Old champions don’t fade away – they come back and play another day ...

Posted on 07/05/08. By Paul Mahoney

Most people know the winner of the Masters receives a green jacket, a lifetime’s exemption to the tournament and a crystal trophy of the old colonial clubhouse.

But what is not so well publicised is that champions also get a free car sticker. The slogan says: “Old Masters champions do it once a year among the azaleas!”

Old champions don’t fade away. They simply jet in to Augusta National every year to try to recapture their glory days. Or at least to revel in the ripples of what is left of them.

Uncle Arnold Palmer, aged 78, was the first to make his royal appearance this year. At High Noon on Wednesday, one hour before firing his first shot in the parthree contest to four feet, the King ambled out of the locker room to hold court on the lawn in the shade of the famous 160-year-old oak tree.

Old friends embraced him. People he has never met tiptoed up to shake the hand of greatness. He smiled, he posed for photographs, he ga...