OLDEST MASTERS WINNERS
Jack Nicklaus, 46, 1986
Ben Crenshaw, 43, 1995
Gary Player, 42, 1978
Mark O’Meara, 41, 1998
Sam Snead, 41, 1954
Ben Hogan, 40, 1953
THE OVER-40 SET IN THIS YEAR’S MASTERS
Angel Cabrera, 46. Number played: 16. Best finish: 1 (2009). Last year: T22.
Fred Couples, 56. Number played: 31. Best finish: 1 (1992). Last year: Missed cut.
Darren Clarke, 47. Number played: 13. Best finish: T8 (1998). Last year: T52.
Jamie Donaldson, 40. Number played: 3. Best finish: T-14 (2014). Last year: T-33.
Ernie Els, 46. Number played: 21. Best finish: 2 (2004, '04). Last year: T22.
Jim Furyk, 45. Number played: 19. Best finish: 4 (1998, 2003). Last year: Missed cut.
Thongchai Jaidee, 46. Number played: 4. Best finish: T37 (2014). Last year: 55.
Zach Johnson, 40. Number played: 11. Best finish: 1 (2007). Last year: T9.
Soren Kjeldsen, 40. Number played 2. Best finish: T30 (2010). Last year: Did not play.
Bernhard Langer, 58. Number played 32. Best finish: 1 (1985, '93). Last year: Missed cut.
Davis Love, 51. Number played 19. Best finish: 2 (1993, '99). Last year: Did not play.
Sandy Lyle, 58. Number played: 34. Best finish: 1 (1988). Last year: Missed cut.
Phil Mickelson, 45. Number played: 23. Best finish: 1 (2004, '06, '10). Last year: T2.
Larry Mize, 57. Number played: 32. Best finish: 1 (1987). Last year: Missed cut.
Jose-Maria Olazabel, 50. Number played: 27. Best finish: 1 (1994, '99). Last year: Missed cut.
Mark O'Meara, 59. Number played: 32. Best finish: 1 (1998). Last year: T22.
Ian Poulter, 40. Number played: 11. Best finish: 6 (2015).
Vijay Singh, 53. Number played: 22. Best finish: 1 (2000). Last year: 54.
Henrik Stenson, 40. Number played: 10. Best finish: T14 (2014). Last year: T19.
Vaughn Taylor, 40. Number played: 3. Best finish: T10 (2007). Last year: Did not play.
Tom Watson, 66. Number played: 42. Best finish: 1 (1977, '81). Last year: Missed cut.
Mike Weir, 45. Number played: 16. Best finish: 1 (2003). Last year: Missed cut.
Ian Woosnam, 58. Number played: 27. Best finish: 1 (1991). Last year: Missed cut.
Note: All ages as of April 7
It has been 30 years since Jack Nicklaus won the last of his six Masters titles at the advanced age of 46, in simply the best tournament ever played on that impossibly green ground.
Back in advance of the 1986 Masters, it was written in this newspaper that Nicklaus had no chance, his game a corroded antique. The words were posted at his rented manse that year, although there is some debate over how much they may have poked The Bear.
So, what is it going to take to get another aging golfer into a green jacket that honestly better suits men of advanced years? More insults? OK, here goes. Remember, we’re just trying to help:
Phil Mickelson (age 45). He was the runner-up last year to Jordan Spieth, still finishing four back of the kid, like a Stutz Bearcat racing a Bugatti.
Jim Furyk (45). Yeah, that swing will work at Augusta. He looks like a man trying to knock down the wasp nest at his condo in the Villages.
Ernie Els (46). He had his chances, plenty of them, back when phones had cords. He's had two runner-up finishes and a half-dozen top 10s, and he's way too old to develop new habits now.
Davis Love III (51). What, he's still playing? We thought he had retired to his paddle board and his 5 o'clock dinners on Sea Island. When he's not riding his cart between Ryder Cup matches.
