BEST SEAT

The ninth green at the Par-3 Course should be the place for the best action today.

It is a prime spot for autograph hounds, who line the path around Ike's Pond and gather signatures from the best in the game.

It also is a place to see a hole-in-one -- several have been made on the 135-yard hole, including one by Arron Oberholser in his first appearance in 2006.

This year's Par-3 Contest will be televised for the first time. ESPN will show it from 3-5 p.m. today.

DON'T MISS

There have been several celebrity sightings at the Par-3 event in recent years.

Who can forget 7-foot NBA star David Robinson caddying for golfer Corey Pavin? Or NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe carrying the bag for Ben Crane?

Old-timers might remember Rick Dees, the radio personality who recorded the No. 1 song Disco Duck , serving as a caddie for Mark O'Meara one year.

More often than not, golfers with young kids usually turn to their children for some help carrying the bag.

DID YOU KNOW?

Augusta National co-founder Clifford Roberts and architect George Cobb designed the Par-3 Course.

The first Par-3 Contest was held in 1960 and played around DeSoto Springs Pond. In 1987, two new holes (current Nos. 8 and 9) were added over Ike's Pond and the original layout's Nos. 1 and 2 holes were eliminated from the competition.

Of course, the famous Par-3 jinx is still alive: No player has won the contest on the short course and the Masters in the same year.

ASK JEEV

Jeev Milkha Singh, of Chandigarh, India, is making his second Masters Tournament appearance. The 36-year-old will answer a question each day posed by The Augusta Chronicle:

Q: Your mother, Nirmal Kaur, was a captain of India's volleyball team. Your father, Milkha, nicknamed the "flying Sikh" was a sprinter in the 1960 and '64 Olympics. Why pick a sport that took four hours when your dad's took 10 seconds?

A: I prefer walking to running. I tried athletics, but I grew up next to a golf course and I loved the game. My dad started playing, and that's how I got involved.