An Interview with Gary Player
March 27, 2008
Q. 19 wins on the Champions Tour, 24 on the PGA TOUR. All
four majors. First appearance here at the Ginn Championship. You
did not play last year, but in a few weeks you're going to have
a special time at Augusta with your 51st appearance in The
Masters, which will set a record. Early in the week you're going
to get the Jim Murray award from the Golf Writers Association.
So start off by telling us about coming to the Ginn this week,
and then tell us about The Masters in a few weeks?
GARY PLAYER: This is my first appearance here and I must
say it's a magnificent golf course. Very, very tough, extremely
tough, in fact. 7100 something yards long. If they get any wind
here, wow, you will see some high scores. The course is in great
shape.
Very, very happy to receive the Jim Murray award. I remember Jim
very, very well indeed. Many of you met him. But he was a
remarkable man and had a great flare and a great talent as a
sports writer. And I spent considerable time with him. Got on
very well with him. So it's very nice to receive that award
because one of the things they said when they gave me the award
they said I've always had a comment for the press. And I think
this is where a lot of sportsmen and sports women are inclined
to forget that everybody is interviewing has a job given to him
by his editor. And he's obviously got to try and go back and do
a story. And I think it's an essential agreement that athletes
of both sexes realize they should be talking to the media, and
none of this dodging them, because it's exposure for the events
that you're playing in. When somebody wants to talk to you about
the Ginn Classic this week, you've got all your sponsors. Yeah,
it's your duty to feed the press with any information they want
because without the media, and I really believe -- I hope young
people realize the importance of the media and don't underscore
it, because you wouldn't have these events to the degree that we
do have nowadays, the Tour would not be where it is today
without the media. It's a combination of sponsors, of galleries
and media. But how do galleries know there's a tournament there
without the media informing them. We must not forget that.
That's an important thing and I'm delighted to receive that
award.
As far as Augusta is concerned, it's a thrill playing there for
my 51st occasion. The reason that I'm so thrilled about it,
because I've exercised diligently, profusely, for 64 years. And
that's not easy, very few people go through their lives
exercising for 64 years. So it's helped me to have longevity.
Growing up and coming along in my career a lot of people
ridiculed and thought I was a nut lifting weights and exercising
and dieting the way I do. Now I'm sure there are many of them
that wish they had done it. So that's certainly held me in good
stead. So longevity is a thing that comes to mind. Am I thrilled
to be breaking my record, Arnold Palmer's record, we both had
that record, I think that's really the motive in the back of my
mind.
I think what gives me the thrill is the fact that I can
influence, maybe be able to influence a lot of young people. And
I think that's -- because I certainly cannot play golf like I
used to, obviously I'm 72 and I don't play as many tournaments,
but my dream now is to influence young people to look after
their bodies, because obesity is one of the great epidemics of
the world that we live in now, unless we find something that is
a better cure than what we do today, in America, not to mention
the world, there will be a hundred million Americans with
diabetes in 50 years' time. Which is a very frightening stat.
Once you get diabetes, my son is a Type I, so I'm familiar with
what goes on, they have amputation, they go blind, they die
young, they have heart attacks. It's a dreadful disease and
we're riddled with it, because of obesity. It must be in America
alone between car accidents and obesity-related disease, four
thousand people die a day.
So this is a concern to me. I want to see young people look
after their bodies. I should never be talking about this to
grown ups. I don't spend much time talking to grown ups, because
it's easier to get a camel through the eye than a needle, than
to get people to worry about their bodies. If we can get the
young people that their bodies are a hole temple, and they
should have exercise, and have great education and should be
productive for our respective countries, because the Chinese and
the Indians are coming like a tsunami. And they are exercising
and they are being educated and they are being disciplined, and
not being spoiled in their daily world of living. And they have
a zest and desire to win. So we've got to get this message
through to our young people. We've got to get this message
through about looking after their bodies, because if the body is
not good, you cannot be productive, and you cannot beat somebody
who is productive.
