Jack Newman of Des Moines, Masters Entrant, live blogged from Augusta today

Jack Newman of Des Moines, the Michigan State junior who won the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship last year to qualify for this year's Masters, live blogged this noon between his practice round and playing the Par 3 Contest.

The transcript is at http://www.golfweek.com/story/newman-masters-chat-040809.

The practice rounds have been great! On Sunday I played 9 holes with Rocco and I started out on the backside. Then I played the front 9 with Boo Weekley and Brandt Snedeker. Then I was saying my "Goodbyes" because I was just going to play 18 but then Boo asked if I would play another 9. So I couldn't pass that down. Ended up playing 27 that day. Played with Zach Johnson on Monday. Yesterday I played with the British Am Champ Reiner Saxton. Both Monday and yesterday I played holes with Anthony Kim too. It has been an awesome learning experience seeing how these guys interact with the fans and how they approach the golf course!

My oldest brother is my caddie. I gave the honors to my dad but he said he wanted me to play my best so I had my brother take the bag.

My favorite hole out here is number 18. That is because of all the history it has provided with the approaches people hit. Obviously Amen's Corner is a ton of fun!

 I interviewed Newman afterward and will have a Hlog item on him this afternoon. It's quite a story, 21 years old and at Augusta while so many thousands of pros and top amateurs never get here.

He can always say he was atop a Masters leaderboard. Newman birdied three of his first four holes in the Par 3 Contest and was the sole leader at one point. His tee shot on the third hole of Augusta National's Par 3 course settled 11.5 inches from the hole.

But he flew his tee shot on the eighth hole into Ike's Pond and double-bogeyed the hole. He finished at minus-3. Tim Clark aced the ninth hole to close at 5-under and set himself up to be cursed this weekend unless someone comes on strong to top that score.