped across the 11th green, and it was picking up speed when it rammed into the pin and dropped for birdie.

BEAUMONT, Calif. – Alexis Anghert fired a 7-under 65 at Oak Valley Golf Club Tuesday to take a one-stroke lead in the first round of PGA Tour Canada’s California Q-School. Anghert, a native of Deauville, France who now resides in Quebec City, carded seven birdies, an eagle and two bogeys to lead by two over four players through one round.

Thirty players finished under par for the first round of the 72-hole, no-cut tournament that will see 18 players earn exempt status on PGA Tour Canada for 2014, with the rest of the top-40 plus ties earning non-exempt status.

Anghert, a 26-year old Université Laval graduate, is looking to join fellow Quebecer and former Laval teammate Max Gilbert, who last year won the TOUR Championship of Canada presented by Freedom 55 Financial, on PGA Tour Canada this season.

“I played well today,” said Anghert. “Max and I travelled together all year long last year. We’ve been in Arizona to play the Gateway Tour. Hopefully I’ll get through this week, but if not I’ll get through the Monday Qualifiers in Canada.”

Anghert moved to Quebec to attend Laval and still makes his home there, and is one of a handful of players from Laval looking to join Gilbert in making a splash at the pro level. The Rouge et Or won the Canadian University/College Championship in 2010 and 2012, with Anghert and Gilbert’s former teammates Sonny Michaud and Clement Herviou also playing this week in California.

“It was a great experience to play there,” said Anghert of playing at Laval. “Our team would play in Florida in the winter and play some NCAA tournaments. We have some other boys from Quebec here this week, so it’s nice.”

One shot behind Anghert in second place was Daniel Miernicki, a teammate of two-time PGA Tour Canada winner Eugene Wong at the University of Oregon, with a 6-under par 66.

“I played well. I just kind of kept it in front me and made my share of putts too,” said Miernicki. “You just try to make a lot of easy pars and it should be good.”

Two shots behind Anghert at 5-under 67 were Argentina’s Alan Wagner, who played PGA Tour Canada in 2013, along with Cardiff, California’s Peter Campbell, Austin, Texas’s Trent Redfern and Brownsburg, Indiana’s Seth Fair. Hamilton, Ont.’s Justin Kim was low Canadian with a 3-under 68.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The memories at the Masters aren’t just about golf for Arnold Palmer.

He rolls off names from the past as if he had just seen them earlier in the day. He can tell you not only how many people were at the champions’ dinners in the 1960s, but who they were and maybe even where they sat.

Names like Nicklaus, Hogan and Snead, of course. But Ralph Guldahl and Horton Smith get almost equal billing, even if their names have been lost to most somewhere in golf history.

Palmer even remembers the real name of his first caddie at the Masters 59 years ago. Nathaniel Avery went by the nickname Iron Man, and he helped the young Palmer to a 10th-place finish.

“He was great and told me where to go and what to do, and that was the end of it,” Palmer said.

Ask him about Bobby Jones, though, and he really perks up. If Palmer is a link for most to the past at Augusta National, the great amateur champion and Masters co-founder is his own personal link to the days the tournament began.

“I know a lot about him; a lot of you people in this room have no idea how much I know about him,” Palmer said Tuesday. “He was a great guy and I revere the thought that I had the opportunity after reading, when I started reading about him about 12 years old, reading about him and what he did; and then being here at Augusta and having drinks with him, shaking hands with him, talking to him about the game and what he thought of the game.”

Jones’ putting stroke was one Palmer admired, even dreamed of.

“I can occasionally think of sleeping and waking up in the middle of the night and watching him putt, and thinking about how smooth he was and how good he did the things he did on the golf course,” Palmer said. “And that pleases me.”

At the age of 84, Palmer also is pleased to be back at the Masters. He first played here in 1955, winning $696, more than enough to gas up the car and tow the trailer he shared with his wife on to the next tournament stop.

