Decision to stop playing often difficult for former Masters champs

A year ago, 1991 champion Ian Woosnam walked off the course Friday after shooting 82-81 and announced his retirement from Masters competition.

“That’s my last go,” he said.

Woosnam ended up returning this week to shoot 76-78. What brought him back?

“My wife made me come back,” he said. “She said, ‘Go and play.’ So I thought I’d come back and have another go.”

Woosnam’s change of heart illustrates the difficulty past champions have of not only knowing when is the right time to retire from competition but also what is the best way to go about retreating. A Masters victory comes with a lifetime exemption, and aging players are encouraged to use their own discretion about when to say goodbye.

No two champions handle it the same way. Some, like Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw, announce their intentions a year in advance and enjoy the long farewell. Others, such as Raymond Floyd, Fuzzy Zoeller and Craig Stadler, give everyone a heads-up on the eve of their last go-rounds.

Arnold Palmer retired and unretired and re-retired again. Billy Casper walked off the 18th green on Thursday and said he was finished. Jack Nicklaus got talked into coming back in 2005 by then-Chairman Hootie Johnson and called it quits after a rain-delayed Saturday finish.

Gary Player retired after his 52nd Masters start at age 73. Nick Faldo walked away without fanfare when he was only 48.

“After the course got changed and I’d been in TV and played injured, I thought I haven’t got a shot anymore,” Faldo said. “Can’t cope with the golf course any more. If you know you can’t, there’s no reason to keep playing.”

Woosnam, 59, didn’t receive the ovation a former world No. 1 golfer deserved when he walked up the 18th fairway a year ago, and he still hasn’t decided whether this year was his last.

“I think I’m going to have to think about it, and I haven’t made me mind up,” he said. “I quite enjoyed it (this week), but I’m such a competitor I want to do the best. I just can’t stand it and just go out there and play and grinding all the time. I played really well again for two days and I just can’t really putt around Augusta. That is the problem. If I putted only half-decent, I’d make the cut every single time.

“I haven’t ruled it out. Maybe I’ll just come back and see the azaleas for next year. If it is (my last), it’s going to next year, I promise.”

Mark O’Meara, who turned 60 in January, is in the same boat. The 1998 champion shot a pair of 78s this week.

“I’ve thought a lot about it,” O’Meara said. “My take was, even coming into this week, I thought maybe this might be my last one. And it may well be. At the end of the year I’m going to take a look at how I’m playing coming into next year. If I feel like I’m somewhat competitive to where if I play well I might make the cut, I’ll play next year. If I feel like I don’t have that chance, then maybe I’ll walk away.”

Next year, however, will be the 20th anniversary of both of O’Meara’s major wins, at the Masters and British Open. His exemption at the Open Championship runs out this year, allowing him to return to the scene of his win at Royal Birkdale in July.

“So probably next year will be my last Masters,” said O’Meara, who finished 22nd in 2015 at age 58. “I doubt I’ll go past next year. I give myself a 75 to 80 percent chance of playing next year. I do love this place, so I’d like to play one more year. It would be nice to play here because it’s my 20th (anniversary).

“It’s been a dream come true to play here. This is my 33rd. When the time comes, it comes. It’s right around the corner. More than likely next year will be my last one, if I even play at all. I think a lot of my family members want me to play.”

Every Masters champion has to figure it out his own way.

“It’s within each person,” said 2003 champion Mike Weir, 46. “You kind of know whether the fire’s still there and you want to take on that challenge and feel like you can get your game ready for that particular week.

“I’ve never thought about it. Would it happen organically? I don’t know. I don’t think I’d be this guy to say just to let everybody know this is my last year. I might do it that week coming up or if I play practice rounds and don’t feel well I’ll say this might be it. I think it just comes from that individual. To say you’re going to do it a certain way like this guy did, you might have regrets because you’re just doing it because he did it that way and not because you felt it was the right way at that time. I think you’ll just know.”

Fred Couples, who at 57 still found his way onto the leaderboard Friday, said a grand farewell when the day comes isn’t in his nature.

“With Jim Nantz around, it might not happen as quietly as I’d like,” Couples said of his college roommate and lead CBS broadcaster. “I don’t know. It’s my favorite spot. I walk up the 18th hole every year and people scream and yell whether I’m shooting 75 or 70. It’s a good feeling. If I feel like I do today, I might think I could play another three or four years.

“This is a course I think I can play. If that’s not good enough to compete at a semi-certain level, I don’t want to do that. I don’t know when that’s going to be, but I’m not going to come out here and wave and tell everyone it’s my last round.”

That’s why Woosnam took a mulligan on his retirement plans after claiming “it’s time to say ‘bye bye’” last year.

“My wife thought I should have done it a different way,” Woosnam said. “You come off, you’re frustrated and maybe I say things I shouldn’t do sometimes.”

Woosnam suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory disease that causes the vertebrae in the spine to lock together.

“I find it very difficult walking around here,” he said Friday. “I get tired. But my putting lets me down. That’s what’s going to stop me from playing.”