First time visitors would have been confused by the frequent eruption of cheers and chants and all round general raucousness coming from the southwest end of Augusta National today. It’s Skip It Tuesday, and the capacity crowd encircling the 16th is there for one reason. The deal is: after the pros finish their tee shots on this 170 yard over-water par 3, the crowd chants “skip it” and agreeable participants walk about ten yards past the tee box to the front of the pond and attempt to skip another ball off the water onto the green. Last year I saw Jack Nicklaus wake two sunning turtles by slamming his skip into the rising mound right next to them. One of the reptiles started up the hill towards the hole in a brilliant bank shot. Never thought I’d see a greater skip. Never say never. Today about 3:30, as the winds got windier and the overcast overcastier, a threesome of Ken Duke, Sean O’Hair and Vijay Singh were so encouraged. Responding to the chant (verging on taunt) Sean O’Hair walked with purpose to the front of the pond to the cheers of an appreciative semi-thawed, semi-not-so gallery. Duke and Singh dropped balls next to him with a bit less enthusiasm. Sean proceeded to hit a perfect skip that started to climb the green but rolled back eliciting the appropriate cheers and groans. Then Vijay swung and the ball skipped and rolled up the green fifteen feet to the right of the pin to initial cheers which rose louder and louder as the ball slowly spun and sauntered closer and closer towards the hole, finally stopping dead, lipping the cup, before dropping to an explosion of excited astonishment. Ken Duke then surreptitiously picked up his ball, while the crowd was distracted by their own chants of “Vijay, Vijay,” deftly avoiding what could have been one of golf history's biggest anticlimaxes ever.