1968 British Open

After four top five finishes in Majors in 1966 and 1967, Gary Player won the second of his three Open titles nearly a decade after his first Major Championship. He finished two strokes ahead of runners-up Bob Charles and Jack Nicklaus at Carnoustie Golf Links. It was the fifth of Player’s nine major titles.

1986 Senior PGA Championship

Gary Player turned 50 in November 1985, which of course gave him a whole new professional career to look forward to as the Champions Tour was well up and running. Having won his first event, the Quadel Seniors at Boca Grove, Florida, Player was looking forward to 1986, his first full year on the Champions Tour (or Senior Tour as it was known as then).

The PGA Seniors Championship was the second event of the year and Player was feeling very good about his game.

An opening 68 on a brisk Thursday morning at Champions course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens got him an early lead in the tournament – a lead that he was able to hold onto throughout the event. He managed another 68, then a 77 and ended with a seven-shot lead over Lee Elder. Though Elder managed to pull within two shots, a 72 to his 71 in the final round was enough for Gary Player to clinch his first senior Major Championship!

1987 US Senior Open

Gary Player says the US Senior Open at Brooklawn Country Club was one of his finest Major performances ever. He opened with a solid 69, but Gordon Jones, who posted seven birdies during an eight-hole stretch, and Peter Thomson shared the opening-round lead at 66 (five under par). Chi Chi Rodrigues, who fired a second-round 68 to match his opening round, held the halfway lead, just one shot ahead of Player and John Brodies, while Arnold Palmer was a further shot behind on 138.

Chi Chi was the star player on the Champions Tour that year and already won six events going into the Senior Open, so he was certainly the one to beat. On the 17th hole of the third round, Player made birdie at the 415-yard par four to catch Chi Chi for the first time and then take the lead for the first time in the tournament.

In the final round, Gary Player had a dream start, making four birdies in the first eight holes to go six ahead – a lead that he kept to the finish!

1990 Senior British Open

Player came from behind in his customary dramatic fashion to overcome lashing rain and heavy winds at Turnberry to win his second British Senior Open. This performance went down in history as the biggest come-from-behind victory in Senior British Open Championship history at Turnberry. Despite posting a 5-over 75 on the final day, Player rallied from five strokes down to edge Deane Beman and Brian Waites by a stroke.

1997 Senior British Open

In the late 1990s much had changed in the world including Gary Player’s home country of South Africa, which had its first democratically elected government and was thriving under the leadership of Nelson Mandela. Player was just a couple of months shy of his 62nd birthday, but feeling as fit and strong as a man decades younger.

The 1997 Senior British Open was played in Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush, which was once a venue for The Open (back in 1951 when Max Faulkner won). In typically windy and cold Irish summer weather, he opened with a very solid 68, but found himself two shots behind fellow countryman John Bland who shot an excellent 66. The tournament turned into a head-to-head duel between the two of them, with one outscoring the other by two shots each day. Englishman Noel Ratcliffe held the halfway lead after a spectacular 65 in the second round, but he faded with a disappointing 75 in the third.

This left Bland and Player battling it out to the finish, finishing tied on 10-under par 278 after 72 holes of regulation play. They were then faced with a sudden-death playoff, which Player won with a birdie on the 18th, the second playoff hole.
This marked his 9th senior Major Championship, equaling his total on the Regular Tour!