He said the worst thing about the famed club is his inability to come play a round with friends, a rule he wishes would change. But it seems his frustration has boiled over.
The 87-year-old three-time Masters champion said in an interview with The Times how sad it is that he has to beg for a round at the place where he’s an honorary member.
Come Thursday, Player will join Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson as honorary starters ahead of the 2023 Masters, something he has done for more than a decade.
That ceremony is something he treasures, but outside of that, he isn’t happy with how he is welcomed at Augusta.
“After all I’ve contributed to the tournament and been an ambassador for them, I can’t go and have a practice round there with my three grandchildren without having to beg a member to play with us, and there’s always some excuse. It’s terribly, terribly sad,” Player told The Times.
“I’ve played my role: I’ve won it three times; I was in the top ten 15 times; I made the most number of cuts in a row ever (23), yet here we are struggling to get a round. If it wasn’t for the players, (Augusta National) would just be another golf course in Georgia.
“It’s just sad – and I put great emphasis on the word ‘sad’ – that Augusta (doesn’t) make you feel welcome in that regard because I helped make this tournament what it is.”
Last week, Player said in the Daily Mail the Open Championship was the best major and the Masters was fourth.
While Player said no golfer has received more love than he has over his career, he also said he has had a difficult road.
“There’s no golfer who’s ever had a tougher life than I have,” Player said. “I’ve won more tournaments than any man alive. I’ve won more national Opens than Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer put together. I’ve done remarkable things.”
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We polled a handful of players and past champions about the scariest hole at Augusta National.
We eliminated the obvious choice – Golden Bell, the slender par-3 that has been a watery grave for many Green Jacket hopes – though Collin Morikawa was quick to point out he never said that hole was scary.
Jon Rahm cleverly asked, “Does the walk to 12 count?” and Jim Furyk voted for the dreaded third shot at 12. Sorry, Collin, 12 is take-your-par-and-run scary and that’s a fact.
The votes have been tabulated and Nos. 1, 4, 5, 7, 11, 15 and 18 all have been tabbed as “scary.” Our favorite answer has to be Jack Nicklaus, who made it clear he wasn’t scared of any of them but then gave a master class on the six scary shots that must be handled to have success at Augusta National. A scary thought, indeed.
Here’s what the pros had to say about the scariest hole at Augusta National, and why it’s No. 11.
View photos of Gary Player throughout his Hall of Fame career, including nine major victories.
Gary Player is a golf giant.
A nine-time major champion, Player earned the nickname “The Black Knight” thanks to his dashing looks and outfit choices on the course.
With more than 150 worldwide career wins to his name, Player has been much more than just a champion golfer. He has dedicated his life to growing the game throughout his native South Africa and the world.
Player became just the fourth golfer to earn a career grand slam with his win at the 1965 U.S. Open at Bellerive. From there, he would go on to five more majors. As a senior, Player would tack on nine more major championships.
Following his playing career, Player continued his work as a global ambassador for the game. Sharing stories, swing tips and even showing off his fitness prowess, Player has been an endearing figure within the game throughout eight decades.
From helping underprivileged children across the globe to having a hand in designing over 400 golf courses, Player has made an impact well past his wins on Tour.
The International team hasn’t won in a quarter century.
The eyes of Liezl Els told the result of the 2019 Presidents Cup. Ernie’s wife wiped away fresh tears and tried to hide her disappointment behind a pair of oversized sunglasses. Only she really knew the countless hours that her husband invested as Captain of Team International. The pain of a 16-14 defeat at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, will linger because victory was there for the taking.
What transpired nearly three years ago in December was one of the most spirited competitions to date in the Presidents Cup, a team match-play competition between the United States and the world’s best non-European players. Credit to Els for devising a way to neutralize the so-called American advantage. He threw himself head-long into his captaincy, and he turned over every stone in search of the slightest edge. He became convinced that the pairings mattered, and he developed a strategy using advanced analytics. Els’s squad took advantage and jumped to a 6 ½-3 ½ lead.
“If you compare our team on paper with other teams in other sport, you would have laughed us out of the building,” Els said. “But we gave it a hell of a go and we came mightily close to winning and upsetting one of the greatest golf teams of all time…It didn’t quite work out, but we came damn close.”
