Arnie’s Last March Extended

For the first time since 1983, Arnold Palmer made it to the weekend at the Masters. All right, it’s only a technicality. Friday’s showers prevented the second round from being completed, with Palmer on the 13th hole.

It rained on the King’s last parade at the Masters and even that didn’t stop Palmer from making what had to be one of the grandest--if interrupted--exits that golf has ever seen.

Time after time, at every tee box and every fairway rope, Palmer stopped to shake hands and say hello to his fans.

Despite being nine over after 12 holes, he was smiling at every hole and seemed to enjoy every moment of what was to be his farewell round.

Palmer, 72, last made the cut at the Masters in 1983, when he tied for 36th.

He announced in a tearful news conference Thursday that his next round would be his last at the Masters, which he has played for 48 consecutive years.

There are fast starts and then there are really fast starts. Thomas Bjorn birdied the first five holes, which nobody had ever done at the Masters. He played the last 13 holes in par, but his 67 moved him to three-under 141.

Merchandise tent update: Quickest items to sell out were the new-design Masters logo cap and souvenir shot glasses. The most overstocked item? Tubes of suntan lotion.

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Mark O’Meara shot a 71, but his day began with a salute to Palmer in the locker room.

“I told him, ‘You mean so much to the game, you set the stage, you are a guy I’ve always thought was the man. You still are the man. I love you. You are the man and you will always be the man.’”

O’Meara is five over and will probably miss the cut, projected at three over.

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Fred Couples birdied three of the last four holes and shot 73, which made him happy, but he was very unhappy about the condition of the course because of the showers.

“I did get upset because the course was under water,” he said. “I saw them squeegeeing the fifth green. I was screaming my head off. Well, not really screaming, but talking louder to the officials. But I apologized.

“I don’t think they dropped the ball on [the decision to play], but I had never seen that before. Every shot was almost a casual water shot. The eighth fairway had a river running down it.”

Couples on Palmer: “That’s a legend who’s gone.... It’s sad. It’s a loss. His score is irrelevant.”

Couples, 42, on the 10-year anniversary of his 1992 Masters victory: “It means I’m a lot older than I was when I won.”

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Put Stewart Cink in the anti-water brigade too. He shot 70 but said he did so despite the conditions.

“It was pretty much over-the-line unplayable,” he said. “When you have standing water on the green, that is above and beyond what we should do in a major championship. It was over the line, no question.

“Heck, my umbrella was gathering water at one point.”