What I Learned: Gary Player begins his nine-decade journey

As his 90th birthday approaches in November, nine-time major champion Gary Player says he has “logged more miles than any human being” and calls himself “the most well-read athlete in history.” (Another appropriate rating might be “most opinionated.”) Here are some of the lessons the Black Knight has learned during his nine-decade journey.

What makes a champion? You cannot define it. But I believe that in some way it has to do with suffering.

I am grateful for the way I suffered as a child. I suffered like a junkyard dog.

I adored my mother. She died when I was nine years old. My father had to leave school when he was fifteen. He was one of six. He needed a job. The only job you could get in South Africa at his age was in a gold mine, 2,500 meters underground. He did that for thirty years.

As a boy, I woke up at 5 in the morning and an hour and a half walk to school and an hour and a half back. I came home to an empty house. I was nine and had to cook my own food. I lay in bed crying every night for two years. And you know what? It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever had in my life.

I’m not a braggart. But I sit here today and have won the most tournaments of any man on this planet. It’s a fact. I have won more national titles – US Opens, British Opens, Australian Opens and the like – than Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods combined. I’ve outlasted Sam Snead, the greatest athlete to ever play the game.

At my age I still shoot par. I’m almost 90.

All this success comes about because of what happened to me as a young person. If you play golf professionally, you suffer. People don’t realize that this game will eat you alive.

But this game, you never master it. Whether you’re Tiger, Jack or Ben Hogan, today you shoot 88, the next day you shoot 74. The circumstances are the same. You haven’t changed your swing.

Then why do you choose golf? Because this is the only thing you ever dreamed of.

People use the word superstar too loose these days. To me, Michael Jordan is a superstar. LeBron James, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt – they’re superstars. Today, if someone wins two or three majors, they say he’s a superstar. No, he isn’t. He’s a great player, but not a superstar. The only reason I have this knowledge is because I have lived so long, read so much, and traveled so much. I played with Gene Sarazen and Tommy Armor. I met Walter Hagen. There are pros today who weren’t even born when I played with those guys.

Everything will pass. But I’m going to try to write everything down as best I can.

I’m going to write a book. One of the chapters is entitled “If!” With an exclamation mark. It’s such an interesting thing. If Tiger Woods had made the right choices in his career – and I’m not criticizing this – he would have won 22, 23 majors without a doubt. Tiger wins the US Open by 15 shots and decides to take lessons. He wanted to get better. I admired him for that, but it was to his detriment because he didn’t win another major for another eleven years. He tried to become a Navy SEAL. He jumped out of planes. A friend of mine who was a Navy SEAL scout said, “Tiger Woods will never end his career. His legs and his back will give out.” And I said, “You’re talking nonsense. He’s a top athlete.” But my friend was right.

I rarely exercise in the morning. You need to channel your energy properly. I like to exercise in the evening. If I don’t play the next day, I’m going to train really hard. Exercise helps me sleep. One of the great secrets of longevity is good sleep, because it builds the immune system. And I’m a champion sleeper. You could put me in a room right now and I could sleep for fourteen hours.

Tiger is the greatest golfer who ever lived. Except he isn’t. Because it’s not on paper. Jack has the best record on paper. Jack not only won 18 majors, he also finished second in the majors 19 times. That’s hard to believe.

Let’s reverse the thinking procedure with Jack and Tiger. If Jack Nicklaus had been chasing Tiger’s record, he would have changed his philosophy. Jack never prepared for majors like Tiger did. But if Jack had chased Tiger, he would have shifted his focus more to the majors and won more of them.

My mind works fast. Sometimes I quickly forget what subject I’m talking about.

Manners make the man. My mother taught me to stand up when a lady enters the room. Do not reach over the table.

Learn to speak well. When I first came to America, if you said to a young person, “How are you, son?” they looked you in the eye and said, “Good, thank you, sir. How are you?” That has now disappeared. Now they just say, “Fine.”

My father, a man without education, ended up speaking three African native languages. as well as Dutch, Portuguese and English. What would have happened if he had had education and opportunities?

When I was seventeen, I told my father, “I’m going to be a professional golfer.” He said, “You’re crazy. I want you to be a doctor or a lawyer.” And I said, “No, Dad. I want to be a world champion.” And he said, “Well, boy, if you sincerely believe that, then you’ve got to read. You’ve got to learn to speak well because you’re going to be in front of people, and if you want to make a living, you’re going to have to represent a company. And besides, you’re going to have to get a brand.” I had no idea what he was talking about. A brand? But then I come to America and watch this show, Have a gun – will travelfeaturing a character named Paladin, wearing black, silver holsters and cowboy hat. And he has a card, and when he meets someone and they have a problem, he says, “Here’s my card. If it’s serious enough, I’ll help you.” I loved that. Coming from South Africa and seeing this man, I thought, I have to wear black. And I became the Black Knight. And here I am today, still in black.

I believe in legacies. Why? Only fifteen players in history have won six majors or more. Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam in four months and he played with a walking stick as a driver and a ball that flew 80 meters less than it does now. The greens then looked more like our fairways of today. And they never changed the pins. And you raked the bunkers with your feet. And you traveled on the Greyhound bus.

I would like a psychiatrist or someone else to explain it why golf does what it does to a person. I would like to understand why I cry and kiss the ground when I listen to music, or when I think about my parents or my dear family, or how lucky I am to come from a great country. But then I step on the golf course and I’m a mean, miserable son of ab…-.

I’ve only met one man who knew the swing from A to Z: Ben Hogan. And I’ve been a professional golfer for almost 73 years now. Many people know the swing from A to W or A to Y, but Hogan hit more balls than any man who ever lived. I’m going to surpass him. Vijay Singh maybe too. But this man, Ben Hogan, had a regular swing and he built the largest swing that ever existed. I was fortunate that Hogan told me two things about my swing that helped me win the most tournaments in the world. But that information is great
secret. I’ll tell you all about it in my book.

When I listen to some of today’s lessons, I shudder. We have a number of pros on the Tour today. I won’t mention any names because I don’t want to embarrass anyone. But there is one player in particular: if I could spend just an hour with him, I could make him the best player in the world. He has so much power, but such a pathetic swing. And it’s getting worse. I ask young professionals, “What is the most important thing in a swing?” The nonsense they tell me!

Another thing that bothers me now is the managers. They have become so greedy. I went to Hong Kong and this one guy who was playing, a regular player, his manager wanted $750,000 for him to play. We just had an event at Sun City in South Africa. The same guy who played in Hong Kong didn’t make it. In my day we were never greedy. We asked for money, but we were never greedy.

Arnold, Jack, myself – together we have won over 300 tournaments. We have won more than 50 majors together. We went around the world. We went to Japan to promote the game. We went to China, South Africa, Australia. We got on planes, and they weren’t fighter jets at that time.

I like playing with amateurs. That’s the difference between now and the times we played. When we went on the senior tour, they said, “Guys, we have to build the game. Would you play in a pro-am every week?” I said, “No, I play in three pro-ams every week.” Today’s players are not as fierce. Hogan was a fierce competitor. Sam Snead was fierce. Palmer or Nicklaus or Tom Watson or Lee Trevino or Raymond Floyd and Hale Irwin – they were as fierce as any competitor I’ve ever seen. If you made a mistake when you got to the finish line, you would never win.

You cannot compare eras. But if you took the 10 best players of our time and the 10 best of today and put them on the same course with the same metal heads, the same balls, pounding nail markers and with machines to rake the bunkers, we would beat them.

Why do I say that? Because when we were in a position to win, we won.