Ben Crenshaw’s Final Masters: An Undignified End To A Once Great Career

Image courtesy of Zimbio

With the world watching every move made by Tiger Woods at the Masters, as is the case with every tournament in which the scandal-prone legend competes, 63-year-old Ben Crenshaw’s first round at Augusta didn’t get too much attention from the television cameras.

Which is actually sort of a shame, because while Woods finished his day an unimpressive and uneventful one over par, Crenshaw’s day was actually quite extraordinary. Unfortunately, it was not in a good way.

Having turned pro in 1973, Crenshaw has been playing professionally for 42 years—first on the PGA Tour, now on the Champions Tour. Over those four decades he’s amassed 19 wins on the PGA Tour, including the Masters in 1984 and 1995, and 29 overall.

Crenshaw was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002, but it’s fair to say that his best days have been behind him for nearly half of his career. His last truly great moment came in 1999, as the captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

The Americans won the legendary competition, which became known as the “Battle of Brookline,” defeating the Europeans 14 ½ to 13 ½.

Recent years have been less kind to Crenshaw, who is competing at Augusta for the final time this week. He hasn’t broken par at the Masters since 2006, having made the cut just three times in the last 19 years—the last time was 2007.

Earlier this week Crenshaw said, “I’ve probably stayed too long. … The course has outgrown me by leaps and bounds, and that’s fine. I’m just so very thankful to go around this many times at this place.”

He added, “But it’s time to hang up the spurs.”

Yes, it is definitely time.

On Thursday Crenshaw finished the day 97^th in the field, also known as dead last, having shot an embarrassing +19. That’s 29 strokes behind leader Jordan Spieth, and six behind Gunn Yang at +13, who finished right behind Crenshaw in 96^th place.

[Click here to see the full PGA Masters Leaderboard]

Obviously Crenshaw hit the nail on the head when he suggested that, perhaps, he’d stuck around far too long. But just because he stuck around at least a decade beyond his expiration date, doesn’t mean anyone wanted to see him go out like this.

Time and time again, athletes prove that walking away is a far more difficult choice than declining to the point that the decision is made for them. At this point Crenshaw probably wishes he played a sport in which the decision could’ve been made for him.

But as we bid a fond farewell to Crenshaw, let us remember the great player he once was, as opposed to the man who just shot his sixth-straight round in the 90s. And back in his heyday, Crenshaw was great.

I don’t know who the old man in the pink shirt was on the course today, but this is Ben Crenshaw at the Masters. And it always will be.