AUGUSTA, Ga. — A smile and tip of his baseball cap wasn't enough to show Gary Player's gratitude.

So with fans around the 18th hole standing and applauding, just as they'd done on all the other holes during his last stroll around Augusta National, Player knelt at the edge of the green and pressed his hands together.

After 52 years, he was done.

"I'm not sad," the three-time Masters champion said yesterday. "You cannot be greedy in life, I've had more than my share. And I'm not leaving, I'm still coming back here."

The 73-year-old Player took a few extra seconds to fish the ball out of the cup after his final putt to cap off an 83 for a 165 total, then walked off to one more round of applause. Augusta National chairman Billy Payne shook Player's hand and Trevor Immelman, who last year joined Player as the only South Africans to win the green jacket, embraced him.

Rory Sabbatini, Louis Oosthuizen and Richard Sterne, young South Africans whose careers Player has watched with pride, were also there to see Player bid farewell.

"For anybody in the golfing world, that's a pretty memorable and special occasion," Sabbatini said. "That is an accomplishment that is just unbelievable. He deserves a lot of respect and earned a lot of respect, and it was great to see all the South African guys down there just to enjoy the moment and congratulate him."

But it was his duels with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus that set him apart and helped make golf what it is today, and never were the Big Three better than at Augusta National.

One of them won the Masters every year from 1960 to '66, and the other two usually weren't far behind. When Nicklaus won in 1965, in fact, Palmer and Player tied for second.

MCILROY MAKES CUT TO TOP THE KIDDIE BRIGADE

Members of this kiddie brigade — Rory McIlroy, Ryo Ishikawa and Danny Lee — have done more before their 20th birthdays than some golfers do before they're 40.

McIlroy turned pro in 2007, earned his European card without going to Q-school, beat a strong field at Dubai and came to Augusta National ranked 17th in the world.

The 19-year-old made it yesterday, finishing on the cut line with a 1-over 45 and getting a reprieve from the rules committee after kicking the sand in disgust when he couldn't get out of the bunker on the 18th hole. Ishikawa (77—150) and Lee (81—155) are heading home.

At 17, Ishikawa is already a two-time winner on the Japanese tour (he won his first event at 15, when he was still an amateur).

Then there's Lee. All he's done is knock Tiger Woods out as the youngest U.S. Amateur champion, and become the European Tour's youngest winner with his victory at the Johnnie Walker Classic in February. The 18-year-old will make his professional debut in two weeks in New Orleans.