IT was the day of the Texas two-step.
As Jordan Spieth danced into an historic halfway lead in the 79th Masters, Ben Crenshaw had his last waltz at Augusta National.
"It was time to hang up the spurs," said this wily old gunslinger from the Lone Star State. His final round on Friday, the 138th of a Masters career stretching back 44 consecutive years, was a cer- emonial lap of honour rather than a fight to make the cut. An opening card of 91 ensured that.
When the end came for Crenshaw it was powerful, almost spiritual. As he marched towards the 18th green one last time, the cracks of thunder from a brooding Georgia sky rang out. The standing ovation and applause from the patrons surrounding the green generated a similar din.
"It felt like I had won the tournament," said Crenshaw, who picked up his first Green Jacket in 1984 and a second in 1995.
Only Arnold Palmer, Doug Ford and Raymond Floyd have made more consecutive Masters starts than Crenshaw. In the two decades since he last won, the 63-year-old had made the cut only three times and as the seasons went by, the scores got higher and higher. In 2012, his 36-hole tally was 15-over, the next year it was 20-over and in 2014 it was 24-over. His final addition reads 32-over.
Of course, Augusta has always been a welcoming haven for the golden oldies. As long as a past champion can creak a club into a swing, they can return year after year. Crenshaw, like many before him, was in danger of hanging on too long and he knew that. His back nine of 48 on Thursday was just one shot off the record high while his 91 was just four shots shy of the worst-ever Masters round that was cobbled together by Charles Kunkle in 1956.
"I can remember last year when Craig Stadler went out and Fuzzy Zoeller went out the year before; those are tough decisions for all of us to step down, but my God, it was way past time for me," admitted Crenshaw. "A lot of times, you think that you can really play this golf course. I did when I was young. I really thought I could do better at times, but no."
It was time to say goodbye.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article