International Team Captain Ernie Els gives a thumbs up during the second day of the 2019 Presidents Cup at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Victoria , Australia. (Photo: Keyur Khamar/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
The Presidents Cup has delivered such passion from its participants since it debuted in 1994 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Prince William County, Virginia. (It was held there again in 1996.) The Americans, captained by Hale Irwin and Arnold Palmer in 1994 and 1996, respectively, won on both occasions against teams led by David Graham and Peter Thomson.
Royal Melbourne hosted the first Presidents Cup outside the United States in 1998, and Thomson’s International Team defeated a U.S. squad led by Jack Nicklaus. But the U.S. were prepared and got their vengeance in 2000 as Ken Venturi’s American side routed Thomson’s team by a record margin, 21 ½-10 ½.
The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, delayed the 2002 Cup until 2003. Held in South Africa, the match was an instant classic. Davis Love III, the U.S. Captain this go-round, participated in the first six Presidents Cups as a player and was an assistant captain to Fred Couples in 2013, Jay Haas in 2015 and Steve Stricker in 2017, and he thinks about his role in the outcome of the 2003 Cup all the time. He still regrets that he didn’t deliver in the clutch in South Africa, site of the infamous tie.
“I screwed the whole thing up,” Love said. “I had played a really good match from tee to green and had lipped out a bunch of putts and got to the last hole leading Robert Allenby 1 up, so I only needed to tie (that hole) and we’d have won the Cup.”
The finishing hole at the Links Course at Fancourt Hotel and Country Club is a par 5 and Love split the fairway with his drive. When he arrived at his ball, U.S. Captain Jack Nicklaus was waiting there and advised him that many players had overshot the green.
“Of course, I panicked and hit a big flare to the right and short, chili-dipped it and gave Allenby the hole,” Love recalled.
That meant a playoff for the first time in the history of the competition, with Tiger Woods selected to represent the American side against Ernie Els in his native land. The stalemate could not be broken after three playoff holes. As darkness descended, Captains Nicklaus and Gary Player agreed to share the Cup.
South African president Thabo Mbeki presents the Presidents Cup to the two sharing captains: Jack Nicklaus of the United States and the International Team’s Gary Player in South Africa. (Photo: Getty Images)
“Tiger claims that I put him in a terrible situation having to play Ernie in South Africa. I said, ‘I set you up to be a hero.’ I sat up on the hill with my head in my hands watching those guys play in the dark going there’s no reason we should be playing now,” Love remembers. “Nicklaus will not let it go. He’ll say, ‘If you had just hit the 4-iron on the green we would’ve won.’ I set him up for another great moment of sportsmanship in his legacy.”
Nicklaus oversaw his U.S. team edge Player’s International squad in the next two editions, played in 2005 again at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia and in 2007 at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada.
Fred Couples took over the captaincy for the U.S. side in 2009, and the Americans made it three in a row at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. In 2011, Royal Melbourne again hosted but the Internationals couldn’t stop the U.S. winning streak. Neither could Nick Price in the captain’s role push the Internationals into the victory column in 2013 at Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, as Couples captains successfully for a third time. Woods won the deciding point for the U.S. in all three wins under Couples.
In 2015, the Presidents Cup made its first foray into Asia at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon City, South Korea. Captain Jay Haas watched his son, Bill, win the deciding point in the last Singles match as the U.S. edged Price and the Internationals for the sixth straight victory. The U.S. side dominated in 2017 back on home soil at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, claiming the first four team sessions and needing just one point to clinch heading into Sunday’s singles.
The Presidents Cup returned to Royal Melbourne for a third time in 2019 and delivered one of the most closely contested matches in the biennial event’s history.
The close-but-no-cigar result meant the team’s record in the biennial event is 1-11-1 and it hasn’t won in a quarter century – a losing streak that dates to 1998. It’s a dubious distinction and one that The International side intends to rectify under the leadership of another South African.
Trevor Immelman, assistant captain of the International team for the 2019 Presidents Cup, looks on during the team photo session at Royal Melbourne Golf Course Australia. (Photo: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Trevor Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion and lead analyst for CBS Sports’ golf coverage beginning next year, takes over the reins from Els this time and will lead his 12-man team into battle at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. In two Presidents Cup appearance in 2005 and 2007, he compiled a 1-6-1 record. Immelman is confident his side has turned a corner. He hopes to build on the blueprint for victory that Els implemented in 2019.
