Player: Preparing for final Masters
I am getting old now. I'm hitting the ball so short I can hear it land!
Gary Player
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Former champion Gary Player is preparing to to play his final Masters at the age of 73.
Five years after Arnold Palmer's 50th and final competitive appearance at Augusta National and four years after Jack Nicklaus's 45th and last, Player is bowing out after an incredible record 52 times in the tournament.
The South African made his debut in 1957 and missed only the 1973 event.
Now the question is not whether he will be back as an honorary starter, but when?
But Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said: "I just found out about this being Gary's last tournament two days ago.
"While we didn't talk about it last night (at the champions dinner) I'm sure we'll talk about it over the summer.
"I'm going to continue to talk to Jack Nicklaus about it too, so we'll have a couple of conversations going on."
He can expect a favourable response from Player.
Overwhelmed
"Would I? Of course I would. I'll even exercise harder to make sure I outdrive Arnold."
He recalled his first appearance and said: "I doubt whether I had 5,000 dollars to my name, I drove through these gates and you can imagine I was in absolute awe and overwhelmed, in fact."
He still managed 24th place and it took him only four more visits to don his first green jacket.
Player, Palmer and Nicklaus, who competed together again in the par-three competition, were golf's "Big Three" who in the dawn of the television age transformed the face of the sport.
He is one of only five players - Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods are the others - to have won all four majors at least once and even at 62 he made the cut at Augusta.
"I am getting old now," he said. "I'm hitting the ball so short I can hear it land!
"I'm exercising profusely, but it's very difficult at 73 to build strength. The golf course is so long - I mean, I'm hitting a wood to almost every single hole other than the third.
"It's just too long for me. I cannot get around. I've managed to break 80 the last two years, but it's getting to a stage now where I don't know whether I can do that out here. I'm getting weaker."
