Could A Geezer Win The 2014 Masters?

Bernhard Langer sure tried last year and Fred Couples has given it a few shots only to struggle with this putter on Sunday.  With Tiger withdrawing from the 2014 Masters and so many top players seemingly a touch off, could the wide-open tournament be won by someone over 50?

That's Bill Fields' premise in this piece and he lays out a strong case while reminding us just how old Old Tom Morris was in 1867.

Old Tom Morris, 46 when he won the 1867 British Open (and still its oldest champion), wasn't only fortunate to win that tournament but to be alive, given that average life expectancy was less than 45 at that time. Forty-six seemed much younger 119 years later when Nicklaus won the Masters at that age in 1986, but in golf terms, 46 in 1986 was a lot older than it is now. "I was playing a wood driver, playing a wound ball. It was a different game," Nicklaus said on the 25th anniversary of his sixth green jacket. "Things didn't go as far. You didn't reduce the golf course to nothing like you can today."

A dozen golfers 50 or older are in next week's field at Augusta. Most won't factor, but newly 50 Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiménez has to be taken seriously, as does Couples, now 54 but still plenty long enough to compete with golfers less than half his age.