Immelman noted that he has “literally and physically massive shoes to fill,” but “Ernie for the first time gave our team an identity and something to try to build off. You know, we almost got there.”
Perhaps the biggest hurdle for the International team always has been creating a team atmosphere with players from so many different countries, different cultures and speaking different languages.
“We represent a large portion of the world,” Immelman said. “Last time in Australia we had eight different regions represented. So we have to try and bridge those gaps from a communication and culture standpoint, so those are the things that we work really hard on.”
“Sometimes you met the guy for the first time on Tuesday afternoon of the competition,” International Team assistant captain Geoff Ogilvy said. “I didn’t know K.T. Kim (in 2011). By Saturday we’re great friends but it took until Saturday.”
Has Els set the wheels in motion to end the U.S. domination by nearly pulling off an improbable upset? Will another loss diminish the team’s competitive spirit or ignite an intense rivalry?
Adam Scott of Australia celebrates on the 17th green after he and Byeong-Hun An of South Korea and the International team defeated Bryson DeChambeau and Tony Finau of the United States team 2&1 during Thursday four-ball matches at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Course in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo: Warren Little/Getty Images)
No one has endured losing at the Presidents Cup quite like Adam Scott. The Australian has represented the International Team nine times – this year marks his 10th – in the biennial competition since 2003, but he has yet to taste victory. As Ogilvy put it, “Adam is burning to win one of these.”
His resolve has not been broken.
“I’ve taken plenty of licks in this thing,” Scott said. “But I’ve always taken something so positive from this event. So many positive things have happened, so I don’t see this event as a real negative for me. I like what’s happening in the future and I can’t wait for another crack at it.”
Immelman is quite familiar with the Queen City from competing
in the Wells Fargo Championship, where he once finished second, losing a sudden-death playoff in 2006 to Jim Furyk, and from visiting his parents, who formerly resided there.
At 42, he will be the youngest man to captain either side and he and his men will face a tough test. Immelman served as an assistant captain in 2019 and as a TV broadcaster for CBS Sports and Golf Channel witnessed first-hand the USA’s youthful brigade and how it dismantled Europe in the 2021 Ryder Cup.
Add in the fact that the Internationals are playing on foreign soil and has never won an away match and it could be an uphill battle. But at least most of Immelman’s crew will have experience at the layout from playing in the Wells Fargo Championship or during the 2017 PGA Championship.
No. 16 at Quail Hollow Club, which will play as No. 13 in the Presidents Cup (Photo: Ben Jared/PGA Tour)
“I struggle to think of a better place to hold a team event like this,” Immelman said of Quail Hollow. “The Green Mile is going to be an incredible place to watch the pressure points of the match. There’s just nowhere to hide on those holes.
“The golf course has always been one of my favorites on the PGA Tour, and I believe from a match play standpoint, it’s going to be extremely exciting,” Love said. “The way the routing is planned out, I see like a seven- or eight-hole stretch where we’re going to have drivable par-4s, we’re going to have par-5s, we’ve got all these holes with water in play. It’s going to be fantastic to get the crowd really revved up supporting their home team, and I just can’t wait.”
Love has taken the responsibility seriously almost from the minute the U.S side clinched the Ryder Cup last September.
“We just got done with it on Sunday, and the guys said, ‘Are you going home? What are you doing?’ and I go, ‘No, I’m going to Presidents Cup. Midnight it starts Presidents Cup year.’ ”
Love has been looking ahead to the Presidents Cup ever since, but he won’t fall prey to assuming his team will march to an easy victory.
“They could bring 12 Korn Ferry guys and they could be really good. I’m not going to get into it being easy,” Love said. “You’ve got to win every session. That’s going to be the challenge. I feel bad for Trevor that some of his big-name guys have left him. Plus, we have home-field advantage with a really good team so expectations are high.”
Both Captains have participated in enough editions of the Presidents Cup to share the belief of Nicklaus, a four-time U.S. captain of the event, who said, “The Presidents Cup is as much about sportsmanship, goodwill and charity as it is about competition.”
