The Champions Tour has the week off because of that little tournament in Augusta, Ga. But 10 players with ties to Augusta National Golf Club won’t be taking a break from golf. Instead, they will head to the Masters Tournament to try to recapture some of their past glory.
Of the 10 active Champions Tour players in the Masters field, five are in the World Golf Hall of Fame. A perfect 10 out of 10 have a Green Jacket and four have more than one.
Gary Player has both the most wins and the most appearances with three and 50, respectively. When he tees it up on Thursday, Player will set the record for most starts in the tournament by any player in history. His first win at one of the world’s most popular sporting events came in 1961 and marked a ground-breaking time for International players since Player was the first non-American to win on the azalea-speckled grounds. He captured the trophy again in 1974 and 1978.
Raymond Floyd will be there for his 42nd time and won in 1976 by a whopping eight strokes (that record wasn’t broken until Tiger Woods came along in 1997). Floyd has 11 top-10 finishes compared to Player’s 15.
Tom Watson slipped into his two Green Jackets in 1977 and 1981. Watson played in his 33rd Masters last year and would have made the cut if not for a triple bogey on the 36th hole.
Craig Stadler did make the cut in 2007, his 29th year in the event. Stadler captured his Masters title in 1982, a season when he won four times on the PGA TOUR.
Stadler wasn’t the only player older than 50 to make the cut last year — two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw and 1979 winner Fuzzy Zoeller did as well. Crenshaw created one of the most memorable Masters memories when he captured an emotional win in 1995 despite the loss of his long-time friend and teacher Harvey Penick earlier that week. Zoeller and Crenshaw are back in Augusta for the 2008 tournament.

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