Gary Player: Continued Commitment Key to Sustained Success

This Chronicles Unseen long-form article can be viewed in full on the oneclub.golf website. Enjoy a teaser below.

It is difficult to think of a competitor in any sport who epitomises the value of hard work more clearly than the great Gary Player.

The only man in the last century to have won The Open in three different decades, the Champion Golfer of the Year in 1959, 1968 and 1974 enjoyed a glorious professional career notable not only for its numerous successes but also its extraordinary longevity.

When Player first participated in golf’s original major as a 20-year-old, Henry Cotton and Gene Sarazen were among his fellow competitors. By the time he made his final appearance at The Open in 2001, aged 65, Tiger Woods was the biggest star in the sport.

Yet while there have been countless significant changes in golf since Player first emerged on the global scene in the mid-1950s, the South African’s relentless commitment to self-improvement and physical fitness has never wavered once.

That dedication understandably emerges as a recurring theme when the nine-time major-winner looks back on his glorious relationship with The Open, a Championship he has played in a record 46 times.

Long before he had achieved his childhood ambition of becoming a professional golfer, the tenacity and resilience that would come to define him was forged with the aid of his elder brother, Ian.

After being asked by Ian, who went on to become a leading conservationist, what he would like to do when he grew up, a young Gary replied: ‘I’d like to be a professional sportsman of some kind’. His sibling’s reply had a lasting impact.

“You’re very small in stature and you’ll have to get stronger,” Gary Player recalls his brother stating. “I’ve bought this second-hand set of weights for you. Promise me you’ll exercise until the day you do (get stronger).”

It is safe to say a man who counts ‘Mr Fitness’ among his many nicknames certainly followed the advice. Even into his 80s, Player has remained resolutely committed to keeping in superb shape, with the demanding nature of his daily workouts the stuff of legend.

“There were a lot of things that he said to me,” Player said of his brother as he continued to recall memories of his childhood in Johannesburg.

“(He would say), ‘Come on, if you can do so many push-ups, you’ve got to realise you’re going to have pain. You’ve got to be able to sit in front of the mirror in a Tai Chi position and learn to slap your face and associate it with playing under strain and coming down the line, when you’ve got to have the perfect mind and the strength and the courage to win. And so you’ve got to associate that pain that you’re getting (with a positive outcome)’.

“I remember hitting myself in the face at least 30 times until I was genuinely sore and I made the association with coming down the line. This is the type of thing that I did. I went into the Champions Tour at 50 almost as fit as when I was 25 and that stood me in good stead and that’s why I was able to win nine majors and the Grand Slam on the Senior Tour.”