The most exciting golfer of all time has passed away at age 88.
Gary Player continues to perform well as Masters ceremonial starter.
After the ceremonial tee shot with opening round star Lee Elder on Thursday morning, Jack Nicklaus and South African black knight Gary Player recalled a number of themes. It is especially interesting to remember the career of a player who has a rich gray and punch without a punch. He keeps himself into a peak of physical condition.
We compete better with golf around the world and strengthen life. He recently announced that he would not retire until the age of 90. Judging by his current estimate of 85, that forecast is likely to be extended. He’ll probably hit a golf ball on his 100th birthday.
When you consider the impact of travel, especially across multiple time zones in a year, it’s amazing the ability of a player to have been so successful, winning nine major championships and nine senior titles on the regular circuit. For years, he booked two first-class tickets when he traveled, often sleeping on the cabin floor on international flights.
When he was in his sixties, I talked to him about becoming the world’s most traveled athlete. Perhaps no athlete has logged more miles than the player (and few have become business leaders or secretaries of state). Of course, no one stayed there longer than Player, and who could argue with him when he says he’s run more miles than any athlete in history?
During our conversation earlier, he gleefully mentioned that it’s easy to sleep on an airplane. “If I could hit the ball like I was sleeping, I’d still win a major,” he said.When he first won the Masters in 1961, 61 years ago this week, he benefited from Arnold Palmer’s double bogey on the 18th hole, but he also made a completely inconsequential double bogey, as he pointed out.
Two times as a player, we arrived on the 13th of the 13th of the player in the final. He also fell to 55th place. I once visited him on his farm in South Africa, less than an hour’s drive from Johannesburg, where he wore safari-style overalls and a wide-brimmed hat and spoke to the people on the farm in Afrikaans.
He asked me to bring some friends to travel with him, and he offered us lemonade in front of a nearby baobab tree. During our lengthy conversation, he spoke of the beauty of his home country and its changing political climate.
He spoke of his admiration for his brother, Ian, a conservationist when it came to the continent’s animals. Ian is credited with saving the white rhino. Ian’s son, Amyas, is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s School of Forestry. With the spirit of Voortrekker, Player, from the beginning, was not intimidated by the challenges and hard days of the professional golf circuit. Changes in lifestyle, landscapes and food never bothered or embarrassed him. While he was standing 5-6 and weighed only 160 pounds, the size of his heart took the measure of many heavy goods vehicles with which he met.
You can exceed it, but his iron game and his short match have often given him an advantage he needed to win and win often. As a member of the Big Three (along with Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer), he learned to compete with the best players. The trio won 53 regular and senior majors and more than 350 tournaments. He is the only player to have won a career Grand Slam tournament on both the regular and senior circuits.
He has won 162 tournaments around the world during his illustrious career and is still actively involved in golf course design. When he became the first international master champion, his press conference after the tournament was fascinated by his accent, enthusiasm, and trends to the double curve. He was convinced when he gained weight and said he received excessive push and squats every day.
The winner’s check for $20,000 (the largest of his career up to that point) went in his back pocket, he said, adding, “…it burned my ass.” Gary had always been a popular and flamboyant winner.The following story has been circulated widely, but it’s worth reusing. After getting to know the PGA Tour, the player decided to call Ben Hogan, who he greatly admired for his game, to talk about golf.
He started by telling Hogan that he was the “greatest golf ball hitter of all time” and went on to praise him. Hogan was still actively running his golf club business at the time. When Player asked him a question about the game, Hogan briefly asked, “What clubs do you play with?” When Player replied, “Dunlop.” Hogan said, “Call Mr. Dunlop,” and hung up.
