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Golf's Greatest Players: Gary Player

A Profile of Gary Player: Iconic Golfer

Gary Jim player, nicknamed the Black Knight and Mr Fitness, was born November 1, 1935, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Player was regarded as the World's most travelled athlete, and also one of the very best professional golfers in the World in the post-World War II era.

He was only the third man after Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan to have won all four major tournaments, also known as the modern golf Grand Slam.

Professional Wins: 160

PGA Tour Wins: 24

Major Championships: 15

Gary Player’s Early life

Gary was the youngest among the three children of Harry and Muriel Player. His father worked as a captain in a gold mine and spent most of his working time 12,000 feet underground.

His mother was a very learned and well-educated woman who sadly died of cancer when Gary was just 8. Writing about her, Player said,

“Her loss has been a means for me, as it were, to settle some unfathomable debt.”

Gary Player chose to pay back that debt by becoming a golfer. Although he started playing the game at the age of 14, He became a professional golfer three years later at the age of 17 (1953), and without wasting time, he won several times in Africa, Europe, and Australia.

He then moved to America in 1957, and after he watched some of the very best professionals hit the ball, realized he needed to increase his workload if he were to compete.

He worked even harder and intensified his exercise regimen and practice, he weakened his hooker's grip and started to learn how to carry the ball even farther.

The following year, Player won the Kentucky Derby Open, followed by a second-place finish at the U.S. Open, where his idol Ben Hogan stared and said to him ‘Son, you are going to be a great player.'

Gary took off from there and became well-known for his trademark all-black outfits.

Gary Player’s Professional career

In 1959, Player won the British Open at Muirfield for his first-ever major and went on to win the 1961 Masters and the 1962 PGA at Aronimink as his third.

At the age of 29, Player defeated Kel Nagle in an 18-hole playoff to complete the modern Grand Slam at the 1965 U.S. Open, making him the youngest ever to complete the achievement at that time.

The success-hungry Player went on to win nine Senior Majors and became the only golfer in the history of the game to complete the Grand slam on both the Regular and Senior Tours.

His other Major Achievements include the 1972 PGA Championship, the 1968 and 1974 British Opens, and the 1974 and 1978 Masters.

The highlight of his career came in his last game and was perhaps his proudest victory. He started the final round seven strokes out of the lead. At age 42, He birdied seven out of the ten to shoot 64 and won by a stroke.

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Gary Player: Up there with the very best

Gary Player is unarguably the greatest international golfer that the game has ever produced. He said he has spent an estimate of over three years of his life in aeroplanes and travelled 28 million kilometres by air.

Right from 1955 to 1982, Player won at least one sanctioned international tournament per year, and that is a mind-blowing 27 years winning streak.

Player is a 5-times winner of the Match Play title, seven times winner Australian Open, and 13 times winner at the South African Open. In the 1974 Brazilian Open, he won by shooting 59 times, the only ever in a national open.

He returned to the game of golf in 2016 to captain the South African team, and he is South Africa's Sportsman of the century. Player is currently a father of six children, grandfather of 22, and great-grandfather of one.