I suppose I'm so exercise oriented that -- and health conscious
that I suppose that's a natural thing that I would like to leave
a legacy, as far as young people are concerned.
Q. I failed to mention that 2008 will also be the 30th
anniversary of your last of three Masters wins. Can you give
your thoughts, what you remember most about that victory?
GARY PLAYER: Just going to Augusta is an honor, never
mind winning it three times or I've been second on numerous
occasions. And I've always said the thing about second only your
wife and your dog knows about it, I've always said that. That's
if you've got a good wife and a good dog.
To come back in 30 and win it is something you never forget,
particularly looking at their scoreboard and I had this downhill
putt. And nobody holed a downhill putt at Masters, prior to
that. Sandy Lyle hit it after that, and Tiger did it after that
and Phil Mickelson did it after that. I looked at this putt and
my caddie when I arrived he says, Gary, I need a house, man, I
need a house. And when that putt went in he went this high off
the ground because he knew he was going to get a house.
There was something very special coming back at 30 and winning.
Particularly I actually touched the hole where the ball ran over
the edge of that cup three times. I always said just as well all
three didn't go in, because if I shot 27 I never would have been
invited back. You're not allowed to shoot 27 at Augusta.
Q. Do you remember when you made the turn at 9 what your
thoughts were heading to 10 tee?
GARY PLAYER: I was playing so well, I was playing so well
and I felt so -- I played very much like Tiger, where I didn't
know the people around me. I didn't know what my scores were. I
vividly remember Harold Henning, I said Harold, I was playing at
a tournament in South Africa, and I was so keyed up and so
focused that I didn't know what my score was. He said that's
impossible. I said I don't believe you. I said I give you my
word of honor, I didn't know what my score was. To the day he
died he never believed me. He never believed you could do that.
But the power of the mind can do all kinds of things.
But I was really keyed up and I was focused so hard and I was
playing so well, that I was just thinking of birdies.
Q. We're going to back up a long ways, here. I'm wondering
where you think you get this desire that's fueled you so
fanatically for 50 years? I know something about what happened
when you were young and your mom died and your dad was in the
mines. Talk about who you were raised by and how you just sort
of -- why you got that fire in your belly, even to this day?
GARY PLAYER: It's a very hard thing to answer when it
comes down to things like that. It's like I'm in the horse
business to a large degree on my ranch. Why do you find a
Secretariat, why do you find a champion race horse, why do you
find a Tiger Woods, why do you find Jack Nicklaus? Why do you
find people who are superstars? The difference is the time. If
you look at -- give you an example of how tiny it is. Tom
Weiskopf was a better golfer than Jack Nicklaus, no question
about it, but he won one major championship. I think it's -- I
don't know. People have said to me, well, you've won 18
championships, although the American PGA don't want to recognize
my three British Opens, which to me is just the starting. They
just always hear six majors -- there it is in a magazine, six
majors and I won nine. But a British Open was counted as a major
championship over here in recent times. It's actually quite an
insult, because these tournaments were going before we even
started. But be that as it may, it's something -- for me to sit
here and say, gee, I've won nine major championships, well, that
would be a pretty cocky thing to say I won nine on each Tour.
It's a gift. It's purely a talent or gift that is loaned to you
that can be taken away like that, which was taken from
Ballesteros, the best player in the world. Ian Baker-Finch
wasn't the best in the world but he was an up and coming star.
Tom Watson never won for ten years. And then you find a man like
Duval, No. 1 in the world, signing these massive contracts and
all of a sudden I didn't think -- I don't know where would he be
in the world today? It's astounding, quite amazing, that it's
food for thought. These guys, three of them were the best in the
world. And all of a sudden something happens. So you better not
be cocky.
So I don't know how to answer that. I always said it was
definitely my up bringing, but -- I was lonely and I had to go
to school. But I went to a great school, they made you stand up
and you had to dress in a certain code. They had great sporting
facilities and a highly educated system of reading and debating,
et cetera, et cetera. That was a great help.
