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Gary Player announces his final Masters start
Gary Player, who already holds the record for most Masters starts, announced that his 52nd one this week at Augusta will be his finale.
BY JEFF SHAIN
jshain@MiamiHerald.com
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It was 1957 when Gary Player first pointed his car down Magnolia Lane to the Augusta National clubhouse -- a place, he so often has implied, where golfers ``begin to choke as you drive in the gates.''
The Hall of Famer did it again Monday, commencing his 52nd week at the Masters. Put another way, he will have spent an entire year of his life chasing golf balls around Augusta National by Sunday night
And that's where Player has decided it should conclude.
The 73-year-old South African announced Monday that this Masters will be his last as a competitor, signing off on a tenure that began before 89 of this week's other 95 entrants were even born.
''I've had such a wonderful career,'' Player said. ``My goodness, when I think of the career I've had -- you can't have it all, and I did have it all. You can't be greedy.''
Player already holds the record for most Masters starts, breaking a tie with Arnold Palmer with his 51st a year ago. Barring a withdrawal, he will become the first to surpass 12,000 total strokes sometime during Friday's round.
''He's an incredible ambassador for our country and for golf,'' said Trevor Immelman, who last year joined Player as the only Masters champions from South Africa. ``I've never met anybody who has as much constant enthusiasm for life as he does.''
Player is the last active member of golf's renowned ''Big Three'' who brought the game to a TV generation in the 1960s. Palmer played his final Masters in 2004; Jack Nicklaus ended his run a year later.
At 5-7 and 150 pounds, Player still shows off the build he sported while winning three green jackets and six other major titles during his career.
DIMINISHED RESOLVE
But even though Player has broken 80 once in each of the past four Masters, Augusta National's longer, stronger layout has worn down his remarkable resolve.
''I'm hitting the ball so short now, I can hear it land,'' Player quipped Monday. ``And the hole is getting the size of a Bayer aspirin; you wonder whether you can squeeze it in there.''
The next-oldest player expected to tee it up this week is 1976 champion Raymond Floyd, 66.
Player's 1961 Masters triumph was the first by an overseas player, opening the door a bit wider to the international pipeline that now exists on the PGA Tour.
He also won in 1974 and '78, the final time with a comeback from seven shots back to become, at age 42, the oldest Masters champion to that point. A back-nine 30 vaulted him past Hubert Green.
The lowlight came in 1962, when Player saw a chance to become the Masters' first back-to-back winner shot down by some of Palmer's high-wire magic.
Palmer chipped in from the fringe at the treacherous 16th, then birdied again after caroming off the Eisenhower Tree at No. 17. That got him into a three-way Monday playoff with Player and Dow Finsterwald, which Palmer won with a back-nine 31.
''I've always said when you finish second, only your wife and your dog remember it,'' Player said. ``That's if you've got a good wife and a good dog.''
But even that memory might turn out to be wistful as he makes his final journey up to the 18th green Friday -- or perhaps Sunday.
WILL HE CRY?
''One's a realist, and one's a dreamer,'' Player said of the two scenarios. ``I'm already telling myself not to start blubbering. It's going to be tough. I think I will cry.
``Winston Churchill, one of my all-time great heroes, always said it's never a bad thing to cry. It's a cry of appreciation and enjoyment, a cry of gratitude.''
As to whether he would join Palmer in an honorary starter's role, Player said he would defer to Augusta National's hierarchy.
''That's for [them] to decide,'' he said. ``Would I? Of course I would. I'll even exercise harder to make sure I outdrive Arnold.''
Player becomes the second entrant to declare this Masters to be his finale. Fuzzy Zoeller, who followed Player as the 1979 champion, disclosed last month that he'll end his run at 31 starts.
The affable Zoeller, 57, told reporters he would have ended it last year, but his children persuaded him to stick it out through the 30th anniversary of his victory.
''It's no fun,'' Zoeller said of Augusta National's bulk. ``It's fun to go down there and be there and be a part of it. But as far as playing, I've got to enjoy myself when I'm out there.''