No matter the result, these 24 players no they have been part of something special, something they will always remember, and have had a chance to represent their country in international competition.
“You wait so long, and it feels like time stands still, and then the tournament starts, and it’s just over in the blink of an eye,” Immelman said, “and at the end of the week you’re just walking around giving people hugs saying, ‘I’ve got to get on this team next time.’”
On Thursday, September 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96.
“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
It’s safe to say Player, 86, isn’t the biggest fan of LIV Golf.
Gary Player is not one to mince words.
And in his latest rant, he sounded off against the LIV Golf Series. Player, who is a Golf Saudi ambassador, said recently in a BBC interview numerous things going against LIV Golf, Cameron Smith and other players who’ve defected to the breakaway series that’s backed by Saudi Arabia.
The nine-time major winner even called for those breakaways to be banned from majors.
“I wouldn’t take a billion dollars for my nine majors on both tours,” Player said. “I worked hard. I had desire. I traveled the world. It was an education, I met wonderful people.
“How can you ever be a champion playing a tour with 54 holes and no cut? What sort of tour is that? 54 holes, no cut, a team event nobody understands. It’s a tour for people who don’t have confidence in their future. They don’t have the confidence they can be winners. It’s never going to compare to the regular tour. No chance.”
“They’ve declared war on the PGA Tour,” Player added. “They must not expect to play in the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup, play in the majors and all those things. You can’t have your cake and eat it. That’s the bed you’ve chosen, that’s the bed you’ve got to lie in.”
Asked whether LIV could overtake the PGA Tour as the top circuit, Player responded: “Not even a chance.”
Player also specifically went after Smith, the second-ranked golfer in the world who joined LIV Golf ahead of its tournament in Bolton, Massachusetts, this week.
“Here’s a young man I really thought was going to be a superstar. Now, what sort of future does he have?” Player said. “Will he be able to realize this great dream of being a champion? I don’t know. I don’t blame [Henrik] Stenson for going. He had no money, so he had to go. But this is a potential superstar. I think his advisors have given him the wrong advice.”
It’s safe to say Player, 86, isn’t the biggest fan of LIV Golf.
This isn’t the first time the South African legend has been forced to publicly deal with a dispute with his family.
If you thought you were going to be able to get your hands on some Gary Player collectibles via an auction, guess again.
On Monday the nine-time major champion released a statement saying he has “taken action” against his son and former manager, Marc Player, after several trophies and other memorabilia were put up for auction.
“I would like to draw the public’s attention to the fact that several trophies and other pieces of memorabilia that form part of my legacy have been put up for auction by my son and ex-manager, Marc. These items belong to me and I have taken action to recover them. I have placed no items for sale – whether by auction or otherwise,” the statement read via Player’s Twitter account.
Golf fans will know that this is far from the first time the South African legend has been forced to publicly deal with problems with his family.
Back in 2020, the Hall of Famer was awarded $5 million as well as the rights to his name and likeness as part of a settlement with Marc, who operated the Gary Player Group.
Wayne Player, who missed the cut in each of his 18 PGA Tour appearances from 1979-1986, hijacked the first-tee ceremony at the Masters in 2021 by holding up a sleeve of golf balls as a marketing ploy while Augusta National honored the legendary Lee Elder. That also wasn’t Wayne’s first fiasco at Augusta. He was arrested and spent five days in jail on a fraud charge stemming from the week of the 2018 Masters after being charged with deposit account fraud/bad checks greater than $499.
“It was one of, if not, the greatest shots of my career,” Player said.
Of the 281 shots that Gary Player took on his way to victory at the 1972 PGA Championship, one stands out among the rest.
Fifty years have passed since Player claimed his sixth of nine majors at Oakland Hills Golf Club, but one singular shot remains as vivid to Player as the day he struck it.
“It was one of, if not, the greatest shots of my career,” Player said.
The south course at Oakland Hills was termed “a monster” in 1951 by Ben Hogan, a two-time PGA Championship winner, when he won the U.S. Open there. It was a fitting and fame-producing description. Officials at many other courses tried to adopt the term, touting their layouts as “monsters.” But Oakland Hills, in a suburb north of Detroit, was the original.
Having already won the PGA Championship in 1962, Player was an authority of sorts on what qualified as a monster and pegged Oakland Hills’ south course “the toughest in America.”
