It is one of the great traditions of the Masters and will bring emotional scenes at August National this week. Former champions and winners of the green jacket receive a lifetime exemption for future tournaments, free to turn up year after year and walk the iconic course until they call it quits. Bernhard Langer, now 67, will be playing the Masters for the 41st and final time this week. With no expectations of contending, it is the feeling of stepping inside the ropes along the immaculate fairways that he will miss the most. “I'm expecting it to be very difficult emotionally,” he said.
It is the return of another former champion, though, that has asked more difficult questions of the lifetime exemption rule ahead of this year’s Masters, as Angel Cabrera, winner of the green jacket in 2009, makes his first appearance at Augusta National in six years and since his release from prison.