I often tried to work out. But I think the word that -- what
comes to me and my family and I were debating why I won all
these tournaments, my one daughter said, I think it's energy.
And energy, you know, and I thought about it. But a lot of
people -- there's always contradiction. You can say, well, I
suffered, not having a mother and my brothers in the last war
fighting. 17 years of age, my sister is at boarding school,
except for a black gentleman that looked after me and helped me
a lot. John was his name. I'm impressed you could remember that.
Then you take Jack Nicklaus, he didn't have a tough up bringing,
and he became this great super star. There's always a great
contradiction. I think for me I struggled so much and thought
gee, if I get an opportunity. And even today in the world today
we design golf courses all over the world. When I went last
week, in eight days, I went to West Palm Beach to Hawaii, back
to West Palm Beach to Philadelphia, back to LA, 16 hour flight
to Bangkok, was there for five hours, went to China, flew across
China, flew from China to Beijing and from Beijing to London. I
went from London to Morocco. I went from Morocco to Casablanca.
From Casablanca I went to Germany, and Germany back to West Palm
Beach. It took me 76 days to get over it. I didn't know where
the hell I was, because there was such a mix-up of time changes.
If I do one trip and it's a big time change I can recover in
three days. But there was such mixed up time change that my body
didn't know where I was. When you think of where I've traveled
this year and I do it because I have the energy. And I look
around and I think, gee, here I'm playing the Tour at 72. Think
about it, most people my age are dead.
Q. Gary, Tiger has talked this year, he's been fairly honest
about the idea of winning the Grand Slam in a single year. He
hasn't discounted it or tried to down play it in any way. I'm
just curious if you ever went into a year thinking that way,
that I think I can win all four in one year, did you do that,
did you have that sort of mindset or would you just take them
one at a time and not think that way. And also, just curious
your thoughts on his ability to maybe do that?
GARY PLAYER: 1974 I really believed that I could do it. I
was swinging very, very well and I was putting well. It's always
how well you're putting. And I think Tiger Woods has been the
greatest example for young people coming up to watch it,
realizing the importance of putting. Tiger Woods drives it in
the rough quite a bit. He's not a Trevino at hitting fairways or
a Ben Hogan hitting fairways, but he's so strong and his way of
recovering. And his putting has been as good as Bobby Locke, who
I always thought was the best putter the world saw. But he's as
good as Bobby Locke. So the man really believes he can do it.
In 1974 I was putting so well and I believed I could do it and I
won Augusta. And I went into the -- I think the British Open,
and I won that. And I played in the U.S. Open and I was leading
after 36 holes with Hale Irwin, and I finished close up. And I
finished fourth in the PGA. So I came pretty close to winning
the Grand Slam one year. Jack Nicklaus came pretty close to
winning it. Tiger can do it. Tiger, if you look at the record
and the point system, Tiger is twice as good as anybody else. So
I've always said it's much tougher to win a tournament today on
the regular Tour than it was in our time. We had 60 guys and
today they have 120, double. But it was tougher for Nicklaus to
win major championships than for Tiger (inaudible.)
Whereas I don't know how many guys tee it up and say they can
beat Tiger, I don't know. I see a young guy on the Tour saying,
watch where Tiger goes, and I'll make a point of not playing
there. It shouldn't be like that. It should be I'm really
looking where Tiger goes, I want to go that. If you're doing
that you're not setting the bar high enough. That is not the
right mindset.
So the man is such a big title, with his work ethic. If you look
at Tiger Woods two years ago he was a winner. If you look at
movies of him playing, he's a skinny little guy. Today he's like
this and he's worked so hard and his work ethic and he's
focused. Everything about him. Where did that come from? Does it
come from his father or his mother, with a certain Thai culture?
I don't know where these things come from. You can write a story
on everybody.
And you look at Trevino, I lived in a house with no running
water. If you look in one of the magazines you see the shack he
lived in, no toilet or running water. He made up his mind, if I
have a chance to win I'm going to play and start making some
money.
