I had the pleasure & privilege to play in a Pro Am 4 ball with the legendary Gary Player a few years back. I had not been on a golf course for 2 years as I had broken both my arms in a fall. Not long after we tee’d off Uncle Gary turned to me and asked when last I had played golf, I looked him in the eye and said: ”Uncle Gary this is going to be your longest day on a golf course”. He put his arm around me and replied: ”Well then let’s just have fun”. That epitomises who Gary Player is, a big man with a very big heart. Since then I have had the opportunity to interact with Uncle Gary on a few occasions and am always impressed by his immense capacity for people and his love for life. Uncle Gary’s Life Commandments are a great compass for us all: (1) Change is the price of survival. (2) Everything in business is negotiable, except quality. (3) A promise made is a debt incurred. (4) For all we take in life we must pay. (5) Persistence and common sense are more important than intelligence. (6) The fox fears not the man who boasts by night but the man who rises early in the morning. (7) Accept the advice of the man who loves you, though you like it not at present. (8) Trust instinct to the end, though you cannot render any reason. (9) 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. (10) There is no substitute for personal contact. Uncle Gary happy 80th birthday, you are a man amongst men. Marco Coetzer