By Mark Garrod, PA Sport, Augusta

One hundred and thirty-eight major championships going back 47 years. Seven of them victories, 10 more of them second places, 38 top-10 finishes in all.

It all comes to an end for Arnold Palmer - and statistics cannot begin to tell the impact that the 72-year-old legend has had on golf.

After an opening round of 89 on Thursday which equalled his worst-ever score in 48 Masters, Palmer has announced that his second round will be the last of his major championship career.

Tiger Woods could shoot 59, Nick Faldo could play naked, John Daly could use a banjo rather than golf clubs. None of them would draw a bigger crowd than that guaranteed to follow the old maestro on what will in every sense be a lap of honour round Augusta National.

And if they could, every player in the field would like to be around the 18th green to applaud the man to whom they all owe a huge debt of gratitude for helping to make the sport what it is.

Palmer made his farewell to the United States Open, the event he won only in 1960, and to the United States PGA championship, the one major he never won, in 1994.

The following year, at St Andrews appropriately, he bowed out of the Open he won in 1961 and 1962. But he has continued to play the Masters until now.

This is where "Arnie's Army", his legion of supporters, first fell in and it is now where they will fall out.

It is sure to be an emotional scene, but Palmer feels ready for it.

Making a joking reference to the fact that 79-year-old Doug Ford and 70-year-olds Gay Brewer and Billy Casper were told by the club in January that they should stand down from the competition this year, Palmer said: "I don't want to get a letter!

"This is it. I've been contemplating it for some time and I just think it's time."

What convinced him was when he played the first hole on Thursday - one of nine toughened up to meet the raw power of the new generation of players.

It is 435 yards and Palmer hit a drive and three-wood "as hard as I could hit that son of a bitch" to the front of the green - and four-putted.

"I knew the writing was on the wall. My golf has been pretty lousy as of late and it doesn't warrant being here playing."

He is not sure whether he wants to become an honorary starter at the event now, but he does want it known that he still intends to play some seniors golf - hopefully including the British Seniors Open at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland in July.

But as for the four majors, there is no going back on his decision. He cannot think of a better place to call it quits.

"Augusta has meant an awful lot to me over the years and it may be the tournament that really kicked me off and got me started on my career.

"It will be emotional, but you know, these things happen and I'm not sad about it. I'm just sad that I'm not playing well enough to continue.

"I think I've hit the hell out of the ball sometimes and look up and see these guys 100 yards in front of me. That's a pretty good message right there.

"I'm not any different to most people. I like to think that there's always a couple more good rounds in my body and maybe there are.

"But I think enough of this tournament and the people that are playing in it and running it to say I don't need to be here.

"I'll support this tournament until the day I die. I have so many memories."

One of them was when he could hear the voice of former winner Jimmy Demaret commentating for television while he was playing the 16th hole.

"I was under the tv tower and he said I had no chance of getting up and down. I thought I'd show that son of a bitch and chipped in - and won."

Augusta chairman Hootie Johnson, on being told of Palmer's decision, said: "It would be impossible to enumerate all the contributions Arnold Palmer has made to the Masters.

"He has provided us with countless years of excitement and thrills and has shown us how the game of golf is supposed to be played.

"We owe a debt to Arnold and he will always have a very special place in Masters history."

Tiger Woods added: "For him to compete as long as he has has been to his credit. It's awfully impressive - the golf course has just gotten a little bit too big for him."

Woods recalled practising with Palmer and Jack Nicklaus when he was an amateur in 1995.

"We played a skins game and Arnold birdied the last hole to take all the money. Then we went and played the par three competition and on the final hole Jack hits it to three or four feet, then Arnold lips it out and now I've got to hit.

"I just didn't want to put the ball in the water. And I hit it up there to about two feet just inside both of them. It was a neat memory for me."