McDowell avoids poisoned chalice

Golf: Graeme McDowell had a hole-in-one on the final hole to take the early clubhouse leader in the eve-of-Masters par-three…

Golf:Graeme McDowell had a hole-in-one on the final hole to take the early clubhouse leader in the eve-of-Masters par-three competition.

Whether he wanted to stay there was questionable, though. No par-three champion has become Masters champion in the same week and the title is seen as something of a poisoned chalice.

So McDowell is unlikely to have been particularly upset when Italian amateur Matteo Manassero, at 17 the youngest player in Masters history, set the target at four under.

McDowell, playing alongside Rory McIlroy, could manage only a two-under-par 25 in the nine hole contest.