Player’s ‘moment of truth’
In the final round of the 54th PGA, 10 golfers were within two strokes of the lead playing the final nine holes. The moment of truth for Player happened at the 408-yard dogleg right par 4 16th, where a pond guards the green set close enough to it that any approach has to cross it. In those days, a majestic Weeping Willow stood inside the elbow. Strategically, it eliminated the shortcut to the green for those who drove the ball into the rough.
That’s, of course, where the hero of our story found himself. Having already bogeyed the 14th and 15th holes, Player shared the lead with Jim Jamieson, who had won the Western Open just a month earlier in what would prove to be his lone PGA Tour win. As Jamieson was up ahead playing the 18th hole, Player pushed his tee shot to the right directly behind the willow tree. Phil Rodgers, who was playing alongside the diminutive South African in the final group, told British golf writer Ben Wright that Player was so discouraged over his drive that he was talking as if he had already blown the tournament.
“I had worked incredibly hard for this major, and now I felt it was slipping away from me,” Player said.
But part of what made Player great was that he trained for every possible circumstance. He had a reputation for creating what he called tactical laboratory situations. For instance, he would set up an obstacle of a tree branch and try to punch the ball beneath it 10 straight times. If he hit the limb, the exercise would start all over.
“Player is gifted, of course, but I hardly think he is overburdened with natural ability,” wrote Leonard Crawley in the London Daily Telegraph. “His immense success comes from hard work, and a capacity to concentrate on the job in hand given to few.”
South Africa’s Gary Player throws his head in the air after putting on the eighteenth hole, where he won the PGA Championship, at Oakland Hill, in Birmingham, Mich., Aug. 6, 1972.
Player takes a peek
What Player did next on a rainy, cool, gray day at Oakland Hills’s 16th personified his grit and determination. Player examined his lie in the soggy rough with great concern. Blind to the flagstick and the water hazard threatening ahead, Player had to stand up on a gallery member’s chair just to get a glimpse of the green.
Fortunately, his lie was a good one on long grass flattened down by the gallery. As he walked to a marker on the fairway to check his yardage, he noticed his divot from the other day.
In his book, “Don’t Choke,” Player recounted how an 8-iron he hit during a practice round played a pivotal role in winning his sixth major. After he struck the shot from right off the fairway on the 16th hole, Player took special notice of the divot.
“Although I was in a similar position, the grass was wet now, and I knew I would get a bit of flyer coming out of the rough,” Player said in explaining his choice of the 9-iron rather than an 8.
Player also deemed he needed the extra loft to clear the trees. A seat stick left on the ground under the trees served as his line. It was an all-or-nothing gamble: the slightest mishit, or if the 9-iron proved to be not enough club to carry the pond to a pin cut very near the hazard on the right side of the green, and he’d be staring a bogey at minimum and possibly a big number in the face.
“That was just not enough club, but Player simply added ‘heart,’ ” wrote golf writer David Mackintosh.
Despite the water ahead and the tree in front of him, he hoisted a 9-iron that soared over the trees, across the water and onto the green, nestling 3 feet from the hole.
Just as Player holed his birdie putt, Jamieson had missed a short par effort of his own on the last green and Player had an insurance stroke in his back pocket. But he wouldn’t need it for Player had already delivered a telling stroke at the most critical moment.
“I’ve hit some incredible shots in my career, and people often thought I was just lucky. But great shots, much like great championship victories, are often the result of careful planning and something that gives you that courage and conviction deep inside to know you can pull it off,” Player explained. “Great shots don’t simply appear out of nowhere during a crucial stage of a major. They are shots that have been grooved on the practice range for hours. What makes them special is the player’s ability to execute the shot under pressure.”
A pair of closing pars later and Player had matched par on the last nine to shoot 2‐over‐par 72 for a 72-hole total of 1-over 281, two strokes ahead of co-runners-up Tommy Aaron and Jamieson, who made headlines that week for using a $17 department store putter. Jamieson fizzled down the stretch, making bogeys on each of the last three holes, signing for an even-par 70, while Aaron had a 71. It secured Player’s first major in over four years, and earned him a check totaling $45,000.
