London - Gary Player is 80 on Sunday and his days still begin with 1 300 sit-ups and pushing 300lb on a leg machine.
He hasn’t had a day this year when he’s played 18 holes and not shot lower than his age.
He will spend his birthday flying from Florida to China and then on to Bangkok. In the world of business he’s still representing companies around the globe and designing golf courses from here to Timbuktu. When at home in South Africa he rises at 5am each day and spends 12 hours working on his farm.
So when you ask the inevitable question - “er, have you ever given thought to slowing down a touch?” - it’s as well to hold the phone a good distance from your ear.
“Let me tell you, Derek,” he begins. “Retirement is a death warrant. I remember in Britain a few years ago when you had that outcry when people were asked to work a year longer. Well, I’m 80 and I’m still the same as when I was 22. I’m still curious to learn, and I don’t believe in retirement. I want to die working.”
A 30-minute conversation with Player might be better than any pep talk with a guru specialising in positive thinking. Sure, a lot of the material is recycled. But the answers are delivered with such zest and passion you’d have to be a total cynic not to take anything from the experience.
When I ask him what was the greatest disappointment during his fabulous career, the answer is delivered with such emotion you’d have thought it happened yesterday rather than in 1962.
“I was leading Arnold Palmer by two shots with three holes to go at the Masters and he hit his tee shot to the 16th up on the right, where you can’t go,” he said. “I was 20 feet away and I said to my caddie: ‘We’ve won this’.
“Well, he hits his shot, it’s travelling about 100mph because it’s impossible to stop the ball from up there, and doesn’t it hit the hole and go in. At the 17th he hooks his tee shot into Eisenhower’s Tree, and then hits a five iron to 35 feet and holes that one as well. So we have a play-off and I’m leading him by three shots with nine holes to go... and he shoots 31 for the back nine. I tell you, that was one tournament Arnold won with miracles.”
With that, he starts laughing uproariously.
His name will always be linked with Palmer’s and Jack Nicklaus’s, of course, immortalised in the moniker and deeds of the Big Three. Now, apparently, we have a modern version with Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Jordan Spieth. Interestingly, when asked which of the original Big Three they most identified with, all three went for the man in black.
For McIlroy, it was a stature thing and the fact that Player competed as an international golfer in a game in which three of the four majors are held in America. For Day, it was overcoming ludicrous odds to make it on the world stage; and for Spieth, competing against men who can thrash the ball 30 or 40 yards further.
“That was a great compliment and one I really appreciated,” said Player, who lost his mother when he was eight and was introduced to the game by his father, a miner, who took out a loan to buy his son a set of clubs. “It meant a lot because I also admire them. They have so much responsibility on their shoulders but they behave accordingly and are terrific role models.
“Who’s going to win the most? Well, that’s impossible to answer. Who has the most ambition and desire as the years pass? I think Rory and Jason have the best technique but Jordan is so mature and clearly the best putter. What a short game, and that’s so important. When are all these experts who rave about length going to learn that 70 percent of shots are taken from 100 yards in? So we’ll see, but it’s going to be great to watch.”
Was Player’s own story the greatest golf has ever told? Unless or until Rory fulfils his destiny, he remains unquestionably the finest non-American golfer of all time.
“I’ve definitely got the best world record of anyone, and that was my dream,” said Player. “I won seven Australian Opens, and that’s still a record. I won the World Match Play five times in Britain, I won in South America and Africa and lots of times in America, of course.
“Are there any regrets? Not as such. But I was offered a million dollars a year by someone in 1961 with the proviso I live in America for five years rather than go back and forth. I refused, because I love Africa and the quality of life I enjoyed there with my family.
“But I’d have won a lot more majors if I’d taken up the offer and stayed in America, and so there will always be that question in my mind of whether I should have said yes, rather than a regret.”
And so to this landmark birthday, which he will celebrate a week late, in his beloved South Africa.
“We’re all gathering at Sun City, where they’ve kindly supplied 300 free rooms and free golf for everyone, so it’s going to be an incredible party,” he said.
“I’ve got all my family together, including all 22 grandchildren from every corner of the world. I’ve got friends coming from China, America, the Middle East, Britain, everywhere, so it’s going to be wonderful.
“I feel very blessed to reach such an age in such condition but it’s also my reward for listening to the man upstairs and looking after myself all these years. It frustrates me when I look around and see so many young people eating too much and getting fat. Why is more not being done to teach them you can’t do anything without your health?
“As for me, I’ll never stop. When I’m 90 I’ll still play golf and I’ll still break 80.”
Player by name and, clearly, a player to the end. Happy birthday, Gary.
Daily Mail