Gary Player

South African golfer

• Born: November 1, 1935
• Place of Birth: Johannesburg, South Africa

Gary Player was one of only a few golfers to achieve golf’s Grand Slam (winning each of the four major tournaments) and, at age twenty-nine, he became the youngest player to do so. He won numerous championships worldwide and helped to promote and popularize golf.

Early Life

Gary Player was the youngest of three children born to Francis Harry Audley Player and Muriel Marie Ferguson in Johannesburg, South Africa. His father was a foreman in a gold mine for more than thirty years. The Player family was not destitute, but money was never abundant during Player’s childhood. When Player was eight years old, his mother died of cancer. This tragedy proved to be an almost devastating blow to the young Player. Player, however, surmounted the loss. Thus, Player began a lifelong struggle to conquer whatever challenge or challenger loomed in his path. This determination to succeed was fueled by his elder brother, Ian, who encouraged him to excel despite his relatively short stature of five feet and six inches. Spurred by his determination to triumph over those bigger than himself, Player launched himself into athletic competition. Goaded by his brother, Player was ultimately voted all-round athlete at King Edward School in Johannesburg.

Because his father was a two-handicap golfer, it was perhaps inevitable that Player would seek parental approval by taking up the game. In his first round, the inexperienced, self-taught fifteen-year-old player shot par on the first three holes. This achievement caught the eye of the club professional Jock Verwey. Simultaneously, Verwey’s daughter, Vivienne, came to Player’s attention.

Verwey put Player to work as an assistant while providing lessons to the intense young man who began courting his daughter. Player began to compete at the amateur level, and even though he had not won a tournament, he was convinced that competition golf was his goal in life. Determined to turn professional, although he was only seventeen, Player left school. He practiced constantly and followed a carefully constructed plan of physical exercise and diet to compensate for his relative lack of size and strength.

Life’s Work

When he was nineteen years old, Player won the East Rand Open. This victory served to persuade his father to finance his first foray outside South Africa. He entered the Egyptian Match Play Championship that same year (1955). Player won again and used his prize money to pursue the British golf tour. Player spent five months on the British tour and posted not a single victory. Still, he did garner enough in prize money to cover his expenses—a considerable achievement.

The next year, 1956, Player won the Ampol Tournament in Australia and, on January 19, 1957, married Vivienne Verwey, to whom he remained married until her death in 2021. He then returned to the professional circuit. This time, Player made his mark with a win at the British Dunlop Tournament, which he followed with the first of his many victories in the South African Open.

From 1957 to 1959 Player competed around the world from Great Britain to the United States and on to Australia and South Africa. If Player did well in Australia and South Africa, his performance in the United States and Great Britain was rather lackluster. He did win the Kentucky Derby Open in 1957 and made a surprisingly good showing in the 1958 US Open. Still, he was only barely making his expenses on the American tour. Yet, if Player was absent from the winner’s circle on the Anglo-American tour, he consistently improved the quality of his game. Moreover, his victories elsewhere, when combined with a frugal lifestyle—an unexpected benefit of his concern with his diet and physical well-being—enabled him to support his growing family and continue to pursue a professional career in golf. Player and his wife had six children, Jennifer, Marc, Wayne, Michele, Theresa, and Amanda.

Then came the breakthrough victory in the British Open in 1959. Player became the youngest golfer to capture that Grand Slam event since 1868. In 1961, Player determined to make a concentrated effort on the prize-laden American tour. He entered all twelve tournaments sponsored by the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) between January and April. He finished in the top five in seven of the tournaments and won two, the San Francisco Open and the Sunshine Open. Player then joined the gathering of golfers in Augusta, Georgia, for the 1961 Masters Tournament.

Player arrived in Georgia fresh from a one-stroke victory over the defending Masters champion, the redoubtable Arnold Palmer. Needless to say, Palmer was expected to retain his title, especially against a relatively unknown golfer from South Africa. In one of the most dramatic finishes in the history of the competition, however, Player edged Palmer yet again, by one stroke. Player did not win another tournament on the American tour that year, though he did take first prize in tournaments in Japan and Australia. On the other hand, while Player was not victorious in the United States, he was in the money on several occasions. In consequence, he ended the year as the leading money winner on the American tour, a first for an overseas-based player.