So everybody has a different way of driving themselves. And
Tiger has his way, and yes, he can. You have to be, I've always
said the word luck is the residue of design. And I've always
said, my saying was always the harder you work the luckier you
get, but you do have to be lucky. And particularly playing in
the British Open. If you don't have luck in the British Open
you're not going to win. You play in the morning and the wind --
there's no wind and it's perfect and you play a lousy round of
golf and you go around in 71 and then you shoot 84 in the
afternoon playing your heart out. So if he gets that against
him, doesn't matter how good you are. Doesn't matter how good
you are, if you get a bad draw in the British Open you're out.
I'm talking about a bad draw. You can still -- I played in one
when the wind was blowing in the morning and I managed to get
around in 73. But you're in the ballpark. But if you get like
what Tiger had at Muirfield, and you shoot 84, you can't win. So
you have to be very lucky at the times that you get.
Q. What are the characteristics of Augusta National and The
Masters that make it special to you, assuming that it is very
special?
GARY PLAYER: It is. It certainly is. I think the fact
that it's -- very fortunate to play in the same place every
year. So they know exactly what to indicator for and they learn
from their mistakes in the past.
But I think the fact like when I vividly remember going there
the first time and I was going to see this great president of
America, Eisenhower, and I was going to meet Bobby Jones who
we'd always admired so much and did so much for the game of
golf, and also Clifford Roberts, who is this disciplinarian at
running the tournament, and in a special way. And the ambiance
of going in the clubhouse, and the neatness and the tidiness and
then seeing Ben Hogan who I always said was the best golfer I
ever saw in my life. Not the best scorer, but the best golfer
from tee-to-green. I've never seen anybody play like Hogan,
never.
Q. Is it because it's a different energy?
GARY PLAYER: It's a different energy. All these things
put together. You see all these old champions there and it's
just got a feeling about it, a beauty. And the beauty of the
golf course is so magnificent and the cheering. You just don't
get that anywhere in the world. Now I've always said the
greatest arena in the world is the British Open on 18. I don't
know why more tournaments never copied that, because that is
something -- it's like being in the Roman arena. But Augusta has
got that arena all around the golf course. And the beauty, I
think beauty is something that catches everybody's eye,
particularly with the pace that we all live at. And this
cheering and everything about it.
And the scoreboard efficiency. When you play there, you look up
-- when I played I looked up at the scoreboard and I said I hope
I win. Odds are I'm going to win, because I know exactly what
every guy is doing, every bogey, every birdie you see it. When
we played as young people, you didn't know the score sometimes
until three or four holes later. So it's an accumulation of a
lot of things.
Q. Is it possible for you to site your best shot you ever hit
at a Masters?
GARY PLAYER: 18th putt to win -- the putt at 18, 72nd
hole, to win.
Q. In '78?
GARY PLAYER: Yeah.
Q. How far was that putt?
GARY PLAYER: 22 feet. I don't know about inches. But you
always remember shots at Augusta that unable you to win.
In '74 I had a nine iron to the green and I'm one shot ahead of
Dave Stockton and one shot ahead of Weiskopf. And as I hit it I
said to my caddie, I took the club like this and I put it in the
bag and said Eddie, we're not going to need the putter. And the
ball finished like that. Now those shots -- so it's a toss up
between those two.
Q. You missed a year somewhere along in there and the details
of why you weren't there escape me. I was wondering, you said
you had a son that had diabetes, is it Wayne that has it?
GARY PLAYER: Yeah.
Q. What were the particulars of the year, so you're not --
GARY PLAYER: I had a reconstructed bladder, what they
call the ureter, the bladder between your kidneys and -- your
bladder and your kidneys got blocked. I remember carrying this
big tube along, and I walked in this lady's ward, they asked if
I would sign autographs for the patients in the hospital. I was
carrying this bag, and this lady saw me, and said that's a
fright. I scared her out of her damn wits. She thought I looked
like Dracula.
