AUGUSTA, Ga. _ Not counting past champions, Steve Stricker is the oldest player in the 94-man Masters field. He's 50, on the back nine of a wonderful career and listed by one sports book as a 250-1 long shot to slip into a green jacket Sunday.
Jack Nicklaus was the oldest Masters champion when he won at 46 in 1986, and he nearly won again 12 years later. But Jack was Jack. Mere mortals don't win major championships at Stricker's age.
And so, you won't hear him say he can win the 81st Masters, which gets underway Thursday. But you also won't hear him say he can't.
"You know, I've had good practice here," he said Tuesday. "I'm hitting the ball at times just as good as I did 10 years ago."
The truth is, Stricker, a 12-time winner on the PGA Tour who was ranked as high as No. 2 in the world at one time, has been playing well. He finished second in his PGA Tour Champions debut and is coming off a tie for third in Mississippi, highlighted by a closing 65.
He has momentum and a wealth of experience. This is his 16th Masters and his 68th major. I watched him on the practice green Tuesday and followed him for part of the practice round he played with Jim Furyk, Fred Couples and Vijay Singh, and his short game and putting appear to be as good as ever.
What he lacks is a great track record at Augusta National. He has two top-10 finishes but has broken 70 just once in his last 25 rounds. The course got in his head years ago; he's described Masters rounds as "walking on eggshells."
"It's been a tough course for me over the years," he said. "It's just a tough course, period. You've got to be on. You can't fake it around here. You've got to drive it in play, you've got to hit great iron shots and you've got to have a good short game and putting. It takes everything around here. You have to be on top of it mentally all the way around, too, which is difficult because it can wear on you."
Stricker's approach shot on the 18th hole Tuesday illustrated the "fine line" he talks about here.
His ball covered the flag stick all the way and landed maybe 2 feet short of the top of a small ridge in the green. One more yard and it would have landed on the far side of the ridge, released and rolled to within 10 feet of the hole.
Instead, it trickled backward down the hill in slow motion and finally came to a wobbly stop some 40 feet away.
"That's the way it is here," Stricker said. "And you've got to be OK with that. You've got to live with that, go about your business, work and get your par and get out of there. It is a fine line here and sometimes when you try to cross that line, that's when you pay."
The wind is forecast to blow hard out of the west Thursday and Friday, which will make some of the toughest holes, such as Nos. 1, 4 and 11, play even tougher. Players will miss more greens than usual, which should help Stricker because his short game stacks up with anybody's.
One minute, he said he thought a top-10 finish was possible. The next minute, he said, "I want to play on the weekend. Let's start there. The way I've practiced the last couple days has given me some good signs that I'm playing pretty well."
Realistically, Stricker has passed his expiration date for winning a major. It's the one hole on a resume that includes the Payne Stewart Award for the PGA Tour player who "best exemplifies the values of character, charity and sportsmanship" (2012) and the Byron Nelson Award for low adjusted scoring average (2013).
He's the U.S. Presidents Cup captain this year and likely will lead the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2020 at Whistling Straits. He's 10th on the career money list with $42.4 million. He has a beautiful family.
One green jacket hanging in his closet sure would look good. But a guy can't have everything.
