Bearded, burly Ernest Hemingway doppelgängers compete for lookalike prize

It was the old man and the sea of clones.

In celebration of renowned author Ernest Hemmingway’s 125 birthday on Sunday, a bar in Key West Florida hosted its annual lookalike competition of the penman .

The contest at the local watering hole Sloppy Joe’s Bar, one of the celebrated writer’s favorite hangouts , celebrates what Hemmingway called mainland America’s southernmost point his home in the 1930s.

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More than 120 white-bearded contestants came in hopes that the bell would toll for thee on Sunday after preliminary elimination rounds earlier last week.

After 10 previous attempts, 71-year-old David “Bat” Masterson, a retired helicopter pilot from Daytona Beach, was crowned this year’s “Papa” — a nickname given to the novelist during his life, according to The Associated Press .

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Hemingway’s spirit of adventure — he loved big game fishing across the globe along with baseball, boxing, bullfighting and plenty of drinking — is another major part of the competition.

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“I think it’s a split, and I think that’s what’s fun,” his great-grandson Stephen Hemingway Adams said of those admiring the late author’s writing and outdoorsmanship.

Masterson himself said he has “a thirst for life and a quest for adventure” as well, he told CBS Miami .

“I like to fly and ride motorcycles and jump out of airplanes and that sort of stuff…And Hemingway was a very adventurous man, and I admire him for that.”

The competition also featured a pretend running of the bulls down the streets of the tourist isle.

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