One of those after-round conversations that seem to come up more often than not among golfing friends pertains to the ranking of the greatest golfers of all time. Golf, like baseball, is one of those historical sports that began in the 1800s, and like baseball it’s relatively easy to connect the eras when talking about the greats of the game.
Let’s say your foursome got into a conversation assessing the 10 best golfers of all time. Right off the top, most fans of the game would throw out names such as Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, and Lee Trevino. Some of the older golfers would add names such as Walter Hagen, Harry Vardon, Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen. The younger crowd would point to Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Phil Mickelson.
Yet I am oftentimes surprised that one of the best golfers of all time — easily — is forgotten when it comes to the greats of the game. True, his career occurred at a time when he was surrounded by famous competitors. And true, he was the first great non-American golfer since Harry Vardon was winning way back in 1900. And finally, he never was truly outstanding at any aspect of the game. He didn’t have the power of Palmer, the brilliance of Nicklaus, the exactness of Hogan or the pressure-packed putting stroke of Tiger. I am strongly of the opinion that he is the most underrated member of the game’s upper stratosphere.
Sunday marks the 80th birthday of South African golfer Gary Player. When you count the golfers with the most majors in the history of the game, Jack has 18, Tiger has 14 and The Haig has 13. After that, in fourth place ahead of Palmer, Watson, Snead and Vardon sits the diminutive Gary Player. He won the British Open three times, the Masters three times, a pair of PGA Championships, and one U.S. Open. A fitness fanatic (don’t most of us think Player will easily make it to age 90?), Player won the British Open in 1958 and 20 years later he captured his ninth and final grand slam title at the 1978 Masters. Only Jack Nicklaus has a longer spread from first major win to final major win, that at 24 years.
Because he wasn’t from America, and because he tried to support his home tour in South Africa, Player didn’t play as extensively in the United States as his contemporaries — Nicklaus, Palmer, Trevino and Casper. In fact, some reports contend that Player flew 15 million miles during his 50-years-plus career as a professional golfer. The fact of the matter is that he did happen to win 24 times on the PGA Tour in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He had 73 victories on the South African Sunshine Tour, including 13 South African Open titles and the South African Open 11 times. Player won 18 tournaments on the Australian Tour, including a record-setting seven Australian Opens. The reason that is record-setting is because Jack Nicklaus won it six times while Greg Norman won the Australian five times.
Player also won 27 other international tournaments of note, including the Brazil Open, the Chile Open, the Trophee Lancome (France), and the Japan Airlines Open. Because he was a longevity guy, Player had a rock-solid career on the Senior Tour once he turned 50 years of age, winning 19 times in America and 12 times in Europe. Player is credited with winning six senior majors although one of these days he might get credited with two more, since he won the Senior British Open a pair of times prior to it gaining major status on the Champions Tour.
While Gary Player was, without a doubt, one of the greatest golfers in the history of the game, he also touched the game in the area of golf course architecture and political awareness. He has made for himself a most remarkable legacy.
Player and his associates, Black Knight Design, have had a hand in the building of just more than 300 courses throughout the world in 38 countries on five continents. Some of his more famous tracks include Leopard Creek (South Africa), Golden Sands (Bulgarian Mediterranean), and El Jadida (Morocco). Player has to be highly commended for the unpopular political stance he took back home starting in the 1960s when he spoke out negatively about South Africa and its backward racial policy of apartheid. Early on, Player aligned himself with Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the effort to bring meaningful political change to South Africa. Sad to say, there were a few occasions in American during the 1970s when Player was tormented on the golf course by fans because of his South African heritage and the government’s policy of apartheid. As time went on, more and more people became aware of Player’s support of the anti-apartheid movement and he went so far as to invite Arthur Ashe and Lee Elder to exhibition golf matches with Player that were contested in South Africa.
Gary Player is still seen on the Golf Channel every now and then promoting golf exercises and fitness. There have been a few occasions when he seems to shoot from the hip without looking, as evidenced by some of his more recent statements about drug abuse in sports and the use of performance-enhancing drugs in professional golf. Because he has worked in some pretty remote places, he has found controversy at times, most notably with his design of a golf course in Myanmar that was built exclusively for the generals and political elite of that impoverished country.
Yet the big picture points to the fact that Gary Player is not only one of the game’s greats, but one of the game’s all-time good guys. He has received an Honorary Doctorate from St. Andrews University in Scotland, has received South Africa’s highest honor, the Order of Ickhamanga, the PGA Tour’s Payne Steward Award, and the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award.
While Gary Player hasn’t won a major title since 1978, he is still very relevant in the game of golf. In fact, although he was always the third wheel during the heyday of Jack and Arnie, nowadays he gets to share center stage with his two great friends and rivals as the honorary starters to commence the playing of the Masters Tournament every April. Gary Player turns 80 years of age on Sunday. He has led a full life on the links, he has made a positive impact upon the world scene, especially in South Africa, and he remains a great ambassador of the game throughout the far corners of the world. It all makes sense as no one played in as many tournaments in those far corners of the world as did Gary Player.
