By Steve Keating
AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) - The Masters will say goodbye to another former champion this week when Tom Watson makes a final trek up the 18th fairway, but not before he marks the occasion by leaving one last egg salad sandwich by the 13th tee.
From the Green Jacket to the Champions Dinner, the Masters is rich in tradition but none is more touching than Watson's tribute to longtime caddie Bruce Edwards, who finally succumbed to Lou Gehrig's disease on the eve of the 2004 Masters.
While on Watson's bag, Edwards would eat an egg sandwich on the 13th tee at Augusta National during the opening round of each Masters, and ever since the eight-time major winner has left a sandwich there in memory of his departed friend.
It is a tribute the 66-year-old Watson will honour for one more time on Thursday when he makes his 43rd and final Masters start.
"I'll leave the egg salad sandwich on the 13th tee on that bench on Thursday. That's part of the tradition, my Masters tradition," said Watson. "He had ALS and he struggled and struggled.
"I saw him in February the year he died, and he checked out on the morning of the Masters. Just perfect, perfect timing for him.
"He loved to caddie and he loved to caddie here more than any place in the world. He just thought this was the neatest golf tournament there ever was."
While Watson may have stronger links to the British Open where he was a five-time winner of the Claret Jug, it is his two Green Jackets that will be celebrated at the 80th Masters.
The only player in this week's field born in the 1940s, Watson made his first Masters appearance in 1970 when club founders Bobby Jones and Clifford Irving were alive, almost two decades before 22-year-old Masters champion Jordan Spieth was born.
It has been a long and productive career that has produced eight major titles among his 39 PGA Tour victories.
Watson will follow in the footsteps of honorary starters Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player and walk up the 18th fairway to thundering applause into the Masters sunset, his days of teeing it up at Augusta coming to an end, though he will continue to compete on the seniors Champions Tour.
The hugely popular Watson did not go gently into that good night, scrapping for a place at the top the leaderboard well into his 60s.
At the age of 59, he missed out on a sixth British Open when he lost to fellow American Stewart Cink in a playoff. Last year, at 65, he became the oldest man to break par at the Masters when he carded a one-under 71 in the opening round.
His competitive fires still burning, Watson will step on to the first tee on Thursday with the same goal he had for his first Masters 47 years ago - to make the cut.
"This is a lot like when I first joined the Tour in the sense that all I'm trying to do is make the cut," smiled Watson. "That's the way I feel about this, I'm just trying to make the cut. It's time to say, adios."