Gary Player - Part 2 (The Open Championships)

When speaking of Gary Player, it’s common for observers to say something along the lines of: “He’s done more with less than any golfer I’ve ever seen.”

The less is Player’s improbable 5’7″, 160 pounds, his unorthodox method and his hailing from a small country in a remote corner of the world. The more includes nine Major Championships, the modern Grand Slam, over 160 professional victories around the world –including 24 official PGA TOUR victories – and nine Majors on the PGA TOUR Champions. Yet Player, in his forthright way, differs with a reductionist view of his career. “I had a great deal of talent,” he will say, before adding, “but talent alone will only take you so far.”

“The harder you practice, the luckier you get.”
No, with Player there has always been a palpable sense of something extra. Perhaps no golfer has ever craved victory so much for such a long time. “What I have learned about myself,” he wrote in his 1991 autobiography, “is that I am an animal when it comes to achievement and wanting success. There is never enough success for me.”

His peers, who included Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus in their primes, knew it. “I don’t think Gary was a great driver of the golf ball,” said Nicklaus. “I don’t think he was a great iron player. He was a good putter, not a great putter. But when he really needed to be, he was a great driver, and a great iron player, and he made the putt when he needed to make it. Gary, as much as anyone I ever saw, has that thing inside him that champions have.”

Gary Player was born November 1, 1935, in… Read More