Champions Tour well represented in Augusta

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UPDATE (4/13/08): Of the 10 Champions Tour players competing in the Masters, only two made the weekend. Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle, an pair of international golfers who both joined the Champions Tour just a few weeks ago, finished above the cutline.

The other eight golfers, plus soon-to-be 50-year-old Larry Mize, did not make the cut.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The Champions Tour has the week off because of that little tournament in Augusta, Ga. But 10 players with ties to Augusta National Golf Club won't be taking a break from golf. Instead, they will head to the Masters Tournament to try to recapture some of their past glory.

Mark O'Meara (left) and Tiger Woods played a practice round on Monday prior to the 2008 Masters. (Redington/Getty Images)

Of the 10 active Champions Tour players in the Masters field, five are in the World Golf Hall of Fame. A perfect 10 out of 10 have a Green Jacket and four have more than one.

Gary Player has both the most wins and the most appearances with three and 50, respectively. When he tees it up on Thursday, Player will set the record for most starts in the tournament by any player in history. His first win at one of the world's most popular sporting events came in 1961 and marked a ground-breaking time for International players since Player was the first non-American to win on the azalea-speckled grounds. He captured the trophy again in 1974 and 1978.

Raymond Floyd will be there for his 42nd time and won in 1976 by a whopping eight strokes (that record wasn't broken until Tiger Woods came along in 1997). Floyd has 11 top-10 finishes compared to Player's 15.

Tom Watson slipped into his two Green Jackets in 1977 and 1981. Watson played in his 33rd Masters last year and would have made the cut if not for a triple bogey on the 36th hole.

Craig Stadler did make the cut in 2007, his 29th year in the event. Stadler captured his Masters title in 1982, a season when he won four times on the PGA TOUR.

Stadler wasn't the only player older than 50 to make the cut last year -- two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw and 1979 winner Fuzzy Zoeller did as well. Crenshaw created one of the most memorable Masters memories when he captured an emotional win in 1995 despite the loss of his long-time friend and teacher Harvey Penick earlier that week. Zoeller and Crenshaw are back in Augusta for the 2008 tournament.

Rounding out the 10 are a few newcomers to the Champions Tour. Mark O'Meara, the 1998 winner, joined the 50-and-over Tour last January. Bernhard Langer also joined in 2007 and has already captured three wins on the Champions Tour, including one two weeks ago, so he's optimistic about his chances at Augusta National Golf Club.

Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam both turned 50 in 2008 and will also be playing this week. Lyle is in the record books as the 1988 Masters champion while Woosnam won three years later at the 1991 event.

Though not an active Champions Tour player yet (he turns 50 in late September), Larry Mize is also in Augusta, Ga. He was born in the small Southern town and worked the scoreboard on the third hole as a teenager, so imagine his delight when the holed a 140-foot chip to win the Masters in 1987.

Including Mize, 12 percent of the field has ties to the Champions Tour. Between the 11 they have 335 years of experience playing in the event and 16 wins.