One of golf’s all-time greats, South African professional Gary Player, turned 81 years old this past Tuesday. The third member of golf’s Big Three alongside the late Arnold Palmer and the game’s acknowledged best, Jack Nicklaus, Player’s story is a most interesting one. The man they’ve called “Mr. International Golf” is a Hall of Famer who has had a great impact upon the game. He also has had a most positive impact upon the world at-large.
Born in 1935, Gary was the youngest of three children. His father was a coal miner. His mother passed away when he was just 8 years old. When Gary was a 13-year-old, his father took out a loan and purchased a set of golf clubs for his youngest son. Within the year he had gotten the golf bug, was playing constantly at his local municipal course and was rapidly improving. He was shooting in the low 70s by age 15 and two years later he decided to take the big step and turn professional. It was 1953.
Two years later Player had his big breakthrough moment as he won the East Rand Open on the Sunshine Tour of South Africa. He continued to win on a regular basis and set the tone for the way his career would play out by winning professional tournaments on faraway continents. Later in 1955 he won the Egyptian Match Play and the following year he defended his title at the East Rand, won the Ampol Tournament and the North Coast Open in Australia, was victorious at the Dunhill Tournament in England, and concluded his season with his biggest win yet at the prestigious South African Open.
A precision driver of the golf ball and a rock-solid iron master, the diminutive Player was a grinder who more often than not rode his hot putter to the winner’s circle. With his early successes, he started to travel the world and actively compete on his home circuit, Australia, Japan, Europe and finally America. In April of 1958 he won for the first time on the PGA Tour. Gary won by three strokes over Chick Harbert and Ernie Vossler in the Kentucky Derby Open. One year later he took the next giant step, winning the British Open at Muirfield.
In the early 1960s, the professional game was growing worldwide thanks in part to the advent of television. The promotional aspect of the game meant that the pros no longer had to rely solely on country club jobs to stay financially afloat. Mark McCormack of the International Management Group started to represent Player as well as the other two young stars of the game, Palmer and Nicklaus. The Big Three played high-priced exhibitions and visited the golfing corners of the world. Palmer, Player, and Nicklaus continued to win tournaments although the two Americans tended to spend most of their competitive time in the states while Player visited just about every place that had a golf course and held a professional golf tournament.
As his career started to wind down in the early 1980s, Player had a career resume that was nothing short of brilliant. He won tourneys in such places as Brazil, Chile, Spain, Japan and France. He won the South African Open 13 times. He was victorious in the Australian Open seven times. He won the British Open in three different decades. He completed the career grand slam in 1965 as a 29-year-old. He is the only non-American to do so and joins the foursome of Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in this highly exclusive category. Player won three Masters, one U.S. Open, three British Opens and two PGA Championships. His nine major championship victories are only topped by Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Walter Hagen. He was a longevity guy who won six Senior Tour majors as well.
Amazingly it has been estimated that Mr. International Golf has accumulated 15 million miles of frequent flier time throughout his playing career. His golfing resume features 165 worldwide victories, with only Sam Snead and Roberto de Vincenzo accumulating more. Those wins include 24 titles on the PGA Tour, 73 victories on the Sunshine Tour and 18 wins in Australia. Although he had numerous wins in Europe and in Japan, there was no formal European or Japanese Tour during his heyday.
Gary Player was politically and socially active throughout his career. He actively spoke out against South Africa’s apartheid policies and caused quite a stir in his home country when he invited Lee Elder and Arthur Ashe to play exhibitions with him in South Africa. He was an early supporter of Nelson Mandela. Over time the winds of political change caused the dismantlement of the apartheid system. Player was honored by being placed on a South African postage stamp. He won the USGA’s Bob Jones Award, was made an Honorary Member of the R&A, received an honorary doctorate from St. Andrews University, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. The WGC Bridgestone Cup trophy, one of the four World Golf Championships, awards the Gary Player Cup to its winner each year. Since 2012 he has been an honorary starter at the Masters alongside his fellow Big Three compatriots.
At age 81, Gary Player is still as active as a man half his age. In a recent interview, he spoke of a 16-day period during the first part of October that saw him fly from his home in South Africa to Germany, then go to Houston, then head to Honduras, then return to his Florida home on Jupiter Island, then go to South Carolina, fly into Cuba, and then head back to Jupiter Island. His half month of trips were all business oriented as he is still active in golf design and construction, apparel, academies, real estate, stud farms, wine and memorabilia. His Player Foundation sponsors academies that promote education to underprivileged kids on three continents. In 2000, Golf Digest ranked the greatest golfers of all time and Gary Player was rated eighth. His career accomplishments included not only great success on the links, but a willingness to use his fame and wealth to impact positive change in his homeland of South Africa as well as to improve the plight of children in need. He has been a great ambassador of the game and his willingness to play anywhere and everywhere obviously allowed the game of golf to grow and flourish in some very remote places. He has built 325 golf courses on five continents.
Gary Player turned 81 on Tuesday. One of the game’s all-time great talents, he has spent a lifetime as one of the game’s all-time great people with an impact that has been far reaching.