The euphoria engendered by his triumph in the American Masters Tournament soon, however, turned to despair. Player was suddenly in the midst of a slump so profound that he went fifteen months without a single win. He became so depressed by his failure that he seriously contemplated leaving the tour and returning home for good. Before he could implement his retirement plans, Player captured the PGA Championship in 1962. Player now had three of the four events necessary to achieve the Grand Slam of golf to his credit and every reason to continue with the tour. Player was undoubtedly a force to reckon with on the international circuit during the 1960s. On the American circuit, he shared the honors with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, particularly the former, as the essential component of the “Big Three” of the modern era. Furthermore, while Player won far more tournaments away from the American tour than in the United States, he consistently placed in the top five when he did play there. In 1965, Player won the US Open and completed the Grand Slam.

In the years following the completion of the Grand Slam, Player seemed to vanish from the American tour, not in the sense of failing to compete but rather by failing to win. Indeed, from 1966 to 1969, Player went without a first-place finish on the American tour. He did repeat his victory in the British Open in 1968, however, and announced his pursuit of a second Grand Slam. Nevertheless, throughout this period, Player continued to win outside the United States. Moreover, he continued to make money on the American tour by placing near the top in those tournaments he entered.

In 1972, a second victory in the PGA Championship put him on the road to a second, unprecedented, Grand Slam. However, he underwent serious surgery in 1973, and for a time he wondered if he would ever recover his skill. If Player, and others, wondered if his career was finally over, the answer came in 1974. In that year, he took the US Masters and British Open championships. A second US Open Championship continued to elude him, however, and Player capped his active career on the American tour with a victory at the US Masters Tournament in 1978. At forty-two, Player was the oldest player to accomplish that feat. In all he would retire in 2009 with twenty-four PGA Tour victories and 163 tournament wins worldwide.

In 1985, Player joined the Senior Champions Tour sanctioned by the PGA. Once again he became a fixture in the winner’s circle with his triumph in the PGA Senior Championship. In 1988, Player was voted player of the year by his competitors on the senior circuit. He added victories to his record for every year until 1992, the first time in decades that he had a winless season. In 1993 he won the Bank One Senior Classic, a Tour tournament, to reestablish his winning momentum, and won it again in 1995. He took yet another Tour tournament, the Northville Long Island Classic, in 1998. Among his other tournament victories, he won the Senior British Open in 1990 and 1997, the Irish Senior Masters in 1993, the Japan’s Dai-Ichi Seimei Cup in 1997, the Senior Skins Game in 2000, and the Nelson Mandela Invitational in 2005.

Player was sometimes a subject of controversy. He definitely upset the staid world of British golf with his many questions and his requests for free lessons from his fellow professionals when he joined the tour in 1956. In fact, one British professional informed Player that inasmuch as he was so poorly prepared, perhaps he should abandon the game altogether. However, Player, if nothing else, was tenacious. Player persevered and went on to confound his critics. He ended most tournaments with a lengthy practice session to correct defects and deficiencies he had observed in the course of tournament play. Informed by seemingly knowledgeable observers that he lacked the physical stamina or the size to prosper on the professional circuit, he intensified his already rigorous physical regime. Moreover, he supplemented his campaign for physical fitness with an attention to his diet that was quite exceptional at the time. Actually, it must be said that Player pioneered the concept of the golfer as an athlete. He ignored the doomsayers and the faint-hearted to pursue his dream of being a “world” golfer. His victories at nine Grand Slam championships placed him third on the all-time list, and various golf magazines have ranked him among the ten greatest players in golfing history. Moreover, his courteous manner, fierce competitive spirit, and trademark black golf togs earned him the nickname the Black Knight.

Player’s decision to maintain residency in South Africa did not come without problems. For one thing, continued residency in South Africa meant long periods of inactivity while in transit to almost any tournament. Moreover, travel across multiple time zones took a physical toll on Player; during his career he is estimated to have traveled some thirteen million miles. A further complication was the effect of international competition on his family. His wife, Vivienne, was left to raise their six children on her own for long periods, functioning as a single parent for all practical purposes. Finally, although it was not a problem initially, there was the question of international perceptions of his country. The fact that he was a South African citizen subjected Player, over the years, to criticism as the visible representative of a governmental policy (apartheid) that oppressed the country's Black majority and represented a major human rights violation; Player's support for apartheid during the 1960s generated controversy, although in subsequent years he publicly supported the movement to end apartheid. He was physically abused during the 1969 PGA Championship and was forced to deal with protesters during the 1979 French Open.

