Gary Player - The Legend

Gary Player At The British Open

Jun 29, 2011 | Filed Under: General News   

The evening before the final round of the 1959 British Open at Muirfield, Scotland a 23 year old Gary Player attended a dinner and spied Humphrey McMaster, the President of Slazenger golf.  Player approached McMaster and said “Mr. McMaster, tomorrow I am going to win the Open.”  McMaster looked at him with disbelief and replied “Young man, at your age?  And besides, you’re six shots back.”

This was not cockiness on Player’s part it was who Gary Player was and still is today – a supremely positive person who believes that if you believe you will win then you will win.  As the 2011 Open Championship approaches we look back on Gary Player’s career and why he is one of the most beloved Champions in history.

In 1959 the weather during the final round at Muirfield was not conducive for playing good golf. The wind was howling and birdies were hard to come by.  Player had set a target of 66; with the course playing so difficult and going out early he thought that 66 would win him the tournament and give him his first Major.  He approached the 18th needing to make par for his 66.  He double bogeyed the hole.  “My whole world collapsed on me,” he remembers.  “It took all of my resolve to just sign my scorecard.”  After departing in need of consolation from his wife Vivienne, he received a call a few hours later in his hotel room.  His 284 total had held up and he had won the Claret Jug.

In 1968 Carnoustie, Scotland was no kinder than Muirfield had been 9 years earlier.  The wind was blowing hard and some of the best players in the world were being beaten by the course and conditions.  Player took the lead on the 6th hole of the final round and never relinquished it.  The highlight of the day and what Player considers “the greatest shot I’ve ever hit in my life” was his 3 wood on the 14th hole, named The Spectacles.  That three wood, his second shot on the par 5 14th, landed inches from the cup and his eagle gave him his second British Open Championship.

In 1974 Gary Player became the only player to ever win the British Open in three different decades.  As he puts is “Perfection in golf is obviously very hard to attain, but I must say I came close to it at Lytham in 1974.”  Player led wire to wire and played what he considers his finest four consecutive rounds of golf in his career. 

After his time on the PGA Tour he moved to the Seniors Tour where he captured three more British Open titles making him and Tom Watson the only golfers in history to win three Championships on both tours. 

Perhaps the most important thing Gary Player ever did at the British Open had nothing to do with golf.  In 1960 at St. Andrews, he donned a pair of Black and White pants to bring attention to his home country of South Africa struggles with Apartheid.  In 2000, 40 years later at St. Andrews, he wore the same pants to celebrate its demise.

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