November 1, 2010. Copyright 2010, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Golfing great Gary Player, voted Sportsman of the Century in his South African homeland, is 75
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, November 1, Graphic News:  "The harder you practice, the luckier you get" runs Gary Player's oft-quoted maxim. And he should know. The winner of nine majors, Player has been hitting them down the fairway since the age of 14, when his goldminer father, Harry, borrowed the money to buy his son his first set of clubs. At 18, Player turned professional and, in 1959, when he was still only 23, he won the British Open -- the youngest person, then, ever to capture the title. He won it twice more, in 1968 and 1974, providing the record books with another neat statistic: Player was the only golfer of the 20th century to win the tournament in three different decades.
 
Nicknamed the Dark Knight for his tendency to wear black, Player has a reputation worthy of his chivalrous moniker. A gift to headline writers the world over, he has been known throughout his career as the "Gentleman Player". When a fellow member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, the popular American Payne Stewart, was killed in a plane crash in 1999, an annual award was created in Payne's memory to honour the sport's true ambassadors; those who, it is deemed, have upheld the best traditions of the game, working for charitable causes and conducting themselves impeccably, on and off the course. Player was the 2006 recipient.

Earlier this year, he spoke up for the disgraced Tiger Woods. "People are too judgmental," he said of the criticism of Woods in the media, following revelations about the World Number One's affairs. "He has said he is sorry and we all make mistakes in life, don't we?" Player also predicts more black golfers will make it to the top of the game in the coming decade -- he runs his own development programme for young, black players in his native South Africa. Through The Player Foundation, which he started in 1983, initially to help some of the disadvantaged children he came across in the countryside around his Johannesburg ranch, Player has raised more than US$25 million for underprivileged youngsters globally. His eldest son, Marc, one of six children from his long marriage to Vivienne Verwey, now manages Black Knight International, representing all his father's financial and sporting interests -- among them golf course design and racehorse breeding.

Often spoken of in the same breath as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, Player was one of the Big Three of his generation -- golfers who reached their peak just as the game boomed in the 60s and 70s, thanks largely to the television coverage which began during this period. And he was the last of the trio to give up the prestigious Masters, the American showcase tournament he played in 52 times, winning it on three occasions, finishing second three times and making the most cuts in a row. "I had a feast," he said, as he bowed out on the Augusta National course last year. "I'm just so grateful I had the opportunity."
/ENDS