AUGUSTA, Ga. – Larry Mize walked off the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club late Friday afternoon with mixed feelings.

As much as the Augusta native loves playing in the Masters, the tournament he won in 1987 with an iconic 140-yard chip to end a three-way playoff, Mize doesn’t want to endure too many more rounds like those he experienced Thursday and Friday.

“It’s not a whole lot of fun shooting what I shot this week,” Mize said.

Mize, a winner of four PGA Tour events in his career, missed the cut at the Masters for the seventh time in the past eight years after shooting a 14-over-par 158. Moments after Mize came out of the scorer’s tent, three-time Masters champion Gary Player kissed the ground after putting out on the 18th green to finish off his 51st appearance in the event.

Augusta National holds a similar place in Mize’s heart, but he said he doesn’t know how many more Masters appearances he will make.

“If I start feeling like I’m playing ceremonially or something like that, then I’ll have to start deciding what I want to do,” said Mize, who will turn 50 in September. “We’ll just have to wait and see on that. But I enjoy being here, I enjoy playing here. I’ll play some more years, but I don’t know how much longer.”

Although Mize has played a scaled-back schedule of tournaments in recent years, he said it didn’t factor into this week’s performance.

“I just didn’t play real well,” he said. “That’s about all there is to it, but I thought the course played real fine.

“That (playing infrequently) hurts you a little bit. You can’t get any kind of rhythm going. You’re hit and miss. But for me this week, I played two weeks, took a week off and I’m here, so that didn’t affect me I don’t think.”

Vaughn Taylor and Charles Howell III, the other Augusta natives in the field, finished after Mize. Taylor missed the cut after finishing at 7 over with rounds of 75-76. Howell rebounded from a 78 on Thursday with a 70 to finish at 4 over and miss the cut by a shot.

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(c) 2008, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Ga.).

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AP-NY-04-12-08 1620EDT