Player trailed Buddy Allin and Stan Thirsk by three strokes after the first round and Jerry Heard by the same margin at the midway point of the championship. In all, 77 golfers survived the cut. Player surged into the lead with a nifty 3-under 67 in the third round, which lifted him a stroke ahead of Billy Casper.
Casper, Snead also near
The outlook for Player to win his first major in four years didn’t appear promising when he opened with bogeys on three of his first four holes in the final round. But Player did sink a 25-foot birdie putt at the second and settled into a streak of six pars in a row beginning at the fifth. Casper and Player were even after nine holes and it was anyone’s trophy to grab hold of until Player converted two birdies on the last nine, a 5‐footer going in at the 11th, and, of course, the one he considered most important at the 16th hole. “I think that one won the tournament for me,” he said later.
Ageless wonder Sam Snead, 60, fired a final-round 69, to tie the low round of the day at the course where he finished second in the 1937 U.S. Open. Snead, who last won the PGA in 1951, tied for fourth with Casper and Ray Floyd.
“If I could have been a couple more under par coming in,” Snead told The New York Times, “I would have thrown a scare into the fellows.”
Jack Nicklaus, the defender and pre‐tourney favorite as current Masters and U.S. Open champion, took three putts at the first green for a bogey in the final round and never gained any momentum after that. Nicklaus tied for 13th place at 287.
There’s one more footnote to the story of Player’s memorable shot at 16. Just as a divot from his practice round had weighed into his decision of what club to hit, his 9-iron divot would become a trophy of sorts for one spectator. A man in the gallery waited for Player to head to the 16th green after his remarkable shot and retrieved Player’s divot. He tucked it away, took it home and planted it in his lawn where it flourished.
“He sent me a message a few years later saying he had a Gary Player lawn,” Player recalled. “and I should come and see it whenever I come back to Detroit.”
“I’m pretty pathetic. I can’t shoot my age. Not even close,” said Jack Nicklaus, 82, the winner of a record 18 majors.
Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino reunited for the first time in three years to play in the 3M Greats of Golf, a team-scramble exhibition that highlighted Saturday’s second round of the Insperity Invitational at The Woodlands near Houston.
During a pre-round news conference, they were asked to describe how much golf they are playing these days and the differences in their responses were telling.
“I’m pretty pathetic,” said Nicklaus, 82, the winner of a record 18 majors. “I can’t shoot my age. Not even close.”
But Nicklaus was happy to get the invite from the tournament’s executive director, Bryan Naugle.
“I said, ‘You really want me to come back? I’m not playing golf.’ Naugs said, ‘I want you to be here.’ That was a nice compliment to me,” Nicklaus said. “It’s fun to be back with these guys.”
Trevino, 82 and winner of six majors during his Hall of Fame career, hardly allows a day to pass without hitting balls. But he claimed he had only played nine holes this year before playing in a pro-am on Friday.
“I don’t play, I hit balls,” he explained. “This is what I do, honestly, I hit five shots with every club and then I go home.”
Player, 86, who claimed nine majors including the career Grand Slam, said he likes to play every day. Nicklaus noted that in back-to-back rounds Player had shot a remarkable 19 and 20 strokes better than his age recently. That would be rounds of 66 and 67, which is none too shabby, no matter the tees.
“At age 86, he’s playing better than he did at age 66,” Nicklaus boasted. “I don’t know why he’s not out here playing. He’d be dusting this field this week…unless he choked!”
A decade in a ceremonial role has not dampened Player’s love of the game — and of telling folks about it.
It isn’t bragging if you can back it up, Muhammad Ali famously said, but even the cocky old prizefighter might have had his tolerance for bombast tested Thursday at Augusta National.
There’s a pre-ordained order to things at the Masters. We hear from competitors on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday belongs to Augusta National’s chairman, and Thursday—at least the early morning, as play gets underway—is reserved for the honorary starters.
The Masters is celebrated for its immutability, underpinned as it is by tradition. One example is the honorary starters, legends whose ceremonial tee shots get things underway shortly after dawn. They are among the few things that do actually change at the Masters, and not just their names. Starters assume the role in the flush of their autumnal years and, while most everything around them remains the same as the years roll on, they grow stiffer of bearing, shorter off the tee and more fragile of health, though never less impressive in our collective memory.
