Jack Nicklaus slipped out the back door of the Masters Tournament - a tearful exit, stage left.

This was the last time, he said. These were his terms.

"Only trouble is, it wasn't the 18th hole," Nicklaus said.

"I wanted to walk over to the 18th green, but they wouldn't let me. My ball was on the ninth hole."

Nicklaus didn't want all of the ceremony that surrounded Arnold Palmer's last walk at Augusta National Golf Club last year. He didn't want to be a distraction from the real business of the golf tournament that has meant more to him than any other.

He didn't want a retirement party.

"I'm an old man trying to figure out some way to get out of the way," he said.

That is the way the greatest Masters champion finished, not with a birdie, but a whimper.

"I was pretty good all day until I got to the 18th fairway, the ninth fairway, and I just knew it was my last time playing here," he said.

Tearful and dramatic goodbyes are nothing new for Nicklaus. In his final U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2000, Nicklaus dug deep enough to reach the par-5 finishing hole in two, but the tears in his eyes led to a three-putt. In his final PGA Championship at Valhalla in 2000, he nearly eagled the closing hole but settled for birdie.

Nicklaus didn't soak up the scene or the ovations that followed him around all day.

"That's not me," he said.

But Nicklaus drew another loud ovation Saturday when his final Masters approach settled 4 feet from the cup, and this time his emotions got the best of him.

"I sort of lost it coming up to the green," he said. "I could never get it back to hit my putt. I would have liked to finish with a birdie."

He tapped in to finish 77-76-11,733. That's 3-under par for his career in 163 tournament rounds.

Then Nicklaus stood aside and cried. Playing partner Jay Haas put his arm around him and cried, too.

"Oh, cut it out, will ya?" Haas told him. "I've got to putt this."

And then Nicklaus quietly walked away from the place that has defined him as much as any other. There was no formal discussion beforehand. No official declaration of intent.

"He'll know," said Barbara, his wife. "He's always said he'll know."

Nicklaus says he knows now. The Golden Bear has cried wolf often enough to leave a little wiggle room for doubt.

"I have the right to change my mind," he said, noting that 10 additional mph on his swing speed might coax him back.

But this time he just might be done. He handed his ball and glove to his oldest son, Jackie, and told him to keep them.

"I don't want to see it on eBay tomorrow," he said. "I think I'll keep that for my own museum."

As much as Nicklaus hates fighting to break 80 and "cluttering up the field," as he says, he doesn't want to be finished. He doesn't want to leave the stage where he drafted six of his 18 career major wins.

"It's a treasure for me, and I'll miss it greatly," he said.

So he had an idea. And when Nicklaus has an idea, people should listen.

"Have an event on Tuesday or Wednesday where the champions play and that gives the fans a chance to see them, a chance to say something to them," Nicklaus said. "I'd welcome something like that. ... I think you'd find Arnold would come back and do that, and I think the other guys would play, too. I think it would be a nice thing to do. ... It would be enough for me."

Masters Chairman Hootie Johnson has rejected the idea of a "senior flight." Asked before the 2002 tournament what he thought about getting older past champions together for some sort of pre-tournament competition, Johnson was clear.

"I would not think of it at all," he said. "I don't have to give you a reason."

But now that Nicklaus joins Palmer in endorsing the idea of some sort of showcase for the past champions, maybe the rest of the club membership will consider the source and the potential.

Palmer says he will consider being an honorary starter one day, but not Nicklaus. One and done is not his style.

"I have no interest in that whatsoever," he said.

Johnson asked Nicklaus to come back this year "just one more time." He has the power to bring him back again.

In the event the Masters chairman doesn't reconsider his senior stance, this was it. As Nicklaus said, he "sucked it up and got it over with."

"I'll come back again for the Masters dinner," he said. "I'll come and maybe play the Par-3. But I don't think I'll venture on the golf course again for a tournament round."

For anyone who cherishes golf, that reality is almost too much to bear.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.