He won the green jacket four times, and this year’s Masters is the 50th anniversary of his last win. He thought he would win more and win other majors, but it was the last big win of his career.

Looking back, Palmer believes winning the Masters four times in a space of seven years may have satisfied him too much. The extra gear just wasn’t there after that, though it was hard to figure out at the time.

“It may have caused a letdown and caused me more than I had anticipated,” Palmer said. “Had I had the same driving desire to win before, I might have won a few more Masters or a few more Opens or a couple PGAs, who knows. Psychologically, it affected me.”

Palmer, who will be the subject of an exhaustive three-night documentary beginning Sunday on the Golf Channel, said Tiger Woods might be struggling with the same thing.

“There is a drawback that relates to myself a little about the psychological aspects of the game and the fact that you’ve won and you’ve won the tournaments that you were working to win, and that is still there,” he said. “It’s going to be he’s going to have to overcome that. He’s going to have to overcome the fact that he won as much as he did, and he’s going to have to refresh that in his mind and his psychological approach to the game. If he can do that, I see no reason in the world why he can’t come back and be as good a player as he ever was.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Adam Scott has gone to majors for more than a decade looking at Tiger Woods as the player to beat.

Now that Woods is out of the Masters for the first time in his career that “player to beat” could be just about anyone.

Scott is the defending champion and can go to No. 1 in the world this week. Las Vegas lists Scott and Rory McIlroy as the betting favorites, narrowly ahead of Phil Mickelson, Jason Day and Matt Kuchar.

McIlroy has never finished in the top 10 at the Masters, which is a little misleading. He had a four-shot lead entering the final round in 2011 and shot an 80. McIlroy looked at the tee times for Thursday and predicted that 70 players could win the green jacket.

TEE-TIMES AND PAIRINGS RELEASED FOR 1st & 2nd ROUNDS: Tee times for the 2014 Masters Tournament have been released and there is no shortage of star power in this major championship field.

Tee-times and pairings for Canada’s Graham DeLaet and Mike Weir are pictured below.

Click here for full pairings.

IKE RAMIFICATIONS: It’s bad enough that Augusta National had to remove the famous Eisenhower Tree from the 17th fairway because of damage from an ice storm.

That might have been the hardest decision, but the easiest to execute.

The loss of Ike’s tree led to other changes that the club felt needed to be made. And this is a major that spares no expense at trying to do everything just right.

Augusta National had already mailed out some 2,000 media guides, with a glossy cover, color photos and 420 pages of information. A week or so after the tree came down, the club sent the media guide back to the printer to update the mention on page 28 of the tree. Everything was changed to past tense, and it mentioned how it was taken down in February 2014 after an historic ice storm.

The club didn’t stop there.

It removed all the calendars on sale in the merchandise shop because they had photos of the Eisenhower Tree, redoing the calendars with a different image of the 17th hole. It also changed the yardage books and spectator guides that are on sale this week to reflect that the tree is no more.

And the daily pairing sheets? Those have a course guide on the back, and the template was changed to show the 17th hole without the tree.

VICTORIA, B.C. –Team Canada’s Development Squad bounced back from a disappointing opening round with a team score of 3-over par Tuesday in rainy conditions at Victoria Golf Club.

Tony Gil, a Vaughan, Ont. native, led the Canadian contingent by firing a 1-under 71 – sharing the low round of the day honours with Mexico’s Alvaro Ortiz.

Gil, 15, carded six birdies on the day – a welcoming sign after struggling yesterday with a 10-over 80.

Calgary’s Matt Williams came in with a 1-over 71. He currently leads all Canadian at 4-over par (73-71) and sits tied for third individually.

Étienne Papineau of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Qué.,  recorded a 3-over 73 – the third and final contribution to Canada’s overall score on the day.

Collectively, Canada sits in second place with an 11-stroke cushion over third place Trinidad & Tobago. They trail first place Mexico by 10.

The third and final round begins Wednesday. The top two teams earn entry into the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup in Japan this June.

For the full leaderboard, click here.