A long time ago on a golf course not far away, Charles Howell and his younger brother, Ben, went to play a round of golf together.

Charles and Ben stepped on the first tee at Jones Creek, and little Ben looked up the 434-yard fairway and uttered the reason he never took up his brother's game.

"That's way too far to walk."

Charles called home to have Ben picked up.

"That was it," Ben said. "I got sparked up for 10 minutes and it was over."

Ben Howell finally found a course suitable for walking on Wednesday. Wearing the traditional white coveralls of the Augusta National Golf Club caddies, Ben carried a handful of his brother's clubs in the annual Par-3 Contest.

The 130-yard first hole didn't scare him off, and the course's 1,060 total yards wasn't too grueling for the college student at Truett-McConnell in Cleveland, Ga.

"It was easy to walk, and I didn't have to carry his whole bag," Ben said.

Charles Howell's dream of playing in his hometown Masters has been a family affair. Ben got to experience his part of the craziness in front of a packed Par-3 house. Howell never flirted with the legendary curse, shooting even par.

"I had a good time today," Ben said. "It's pretty crazy now that he's actually out there. It was kind of a shock being in front of all those people."

Ben gets a kick out of all the mass attention his brother's foray into big-time golf has generated. The little brother isn't bothered by all the recognition Charles gets. At their parent's house, Ben's trophies - a stuffed deer, turkey and wild boar - are displayed along with a few of Charles' in the family room.

"Hunting and fishing are more my speed," he said. "My temperament couldn't handle golf."

The inside-the-ropes access ended Wednesday; Ben will have to rejoin the rest of the family outside the ropes for the regular tournament.

"I'll just have a regular ticket," he said. "I don't know how I'll handle it being back out here."

For one afternoon, at least, Ben found out what it was like to be more than a sibling and what toils come with getting inside access to his brother's career. In a hurry to get to the driving range for some last-minute practice on the eve of the Masters' first round, Charles barked back to break up his brother's interview.

"C'mon Benjamin."