Q. Must have killed you not being able to go?
GARY PLAYER: Well, it was tough. Yeah, it was tough. But
on the other hand I look back now and it doesn't mean a thing,
because here I am now going to play 51. And first of all you've
got to be so healthy to do that. What is the word, to be able to
play 51? Gratitude. Gratitude.
Q. First of all we all commend you on your commitment to
health and education and we appreciate that. Do you prepare in
any way particularly in your diet and your foods before a
tournament or anything different with a Major tournament and a
regular tournament?
GARY PLAYER: No, because I try and practice that every
day. Like last night I don't eat. All I had was just a handful
of broccoli. I make a point of -- one day a week I try and not
eat. I try and not eat one day. I don't eat ice cream. I don't
eat bacon. In the last two and a half years I've never had an
ice cream or a piece of bacon. I don't drink milk. I don't eat
white bread. But I'm not a martyr. I have a glass of wine. If I
want a beer or whiskey, I have it. When I want chocolate, I have
it. But those are a few things I eliminate entirely.
Q. Do you way about 160?
GARY PLAYER: I weigh 145. I used to weigh 166 when I won
the U.S. Open. I was at my prime. But as you get older, if you
don't eat lighter, you're going to get diabetes. The odds are
you're going to get it. And the odds are you're going to get a
stroke or some disease. That's America's biggest problem,
obesity is America's biggest problem. Not America, it's the
west. The west's biggest problem is obesity. More people die of
obesity than all the wars put together.
Q. Gary, you have talked many times about when you got to
your first British Open kind of overnighting on the beach there
at St. Andrews. I'm curious, when you got to Augusta, not that
you were sleeping on Washington Boulevard or anything, but what
were your impressions and where did you go to stay and anything
like that. You didn't do crow's necessary, I wouldn't imagine?
GARY PLAYER: It wasn't like going to the first British
Open. I had a bit of money when I went to Augusta the first
time. I had won big tournaments. But Mark McCormick who handled
Arnold Palmer and I at that stage, he said what we're going to
do, we're going to be coming back here many years, we should buy
two or three houses now. I said, why did I want a house in
Augusta for? It was a tiny little town, a quiet little town. He
had such vision. People charge 13,000 for the week. You go to
the British Open or these big tournaments, it's a massive rip
off.
Q. Do you have a house there?
GARY PLAYER: No, I never bought it.
Q. Would you take, say Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 majors if
it meant you wouldn't be as healthy as you are at this age? And
I assume you're going to play several more years or until you
can't. Would you rather be where you are, able to play
tournament golf, healthy, walking around. You can play on a semi
regular basis. Is that worth more to you than say another four,
five, six majors on your record?
GARY PLAYER: That's not a silly question. That's a great
question. You know, we're so obsessed about winning majors. But
it's a great feeling for me to know, when I say to myself that
I'm the only player in the world that's won both grand slams,
regular Tour and Senior Tour, World Grand Slams, not the
American Grand Slam, the World Grand Slam. I'm the only player
that's won the World Grand Slam. Which one was a better effort?
My Senior Grand Slam was harder to me, harder to win than the
regular Grand Slam. Why? Because I had 35 years to win the
regular Grand Slam and you've got eight or nine years to win
this out here. These guys out here can play like hell.
This has been one of the most deceptive things that has happened
in American history is the perception of the Champions Tour.
People have no idea how these guys play. Well, I'll give you an
idea how well they play. As a reminder, even though you guys
cover it, I think five guys have gone from our Champions Tour
and won on the regular Tour. Trevino, Raymond Floyd, Craig
Stadler, Fred Funk and Jay Haas. You've had at least five guys.
And you could look it up. Maybe it's four, maybe it's six. And
that's pretty impressive.
Q. Three.
GARY PLAYER: Anytime. But you've gone from this Tour and
won on the regular Tour. Man, that is impressive. That is very
impressive. But the scoring out here, some weeks you're playing
a golf course and the score is 20-under par for three rounds.
