By Doug Ferguson
The Associated Press

All it took was one round of golf for Brad Faxon to discover the magic of Arnold Palmer.

They were paired together for the first time 20 years ago at The Players Championship, a 22-year-old in his first full season on the PGA Tour playing with the man responsible for what golf had become. "He said one thing to me I'll never forget," Faxon said. "He said, 'The key out here is to look everybody in the eye, to make eye contract.' He was talking about the fans."

A guy who spends a half-century of golf putting people first is bound to make a few friends. Arnie had a whole army of them.

The troops will

gather at Augusta National again this year to bid farewell to Palmer, who is playing his 50th consecutive - and final - Masters.

"It's going to be exciting for me," Palmer said. "And it's going to be somewhat sentimental. It's kind of an opportunity to say goodbye to all of the fans who have been so supportive over the last 50 years, and have been the reason that I have played as long as I have."

Gene Sarazen hit the shot that put the Masters on the map. Jack Nicklaus has more green jackets. Tiger Woods is behind the exponential growth in prize money. Palmer was simply the king.

"I remember waking up when I was 5 or 6 years old, and waiting for the paperboy at 5 in the morning to drop off the paper so I could see how Arnie did at the Masters," Jeff Sluman said.

This is the 40th anniversary of Palmer's fourth Masters, the last of his seven professional majors. Palmer hasn't made the cut since 1983. That was also the last time he broke par at Augusta National. None of it matters. No one cares about the score, only that he plays.

For Palmer, it has always been about the fans. He was asked recently for his fondest memories of the Masters. It wasn't his first trip down Magnolia Lane, the jokes told during the Champions Dinner or any of his four victories.

"The fans. The people," Palmer said with that twinkle in his eye. "Hell, I know them all by name."

Palmer played his first Masters in 1955 as the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, the kid from Latrobe, Pa., with strength rippling through his sweater and pants he always hitched before big shots.

His first Masters victory remains one of the most pivotal moments in golf. Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House, television was just starting to discover golf, and a group of soldiers from nearby Ford Gordon were manning the scoreboards as Palmer swung from the heels and charged into the lead in the 1958 Masters.

"They held up signs about Arnie's Army," Palmer recalled. "I didn't know where they were from and where they got the idea."

Arnie's Army was born, and golf's first popularity boom was under way. With each green jacket, the legend grew.

This actually will be the second farewell for Palmer. There was an uproar two years ago when Augusta National sent letters to a couple of aging champions who had a tendency to withdraw after the first round, if not sooner. The message was for them to stop playing. Palmer announced that the 2002 Masters would be his last, saying, "I don't want to get a letter."

Club chairman Hootie Johnson decided that past champions could play until they were 65, but Palmer and Nicklaus persuaded him to go back to the old policy.

So now, Palmer gets to leave on his own terms.