There were no tears. Certainly no regrets. Emotions will surely flow Friday, or maybe Sunday, or whenever Gary Player takes his final Masters bow.

Player opened his interview Monday with the announcement you weren’t sure he’d ever make. Finally, at 73, facing fairway metals and long irons into most greens, feeling unable to break 80 here, he declared this, his 52nd Masters, to be his last.

“I’m hitting the ball so short now, I can hear it land,” Player said with his typical brand of self-deprecating humor.

Perhaps fittingly, Player, the shortest of golf’s Big Three, is the last standing at Augusta National. Always overshadowed by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus in their primes, Player became the Black Knight and elbowed his way onto their stage as a superstar in his own right.

Nicklaus won six Masters titles. Palmer won four Green Jackets. Player won the Masters three times (1961, ’74 and ’78), and one could argue that the tenacious South African helped push Nicklaus and Palmer to even greater heights throughout their careers.

Player said his best Masters was 1978, when he shot a final-round 64 for a dramatic come-from-behind victory. His worst? The playoff he lost to Palmer in 1962 when he was trying to become the first to win consecutive Masters.

Unlike some past Masters champions, nobody criticized Player for still signing a scorecard here every April. He recently glided past Palmer’s record of 50 Masters appearances with a couple rounds in the 70s, and how cool would it be for Player to shoot his age on Thursday or Friday? Heck, he posted a 72 in 2006 and a 77 last year.

He’s not going to make the cut. But can Player recapture the magic and somehow crack 80 again before he exits stage left? I wouldn’t put it past him.