Gary Player - The Legend

Well-Traveled: When it Comes to Hitting the Road, Gary Player is Second to None

Jul 7, 2006 | Filed Under: General News   

Social commentator. World traveler. Even an artist of sorts.

Not to mention a world-class athlete.

Gary Player is a man of many interests, yet he’s also a simple man who finds his greatest pleasure just being with his family in his native South Africa on what he modestly calls his “ranch.” His worldy experiences have weaved a personal tapestry that might very well be unparalleled among professional athletes.

Player’s schedule, commitments and travel would break most men, if not permanently send them into an asylum. How else can one describe a life that consists of more than 15 million air miles traveled as anything but crazy?

Yet Player loves every minute of it.

“I love people,” Player said, holding court at a dinner table in the player’s lounge at Prairie Dunes Country Club after a practice round. “I love traveling. I’m traveling more now than I’ve ever traveled in my life. I’ve traveled more than any human being that’s ever lived. There’s no question about it.”

That’s as close as Player, 70, will get to bragging, but it’s been said it’s not bragging if it’s the truth. Other players on the Champions Tour agree.

“If you converted his mileage into years,” Jim Thorpe said, “Gary might well be over 200 years old.”

The Champions Tour media guide lists him with 14 million air miles to his credit, a number that’s growing nearly every day. To get a better grasp on just how well-traveled Player is, consider that he’s gone the equivalent of an around-the-world trip nearly 600 times. A simple recap of his itinerary over the last month doesn’t require a travel agent, but a world atlas.

It’s hard to imagine a point in Player’s public life in which he wasn’t well-versed in worldly things, but he’s quick to recall times in which he traveled by Greyhound bus - or had his first ride in a Cadillac and longed to have one of his own.

Today, Player spends three months out of the year at his home in South Africa. A better term for it would be a resort. It has tennis courts, a golf course, mountain climbing and a game preserve.

“It’s a paradise,” Player said.

When he’s not traveling, Player is based the rest of the year in West Palm Beach, Fla. Most of his time is spent on golf’s artistic side, as he’s the designer of about 200 courses worldwide.

His pride and joy is the Links at Fancourt, a course in his native country that, prior to development, “was a local dump,” according to Player. But in 2003, it hosted the Presidents Cup, a truly significant event for Player on several levels.

As neither an American nor European, Player never was eligible to play in the Ryder Cup. The Presidents Cup came into existence in 1994 as a competition for Americans against players from the rest of the world outside of Europe, yet it was long past Player’s prime golfing years.

And because of South Africa’s apartheid past, it long had been shunned by the sporting world as a place to have sporting events of world consequence.

With the 2003 Presidents Cup, that all changed, and the country’s ability to host major international events hit an all-time high when it was awarded the 2010 World Cup. While Player didn’t take a swing during the tournament, he was the International Team’s captain.

Player came to the United States in the 1950s as the Deep South was embroiled in Jim Crow, conditions blacks endured that were similar to what Player saw in his native land.

“Today, South Africa is a true democracy. The economy is very good, and it’s made a big turnaround. (And the U.S.) has made a big turnaround, too. It’s been interesting for me to see the things that I’ve seen in my 70 years.”

Therefore, it’s no surprise that Player lists Nelson Mandela as one of the greatest men of the last 100 years. Only Winston Churchill, in his mind, tops him. In fact, one of Player’s “Ten Commandments of Life” is directly attributed to Churchill.

“The heights of great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but that while their companions slept were toiling upward in the night.”

“He inspired a nation,” Player said. “He’s the greatest man of the last 100 years.”

A conversation with Player runs the gamut of topics. On obesity in this country, Player said, “The U.S. and South Africa has the best food but the worst eating habits.” He talks about the local Amish community, saying that by keeping their lives simple, they might be smarter than all of us.

If it wasn’t for golf, Player says he’d probably have been a schoolteacher, either in physical education or history. Someone tells Player that with all the things he’s seen, he probably could be a guest professor on most college campuses. He modestly agrees.

What Player can’t do is stop others from praising him.

“He’s a model of inspiration and a true ambassador of golf,” Thorpe said. “He’s a great guy, and I’m proud to call him my friend.”

That’s the title that might mean more to Player than any other.

The Hutchinson News
July 7, 2006 by Patrick Sheltra

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