For the first time ever, The Masters is allowing the Par 3 tournament to be nationally televised. So some of the mystique of actually being here is transmitted to fans unable to attend. The beauty of pre- Thursday is you get to see the best golfers in the world when they’re not in contention. But they are at their absolute loosest skipping balls across the pond fronting the 16th green. Here’s how it works. The 16th is a 170-yard, par 3 over water. After everyone hits their first real shot at the green, the crowd starts to chant; “Skip. Skip.” If the players rise to the challenge, they move beyond the tee box to the front of the pond and try to skip a ball off the water onto the green. Maybe 80 yards to a plot of land that slopes up out of the water. Today, just before 1 pm EDT, the foursome of Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Bernhard Langer and Martin Kaymer, to roars of approval, agreed to give it a go. The Black Knight tried a front- end skip that just missed. Both Germans accomplished the feat, with Kaymer ending up four feet from the pin, eliciting cheers and laughs from the crowd. But the best shot was the Golden Bear himself, who hit a six skipper that ended up blunting the front end of the turf scaring a turtle out of the water who started moving towards the hole. The ultimate bank shot.