Some Masters facts and figures

Sandy Lyle will be going for a unique Masters hat-trick at Augusta on Wednesday - and every other player in the field will be delighted if he achieves it.

Their delight if Lyle captures the par three title on the eve of the Masters for the third year running will not be because Lyle has not won anything else in the same period.

It will be because no winner of the traditional eve-of-Masters competition at Augusta National's nine-hole short course has gone on to become Masters champion four days later.

Two crystal chalices are the permanent reminders for 1988 Masters champion Lyle of his back-to-back wins. He shot a five under par 22 in 1997, while a 24 was good enough last year when the tournament was called off because of heavy rain.

He was the first to make a successful defence of the par three crown. Only Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo have successfully defended the Masters itself.

One of the traditions of the Masters is that the holder of the title hosts a Champions Dinner on the Tuesday evening and chooses the menu.

Sandy Lyle selected haggis in 1989 and last year Tiger Woods had hamburgers and milk shakes, but Mark O'Meara's choice tonight is Japanese sushi and sashimi to start, then Mexican fajitas.

Four of the 18 holes have been altered for the 1999 Masters, but the biggest change is the introduction of rough either side of the fairways.

The par five second and par four 17th are longer by 20 and 25 yards respectively and 20 pine trees have been planted between the 15th and 17th fairways, replacing mounds.

At the 11th the green has been raised two feet, Rae's Creek widened, two bunkers removed and a new one constructed.

Also on the second the fairway bunker has been shifted right and at the 15th six pine trees are now right of the green.

There is a new man in charge of the running of the Masters this year. He is 68-year-old William W Johnson, better known as Hootie Johnson.

Last May Johnson was elected the fifth chairman of Augusta National, succeeding Jackson Stephens. Johnson is Augusta-born and is chairman of the executive committee of BankAmerica Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Masters is the only one of the four majors to offer a lifetime exemption to its champions.

Anyone finishing in the top 16 earns an invitation back to Augusta the following year, but failing that these are the other ways to qualify:

Win the British Amateur; reach the final of the US Amateur; win the US Public Links or Mid-Amateur championships; win the Players' Championship; reach the world's top 50 either on December 31 or a month before the Masters; finish in the top 30 on the US money list; finish in the top four at the Open, the top eight at the US Open or top four at the US PGA.

Failing that, the one remaining way to play is to receive an invitation from the Augusta National Club. That is how Swede Patrik Sjoland and Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez got in this time.

In fact, all players in the Masters have to be invited even if they meet the qualification criteria.

"Eligibility under the regulations does not oblige the tournament committee to issue an invitation," the rules of the event state. "Nor does failure to invite imply unfitness of any kind."

After two rounds the field will be reduced to the 44 lowest scores and ties, plus anyone within 10 strokes of the lead.

Sam Snead was the first Masters champion to be presented with a green Augusta National blazer. That was in 1949.

Each year since then the new champion is helped into a jacket by the previous year's winner. Near the conclusion of the event several sizes are chosen to fit the players in contention.

The new champion is allowed to take the jacket home for a year, but from then on it is stored at the club.

Multiple winners do not receive more than one jacket - unless their size changes drastically.

The Masters trophy, a silver depiction of the clubhouse, was made in England and introduced in 1961. It consists of 800 separate pieces of silver.

It never leaves the club. Champions receive a sterling silver replica, a gold medal and their club jacket.

There is also a runners-up trophy which remains at the club, while the best two amateurs receive a silver cup and silver medal, the player shooting the lowest round each day wins a crystal vase and there are trophies too for albatrosses, eagles, holes-in-one and the par three competition on the eve of the Masters.