Sports

Masters elders ask: ‘Can a 50-year-old win here?’

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Score one for the old guys in Thursday’s Masters opening round.

Fred Couples, at age 54, shot a 1-under par 71. Then, later in the day, 56-year-old Bernhard Langer secured his even-par 72 by draining a bomb of a par putt on No. 18. Miguel Angel Jimenez, who turned 50 in January, shot a 1-under par 71 after making the turn in 4-under par before finding trouble at Amen Corner.

“Can a 50-year-old win here?’’ Couples said. “I think so. My goal is to compete with these guys and not really worry about them. I would say my 71 is in pretty darn good shape.’’

Couples, the 1992 Masters champion, shares the record with Gary Player for consecutive Masters cuts made with 23 (a streak that came to an end in 2008).

Jimenez said he plans to play a Champions Tour event next week, but he’s still trying to earn his way onto the European Ryder Cup team.

“It was nice, I was 4-under for the first nine holes — the best chance I’ve had here,’’ Jimenez said. “I played beautiful golf. I would be very pleased to make [the Ryder Cup] team and I need to make the effort. I think I’m not playing badly for 50 years old.’’

Asked how he celebrated turning 50, Jimenez, one of the colorful characters in the game who seems to always have an expensive cigar in his mouth, said: “The same way I celebrated 48 and 49 and probably the same way I’m going to celebrate 51: Just get a nice bottle of wine, nice cigar, with my family around. Just keep enjoying what you’re doing.’’

Mark O’Meara, the 57-year-old ’98 Masters winner, said it’s “not out of the question’’ for a 50-year-old to win “because I don’t think the golf ball, in all fairness, knows how old you are.’’

“At times I feel like I hit the ball as well now as I did when I won here in ’98,’’ he said.

O’Meara shot 75 Thursday.