A true legend of golf, Gary Player has won more than 160 titles worldwide and is one of only four golfers ever to have triumphed in the Grand Slam, (all four Major Championships.) Commonly regarded as the best bunker player of all time, he is famed for his extraordinary work ethic and his emphasis on fitness. Always dressed in black, the "Black Knight" has, by and large, lived up to his claim that "the harder I practice, the luckier I get".
He is also the most successful global golfer ever to play the game. He has collected 42 senior and regular tour wins in the United States, 73 on the European Tour and 34 on the Australian Tour. In addition, he has won in Japan, Canada and South America. He has traveled more miles than any other sportsman in history and is recognized as the "International Ambassador of Golf."
A man of strong religious belief, he won his first tournament in the United Kingdom in 1956 and was playing on the US Tour by the following year. He won his first Major title in The British Open Championship at Muirfield in 1959 when he came back from eight shots off the lead at the halfway stage.
Player then made golfing history in 1965 when his US Open victory at Bellerive enabled him to complete the coveted Grand Slam of all four Majors (following in the footsteps of Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, and joined later by Jack Nicklaus.)
In all, Player has won nine Major titles: three US Masters, three British Opens, two PGA championships and the United States Open crown. In fact, he is the only player to win the British Open Championship in three different decades. He joined the Senior Tour in 1985 and has since won 23 times including nine Senior Majors, three PGA Seniors championships, two US Senior Opens, three Senior British Opens and the Senior Players Championship title.
The globe-trotting Player also won the South African Open and the South African Masters 13 times apiece; the Australian Open on a record seven occasions; two Australian Masters titles; the World Series of Golf in 1965, 1968 and 1972; and two Brazilian Opens. In 1965, he captained South Africa's maiden team victory in the World Cup of Golf, and he is the first man to secure a record five World Matchplay titles at the famous Wentworth Club in England.
Awarded the mantle of South Africa's Sportsman of the Century in 2000, Player enters his 6th decade as a professional golfer and entered his 46th consecutive British Open this year at St. Andrews in Scotland. He was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame in 1974, was named an Honorary Member of the Royal & Ancient at St. Andrews in 1994 and the World Federation of PGA Tour's International Ambassador of Golf Award in 1999.
Still, other than contending in tournaments occasionally (he has six top-25 finishes this year), Player is probably happiest up on the soapbox. He extols the virtues of hard work, education, exercise, and proper nutrition, particularly in the US, a country he truly lives.
"The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity," he said. "To me, the greatest danger facing the United States today is obesity. I want to do a book and call it 'Polishing the Diamond.' It would be about eating right. Sending a child to school with a pizza and a Diet Pepsi is not the way to do it."
"I feel like I've got to do something to contribute other than playing in golf tournaments and signing autographs. I'll go out and talk to kids. I talk about smoking, no drugs, eating right. If I speak to 5,000 kids a year maybe it will do some good. It's so important."
160 Worldwide Titles
