Tom Watson gets the gift of goodbye from Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. — As he marched up the big hill and toward the 18th green here at Augusta National, here at his 43rd and final Masters, 66-year-old Tom Watson took off his cap and waved it in acknowledgement of the cheers and adoration and thanks coming at him in waves. He was side by side with his caddie, Neil Oxman, tearing up at all the walks they've made together.

Oh man did the gallery here love this. Golf lives for tradition and timeless sentimentality and an old champ, an old great taking a final goodbye walk tends to stir up the soul. Watson was at 8-over, sure to miss the cut, but after saying he wouldn't competitively play here again, it didn't matter.

A hero's farewell he would get.

"It was special," Watson said.

Eventually Watson would get to the green and start clapping back to the fans. Once it got quiet he damn near drained a looping 66-footer for birdie and the place lost it again.

No sport treats its old guys better than golf, not just the sport or the fans, but the game itself.

To repeat: Watson is 66 and finished two strokes off the cut. He's 66 and went 2-over on Thursday before the wind wrecked him on Friday. He's 66 and still beat 21 golfers, including eight major champions that included Jason Dufner (39) and Graeme McDowell (36).

Sixty-six.

For Watson this didn't become a last, long walk through the shadows of the Georgia pines until he hit about 16 and realized he was probably out of it. Until then he was focused and battling before these huge galleries filled with old fans and young kids being told how great that man there was.

"Thank you, Tom," Watson said. "I heard it a lot today."

To Watson, that's one of the beauties of the game and this tournament in particular. Once you win a championship here, you can play the Masters for the rest of your life. There's a grace to it. A respect. Sometimes the old guy still has something to offer.

"I'm grateful for the fact they allow the past champions to pick the time they say, no mas, to retire," said Watson, a two-time winner. "I think that's really a good thing. I know a few years back, there was some talk about maybe setting an age for retirement, but it didn't work. I think we know when it's time. Let us make the call."

[Related: Meet the player who had to ask his boss if he could play in the Masters]

He knew what this was about. He'd been here so many times through the years, watching the other all timers say goodbye. He was in Jack Nicklaus' group in 2005, for his final round at St. Andrews and said he stood to the side and "cried like a baby."

"Here is the greatest player who's ever played the game, he's taking his last walk, and I'm lucky enough to be in the same group, being able to walk inside the ropes with him," Watson said. "I still tear up think about that."

If you can play this game at an elite level, you can probably continue playing it for a long, long time. Injuries come but this isn't football. The physical demands are precise, but not overwhelming like basketball. Hand-eye coordination fades, but the ball sits on a tee, not thrown 95 miles-per-hour at you.

It's why in the old parlor game or barroom argument of what sport would be best to be a superstar at, if you could choose such a thing, golf is hard to beat. Where else can you have careers measured in decades.

There are no concussions. Old golfers don't hobble around like football stars. Kobe Bryant is finishing up a rather epic 20-year NBA career, hobbling to the finish line.

He's 37.

At 59, Watson finished runner up in the British Open, losing in a playoff.

Watson turned pro in 1971, a mere 45 years ago. He won his first major, the British Open, in 1975.

That same year Terry Bradshaw's Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl, Bob McAdoo was the MVP of the NBA, Joe Morgan and Fred Lynn were the best in baseball and Bobby Clarke took home the honors in the NHL.

As of Friday afternoon Watson was still playing, with Callaway still paying him to place its logo on his hat. In other sports even long careers can be brief. The demands are too great, the game is just too reliant on physical genius.

When old football and basketball players retire, they go play golf.

Golfers essentially never retire.

Watson may be done here, but he's still going to play a little on the Champion's Tour. He entered eight events last year and made $397,128. It's a pittance compared to his endorsements, course designs, speaking work and so on, but a 66 year old made nearly $400K … as an athlete.

"I can't compete with the kids," Watson said. "But I still intend to play against the old guys. I still feel as if I can play a little bit."

So this was goodbye to Augusta, but not goodbye to golf, not even close. Even then there is likely a spot in the ceremonial opening tee shot, or any number of other traditions. Forever the Masters will host the champions' dinner, bringing everyone, no matter how old or how young, together for wine and stories and joy, Watson passing along an old Byron Nelson story about having some radio cart run over a ball in the playoff of the 1939 PGA Championship, or some such thing.

"You hear these stories form these guys," Watson said. "I didn't think they had carts back then … some buggy or something."

Watson laughed at his own story. Everyone listening did. It was Friday afternoon at the Masters and the event would go on without him. A 22-year-old led the tournament. A 26-year-old was in second. A 25-year-old was in third.

A 66-year-old and his Byron Nelson stories were running the afternoon though, basking in a glory and a relevance that only golf can provide.