The rookie on the roster of icons who opened the 86th Masters first came to Augusta National as an amateur competitor at the 34th Masters, in 1970. Tom Watson saw Jock Hutchison and Fred McLeod act as starters that year. “It’s a wonderful memory to me,” he said.
Watson, twice a Masters champion, was insistently humble about accepting a richly-deserved honor. “I don’t belong in the same realm as these two players,” he said, gesturing to his right.
To his immediate right sat Jack Nicklaus, the winner of six green jackets and a ceremonial figure since 2010. He and Watson fought some of golf’s most thrilling duels in the ‘70s and ‘80s. They are men comfortable in their accomplishments and ill-disposed toward braggadocio, particularly when speaking in the first person.
To the far right sat Gary Player, a three-time winner here and an honorary starter since 2012. Player is a man of boundless optimism and considerable achievement. In addition to his three Masters victories, he has a pair of PGA Championships, a U.S. Open and three British Opens. The most enduring of those wins was 1968 at Carnoustie, but for reasons that did not become clear until the 1969 Open at Royal Lytham.
Back then, the Champion Golfer of the Year was responsible for having his name added to the Claret Jug. The R&A assumed that responsibility in 1969 for two reasons. Roberto De Vicenzo returned the trophy in ’68 without having had his name engraved, while Player brought it back in ’69 with his name chiseled in lettering considerably larger than any winner before (or since).
Open Champs used to have Claret Jug engraved themselves – until Gary Player "ruined" it by having his name engraved twice the size of others pic.twitter.com/kDe6GBWcrX
That bold personality trait was on full display Thursday morning at Augusta National, as the 86-year-old legend grasped every opportunity to remind us of his every accomplishment, from wins logged to miles flown.
“I remember when I was the first international player to win this great tournament,” he began, as a means of paying tribute to the defending champion, Hideki Matsuyama.
“I’ve been to Japan almost 30 times,” he added. Twice.
“You know, I went to Australia at least 30 times,” he said a little later, before dropping an oft-cited claim whose appeal surely lies in the difficulty of it being disproven: “Having traveled more miles than any human being that’s ever lived, it gives me a great thrill.”
That Player is well-traveled is hardly in dispute, and he is admirably quick with compliments for the nations he has visited. Today, it was the turn of India. “I love India, the intelligence, the technology, the manners, the so humble—the women dress so nicely. I’m so used to seeing women with damn dresses up their bum, and you don’t see anything like that in India,” he said, admitting an aversion to immodest dress among the fairer sex that may help explain the Golf Saudi logo adorning his collar.
Almost every great golfer in history has vowed to quit when they can no longer win, but none do so. That’s partly what makes them great, the belief that there’s one more round in the chamber for a Sunday gunfight in a major. The titanic threesome on the dais at Augusta National all said they knew when it was time to stop competing.
Player played his final Masters in 2009 at the age of 73. “I won’t mention players that played that they were shooting 90. Really embarrassing, “ he said. “I was still scoring pretty well, and I just said, ‘No, that’s it. I can’t win anymore.’ ” That sobering realization came 31 years after his last victory, 29 years after his last top-10 finish, and 11 years after he last made the cut.
A decade in a strictly ceremonial role has not dampened Player’s love of the game, of competing, and of telling folks about it. “If I may boast for a minute,” he said, with no discernible irony, “I’ve beaten my age over 2,000 times in a row. In a row!”
He confessed to being upset after a recent round when he narrowly failed to beat his age by a staggering 18 shots. “I was 6-under par with five holes to go. I could play the next holes in 2-over and beat my age by 18,” he said. “Nobody has ever beaten their age by 18!”
The veterans wrapped up their conversation with the press by musing on prospective winners of the Masters a few days hence, which offered Player one last, subtle opportunity to pat himself on the back. “I’d like to see Rory McIlroy win because I think he is basically the most talented player I’ve seen in ages,” he said earnestly. “And to have another Grand Slam winner I think would be just a big shot in the arm for golf around the world.”
The key word there is “another,” drawing attention as it does to the five men who can claim that most exalted of honors, three of whom are living, and one of whom was speaking. He rose from the podium and made for the clubhouse to meet and greet, a man in full, clad in a green jacket he had earned. Like Ali said, it’s not bragging if you can back it up.
