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A Champion for All Time

Feb 9, 2007 | Filed Under: General News   Share

At 71, Gary Player is gunning for one last title. Even his fellow competitors say, “Wouldn’t it be great?”

BOCA RATON, Fla.—Age is a relative thing on the Champions Tour. Fifty is young. If you’re Gary Player, so is 71.

Jay Haas, the tour’s 2006 player of the year, partnered with Player in the Wendy’s Champions Skins Game in Hawaii last month. During a practice round, Player had a question for his younger friend. “He said, ‘Do you see yourself playing at 75 out here?’” Haas recalled Thursday on the eve of the Allianz Championship. “Dead Serious. I kind of had to chuckle. I’m thinking, I’m 53. Twenty-two more years? I guess I don’t see that.”

The Big Three was coined a long time ago, and with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus having retired, Player is the only one of the legends still in competitive circulation. The indefatigable hall of famer will bring his nine majors, 110 international wins, 24 PGA Tour titles and 19 senior victories to about a dozen Champions Tour events this year. He enters the Allianz already having shot his age or better three times in six rounds.

That’s what good food, good genes and a good sweat can do for a man.

He was lifting weights when everyone else was curling gin and tonics. Crazy, they said. Golfers don’t do lift weights, they said. You’ll get all muscle-bound, they said. He packed his barbells with his socks and his positive attitude.

Last week Player was in the United Arab Emirates and came upon Tiger Woods, who was working out in a gym before one of his rounds at the Dubai Desert Classic. Player was bringing up the moment after being asked whether Woods or tennis star Roger Federer is the better athlete.

“Tiger would beat any tennis player in the world in a workout in a gym,” Player said, his voice taking on the tone of a confident prosecutor. “He would make them look like Mickey Mouse. Tiger is an animal in there. I’ve seen him do just a few things, and it’s frightening.”

When he encountered Woods, Player said the world No. 1 had a 25-pound weight in each hand, raising them skyward in a furious pace. “Frank Stranahan and I started the weights in golf, and we were called nuts,” Player said. “Today a lot of these guys are working out pretty hard before they play. Anybody who doesn’t do weight training is going to be left behind.”

The plane never took off without Player. Still doesn’t. “I’m a realist,” he said, “and the courses get longer and the hole gets the size of a Bayer aspirin as you get older, but it’s been very encouraging this year. I’d like to [shoot my age] all three rounds in a tournament. I’ve done it twice [at the MasterCard Championship]. That’s the beauty about golf that does not exist in other sports—the longevity.”

Player won his senior debut 22 years ago in the Quadel Seniors Classic at nearby Boca Grove Plantation. The evolution of the play in that time span is striking to him. “The standard of play is not good, it’s phenomenal,” said Player. “Look at the scores that win every week. Fred Funk won [the Turtle Bay Championship] with 23 under. I’m not saying you’d compare Fred Funk to Tiger Woods, but Tiger would have to really go to shoot better than 23 under for three rounds. How low can anybody go?”

How far shots are being struck is another question, one Player is eager to address. “We really need great leadership at this time in the game’s history,” he said. “There is nobody that knows the game like the players. When it comes to golf, they should listen to a Nicklaus, listen to a Palmer, listen to a Tom Watson. Listen to these guys—not just take what they say and shove it under a rug, which is basically what’s happening.”

Ever-longer courses wouldn’t be necessary in Player’s mind if a little heat was taken out of the ball. “I’m not one of those people who say we mustn’t have progress,” he said. “I’m not one of those people. But I am against waste. When I see this waste, it’s unnecessary. It irks me. Everybody is telling them, that’s all you’ve got to do, is cut back on the ball—don’t go lengthening golf courses, wasting all this money. It’s the biggest waste of money you’ve ever seen in your life.”

Meanwhile, Player would play with a gutta-percha ball if he had to. “He still has unbelievable passion for the game,” Haas said. “He was talking about the people who loved the game more than him. I think he was [ticked] there was somebody who loved the game more than him. He said Arnold and Hogan and Sam and there was a fourth guy, too. But he’s so competitive. If the stars were aligned in just the right way on the right course in the right conditions, wouldn’t it be great to see him in the last group on the last day with a chance to win. I think he still believes that can happen.”

Haas had handful of memories from being around Player in Hawaii last month. One was off the golf course. “We were all sitting around the beach, enjoying the sun,” Haas said. “He comes down and says, ‘Viv [wife Vivienne], I think I’m going to have a swim in the sea.’ He went bounding down the beach and into the surf. I was just watching him.”

With more than a little awe, Haas might have added.

Bill Fields is a senior writer of Golf World magazine.

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