Fred Couples (56). He must have gotten confused. The Champions Tour event is next week at Sugarloaf.
There’s all the Nicklaus-like shot of printed Ensure that any of them should need. And more is available if required. Now it’s up to them, and to a slew of 40-and-over players who’ll make the rounds at the Masters.
Among Nicklaus' many records, will the relative footnote as being the oldest Masters champion ever be broken? It has been 30 years, after all, and still that standard stands while an ever-aging nation awaits a new champion.
C’mon, somebody, while we’re young (well, not so much anymore).
Golf is all about the new and the fresh these days. Jordan Spieth winning everything in sight years before anyone will rent him a car. Rickie Fowler’s adorable color-blind-hipster wardrobe. Rory McIlroy showing off the youthful physique with his line of spray-on shirts and sweaters.
But what about some of the classics? It is called the Masters, after all, not The Apprentices.
“Nobody that old wins the Masters,” the late Tom McCollister wrote about Nicklaus in the AJC in 1986. It was wrong then. But is it wrong still?
Three-time Masters champion Gary Player, who turned 80 last year, was the oldest Masters champion when he won at 42 in 1978. “I said to my wife nobody will ever beat that,” he recently recalled. “Then Jack comes along and wins at 46.”
“No, (the Nicklaus age record) is not safe,” Player said. “In the old days when I started weight training and watching my diet they said Gary Player’s a nut, you just can’t do that. Now you got people exercising, the ball is going 50 yards farther, the grooves are bigger on clubs, courses are in better condition, guys have travelling gymnasiums with them.” In other words, technology and a fitness revolution on Tour have kept players competitive longer.
A few venerable souls have nibbled at the edges of Nicklaus’ age record. At 47, Raymond Floyd lost the 1990 Masters in a playoff to Nick Faldo. The leaderboard of the 2014 Masters featured two relative geezers among the top eight — Miguel Angel Jimenez (50) and Bernhard Langer (56). But they couldn’t quite close the deal on history.
If Tiger Woods, who turned 40 in December, hadn’t started dropping body parts on the course, he’d be the most likely candidate to challenge both Nicklaus’ big record of 18 major championships and the lesser one of winning a Masters in his competitive twilight.
Still a year away from the Nicklaus 46 line, Mickelson seems a serious contender now, especially with a game that has shown renewed vigor.
“(Mickelson) gets so energized when he gets at Augusta,” Andy North, former U.S. Open champion and ESPN analyst, said. “I would not be a bit surprised if he wouldn’t have a chance over the next two or three years.
“He still has length. His short game is not going to leave him any time soon. He’s able to do some things around these greens that are absolutely amazing. He’s going to get chances (guaranteed a spot in the field as a former champion) and he knows he can do it there.”
Said Mickelson, defiantly, “The ball, the scorecard, they don’t know the difference in age.”
Having just turned 40, Zach Johnson’s opinion on the matter now bears the gravity of age.
“Phil could (win) for sure,” Johnson surmised. “Guys that hit it hard who are still in good shape.”
“Furyk, that guy never ceases to amaze me,” he continued. “He’s one of my good friends so I’m a little biased, but Davis still hits it hard. And he knows that place. He’s one of the best competitors we’ve seen in the last 25-30 years. That would be awesome, as long as I finished second.”
Wouldn’t that be a fine story, not quite Nicklaus-sonian, but close enough for free TV? With a surprise victory in Greensboro, N.C., last year, Love qualified for his 20th Masters, but only his third one since 2006. Here was a fellow whose southern ties and prodigious length off the tee seemed to make him a natural Masters champion, yet his best amounted to two runner-up finishes. What a jolt that would be to finally win one on the north side of 50.
Love has a quick answer for the question, “Having lasted this long, will Nicklaus’ feat of winning a Masters at 46 stand alone forever?”
“I hope it doesn’t,” he said with a smile.
But then Love feels compelled to add, “It most likely will.”
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