Player, who divided his time between Jupiter Island, Florida, and Colesberg, South Africa, had extended his interests to one other major sport, horse racing, and to business and philanthropy. The Gary Player Stud Farm bred thoroughbred race horses, one of which, Broadway Flyer, won the English Derby in 1994. He owned the Gary Player Golf Academy and Black Knight International, which included a real estate subsidiary, and Gary Player Design. The latter designed hundreds of golf courses worldwide. Starting in 1983, the Gary Player Foundation offered quality education to poor children, initially in South Africa and then throughout the world.

Player’s career has brought him many distinctions. He received honorary doctorates from St. Andrews University in Scotland (1995), the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland (1997), and the University of Dundee in Scotland (2000). He had a trophy named after him, the Gary Player Cup, which was awarded to winners of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He was named South African sportsman of the century in 2000, received the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, was named to the Order of Ikhamanga by South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2003, and was inducted to the African American Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974 and in 2001 became its global ambassador.

However, Player's decision to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump in early January 2021 was considered controversial among many people in the United States. Only the day before Trump presented him with the medal, he had been accused of inciting supporters who had attacked the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress confirming the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he had lost but had also deemed fraudulent, even though his challenges failed to uncover any evidence of widespread voter fraud. The announcement of the recipients had been made and the ceremony had been planned to take place in early 2020 prior to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, at which point Player had stated that he was honored to be recognized with the award.

Significance

There were many commentators who insisted in 1959 that Player’s surprising victory in that year’s Masters Tournament was a fluke. Surely, it was asserted, this largely self-taught golfer with a questionable grip and a swing that no one cared to copy was nothing more than a flash in the pan. Yet, in the final analysis, no one could deny the fact that in his active career on the international tour Player compiled an impressive record. He won nine major tournament titles as well as the Grand Slam of golf. He not only won dozens of tournaments worldwide, including twenty-one PGA tour events, but also was the first overseas-based player to head the American money list. As well, he achieved the lowest score for a round in professional golf, 59, at the Brazilian Open in 1974 and had eighteen holes-in-one during official tournaments.

Player began his career determined to be a world golfer, the best there was, and in that he posted a remarkable success. Yet, in typical fashion, Player was not content to rest on his laurels. Once he became eligible to participate in the PGA Senior Tour, he returned to vigorous competition with all the enthusiasm he had demonstrated on what he fondly called the “junior” tour. Indeed, the continued expansion of the Senior Tour was largely the result of Player’s activities.

Player triumphed over adversity by turning seemingly insurmountable deficiencies into apparent assets. He once remarked, “The harder you practice the luckier you get.” He continued, despite his years and accomplishments, to play the game he truly loved. It is doubtful that his donation of his entire purse from the 1965 US Open (twenty thousand dollars to the American junior golf program and five thousand dollars to cancer research) was simply a public relations gesture.

Bibliography

Arkush, Michael. "The Breathtaking Shots of Gary Player." The New York Times, 15 May 2024, www.pgatour.com/player/01955/gary-player. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Dojc, Mike. "Golf Is Getting Two More Presidential Medal of Freedom Honorees: Gary Player and Annika Sorenstam." Forbes, 10 Mar. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/mikedojc/2020/03/10/golf-moves-up-the-presidential-medal-of-freedom-leaderboard-with-gary-player-and-annika-sorenstam-set-to-become-the-awards-next-recipients/?sh=4e808571e47b. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

"Gary Player." PGA Tour, 2024, www.pgatour.com/player/01955/gary-player. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Hobbs, Michael. “Gary Player.” Fifty Masters of Golf. Ashbourne: Moorland, 1983.

McCormack, Mark H. The Wonderful World of Professional Golf. New York: Atheneum, 1973.

McDermott, Barry. “No Such Word as Can’t.” Sports Illustrated 1 May 1978.

McDonnell, Michael. “Gary Player.” Golf: The Great Ones. London: Pelham, 1971.

McDonnell, Michael. “The Man in Black.” Golf Magazine Nov. 1985.

Player, Gary. The Golfer’s Guide to the Meaning of Life: Lessons I’ve Learned from My Life on the Links. Emmaus: Rodale, 2001.

Player, Gary. Don't Choke: A Champion's Guide to Winning under Pressure. New York: Skyhorse, 2010.

Player, Gary. "A Lifetime of Coping with the Trial of Flying." The New York Times. New York Times, 5 Nov. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/business/a-golf-pro-learns-to-be-comfortable-in-the-air.html. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Player, Gary, with Floyd Thatcher. Gary Player, World Golfer. Waco: Word, 1974.