Two-time champion Bernhard Langer is braced for an emotional farewell at the Masters Tournament.
Langer, who won the Green Jacket in 1985 and 1993, will make his 41st and final competitive appearance this week at Augusta National.
The 67-year-old German is a European great and was a member of the ‘Big Five’ that helped revolutionise the sport on the continent during the 1980s.
While he continues to enjoy success on the PGA TOUR Champions, open to golfers aged 50 and over, winning a record-extending 47th title on the circuit in November, Langer knows now is the right time to bow out.
“It's very emotional. You can tell already my voice is breaking a bit just realising it's going to be my last competitive Masters,” he told the media as he fought back tears at a press conference ahead of the first Major Championship of the season.
“After four decades, it's going to be bittersweet."
Second only to Severiano Ballesteros for DP World Tour titles with 42, Langer intended to call time on his Masters career last year before that plan was pushed back 12 months because of an Achilles injury suffered playing pickleball.
"I think I knew it was time to call it quits as a player," he added. "I wanted to do it last year, but I couldn't with my Achilles surgery.
"The course is just getting too long and I'm getting shorter and shorter and I'm hitting hybrids where the other kids are hitting nine-irons and eight-irons, maybe even wedges. So I knew I wasn't going to be in contention anymore.
"A few years back I asked the chairman of the club, is there a time limit? Do we age out when we're 60? Or what is it? He said, 'no, you will know when it's time to quit. It's totally up to you'.
"It is time to quit. I'm just not competitive on this course anymore. We're playing, what, 7,500-plus yards, and I'm used to playing courses around 7,100. I can still compete there but not at this distance."
After being shown a montage of his career highlights in the interview room, Langer said that coming from Anhausen, a farming village in Germany, to this point has been an "incredible journey."
He made his Masters debut in 1982, becoming the first German to contest the tournament, before he returned two years later and made the cut 19 years in a row from 1984 to 2002.
Langer has some recent experience of ending one chapter in his illustrious career – one that has seen him win on all six continents where the sport is played.
Last July, he made his 513th and final appearance on the DP World Tour at the BMW International Open on home soil at Golfclub München Eichenried.
The former World Number One, two-time Harry Vardon Trophy winner and star of the Ryder Cup as both a captain and player is aware flashbacks of what he has accomplished over the past four decades are only inevitable as the week progresses.
“Usually I'm pretty good compartmentalising, so when I'm inside the ropes, my mind switches to being a competitor, play golf and take care of the task in front of me,” he said.
“But I might get a bit emotional looking around and the spectators, seeing my family, my kids, my grandkids, my brother and other friends that are going to be supporting me this week.
"If it doesn't hit me earlier on, it will definitely hit me on 18, I know that. But one of my favourite places was always Amen Corner here. It's just a beautiful part of the golf course.
It is time. #TheMasters pic.twitter.com/ob7OLdtOu4
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"The 13th hole, I've made eagle there on Saturday in '85 to get into contention and I made eagle on Sunday in '93 to win.
"So that's become one of my favorite holes, not just because I made eagles but just the beauty of the hole and what it demands from you.
"Hopefully I can control myself until the 18th, but there's no guarantees."
Whether Langer bids farewell to Augusta as a player at the conclusion of Friday’s second round or potentially after making new history as the oldest player to make the cut, he does so as a Masters champion – an honour for which he will forever be grateful.
"I think I can say this for every champion," he said. "We're extremely proud to be wearing the Green Jacket and representing the Masters all over the world."
