The Open legends: Gary Player
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A three-time Open champion, Gary Player’s first taste of St Andrews left a bad taste in his mouth. Like so many others before and since, however, he soon fell in love with the Old Course and now places his role as an honorary member of the R&A as one of his proudest achievements. Here, he explains how The Open and the Old Course have helped shape his life and his golfing legacy.
Today’s Golfer’s 2022 Major coverage is brought to you in association with TaylorMade.
St Andrews is the Parliament of golf. It’s the Home of Golf, where the game started. The Masters may be the greatest spectacle, but The Open Championship is the greatest championship in the world.
Being from South Africa and part of the British Commonwealth, The Open has always been the most important of the Major championships to me. It is the ultimate challenge because instinct is still very much part of the game. At The Masters, any time a player has a 160-yard shot, it’s an 8-iron. At The Open, that yardage could be a 2-iron or a wedge.
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I’ve been going to The Open ever since 1955 and I’ll continue to be there for as long as I can walk. I played in it 46 consecutive times, a record by far. Sure, I’d have loved to have won at St Andrews. But my great moment there is the dinner which takes place in the clubhouse with all the pomp and ceremony, which I love. I’m an old fart so I love the dress code and the pray silence for Lord so-and-so to address you. After you’ve finished playing you don’t go in there in a pair of sneakers with pink shorts and a hat on. You go in there properly dressed, with respect.
The first time I pitched up at St Andrews, I didn’t like it. I was ignorant, it was foreign to me. I was young and I didn’t understand. I wasn’t alone. Bobby Jones, the man who I adored, tore up his scorecard at St Andrews while Gene Sarazen, who loved tradition, said they spoilt a good marsh!
“With today’s clubs and balls, I’m not sure what’s going to happen at St Andrews this year”
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I have many happy St Andrews Open memories. One year Arnold Palmer and I had finished dinner and at 10pm we went out and played the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th… and we had 5,000 people watching!
My three Open wins are all equal in their own right. My first in 1959 saw me, at 23, become the youngest player ever to win at Muirfield. Then I went to Carnoustie (1968) where there’s five of us tied with five holes to go and I emerge triumphant playing alongside Jack Nicklaus – at the par-5 5th, Spectacles, I hit a 3-wood to eight inches! Then at Lytham (1974) I’ve got a six-shot lead with two holes to go and I asked my caddie, because I was so focused and didn’t pay any attention to the scoreboards, “Can I win?” He quipped, “Ray Charles can win from here”…
Where did my motivation come from? I came from a very poor family and experienced a lot of adversity and hardship. My brother went to war at 17. My mother died young and my father worked in a gold mine, earning £100 per month. I would come home and make my own dinner each night. But I was lucky enough to attend the King Edward VII school. It helped me become a champion.
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Golf doesn’t need a fifth Major because history and comparisons are important in our sport. Add another Major and you give players the opportunity to equal our records by competing in an event that myself, Hogan, Jack and others didn’t have an opportunity to play in. That’s not fair.
With today’s clubs and balls, I’m not sure what’s going to happen to St Andrews this year. If they have no wind you’re going to see 61s and 62s being shot, so we have to pray for wind. But as long as we allow this ball and these clubs to continue, it’s going to be a slaughter. And I’m very concerned that we haven’t really had what I would call a ‘big man’ play golf yet. I once told Peter Alliss that players would one day be smashing the ball 400 yards and he said I was talking rubbish. Now, I’m telling you, they’re going to be hitting it 500! Before long, they’ll stand on the tee and drive the first green. They’ve got to slow the ball down… you’ve got 6ft 5in guys coming out of universities now, having built up their bodies, and they’re capable of hitting wedges into the par 5s and driving eight holes.
I’d like to see a British player win this time, it’s the British Open after all. I think it would inspire a future generation of players to take up the game. I was the Masters’ first international winner and since my victory in 1961, 16 internationals have won there.
I don’t wish I could turn back time and take a place in the 150th Open. I will be in ecstasy just attending – I had a feast of golf in my time. I played well and had a long career, probably the longest of any player ever. So I leave the table satisfied.
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Gary Player kisses the trophy after winning the 1974 Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes
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