That's an average of -- Stadler did it?
Q. (Inaudible.)
GARY PLAYER: But I did say golf is a game of
contradictions.
No, the standard of play out here has been not good, it's been
phenomenal. It's one of the most amazing things of my career to
see how well the guys -- and it's come about because of the
equipment, there's no question. Guys my age and my time came
from a terrible equipment, with spike marks on every green like
this. And now no spike marks. So psychologically you look at a
putt as compared to when we putted -- when Tiger gets up to putt
a putt. He doesn't think about spike marks, there are none. But
when we played there were 200 on every green. You saw all these
spike marks. And that's why most of the guys popped it, you
never stroked it the way you have today. Every bunker, we used
to stand there, I remember playing in Akron, Ohio, going like
this in the bunker with my feet. Now you've got a machine that
cuts the fairways this low.
Did I tell you the story when I went to -- Arnold and Jack said
you get along well with Clifford Roberts, go and ask him to cut
the fairways lower. So I go in there at Augusta. I said, good
morning, Mr. Roberts. Yes? I said, I'd like to ask you a
question. He said, what is it? I said, can you not cut the
fairways a little lower? The fairways are long, and the greens
are firm and the ball is jumping off, you cannot get the spin.
He said, do you understand poetry? Fortunately I took poetry in
school. Yes, I remember Wordsworth and Mr. Tyson's poems. He
said good, because he said the mowers are as low as they can go.
Good morning (laughter).
Now you see ten mowers. They go on the fairways. Greens are
perfect, you've got a million dollars every week, your own
private jets. The caddies come in jets. It's another deal, isn't
it?
Q. Was this conversation before or after (inaudible.)
GARY PLAYER: I don't remember. But I had the right answer
to him. And he appreciated my answer.
Q. After you won your first match in '51, 13 more years
before you won again at Augusta. Obviously you won a lot in that
period. Was there ever any frustration about not winning The
Masters during that time? Did you feel like you should have won
it more? Did you have any does appointments in that stretch?
GARY PLAYER: I think, you know it's hard to remember
stats. But I think I finished in the top 10, something like 14
times, a lot of times I finished in the top 10. So I was close,
close, close. I didn't get frustrated because I realized that
all being well, and even that I would have a long career. And
this is a game that it's imperative to have patience. I was very
close all the time. I think I was very optimistic and positive.
Q. (Inaudible.)
GARY PLAYER: I have, because it's a blessing. I mean if
you're know anybody in this room that's not optimistic, I feel
sorry to you. If not, let me take you to some places in the
world and show you what's going on. You'll come back here and
kiss the damn ground and you'll be so positive you won't believe
yourself. I always hear these stories, people that condemn this
country, I want to give them an air ticket and take them to a
few places, and they'll never condemn this place again.
Q. Gary, what's your favorite hole at Augusta, and what hole
gave you the most trouble?
GARY PLAYER: I think the hole that was my favorite, I
seem to birdie No. 2 a lot, because it's a dog leg and I did
draw the ball and I could reach the green in those days. So I
birdied No. 2 a lot.
I think a hole really gave everybody a lot of trouble has always
been No. 11. 11, funny enough, although 17 was one of the
reasons I won. 17 for me today is the most tough hole. But I
lost 50 yards in length. My 77 that I shot there last week is
definitely in the top five rounds I've played in my life, not a
question, because I actually tied or beat 56 young guys. I think
it might be 54, but that was one of the five best rounds in my
career. Because I'm hitting a wood to every hole. Every hole I'm
hitting a wood except three holes, par-3. Three I don't need a
wood, obviously. And No. 12 I don't need a wood. I played a wood
at every hole, just about. It's a par 80 for me now.
Q. I remember they had that press conference last year with
you and Jack in Palm Beach before the Honda Classic and he said
that pound for pound, inch for inch, you were the best golfer he
ever saw. Which was I think a nice way of calling you small. Was
being a guy who was smaller in stature, was that motivating, did
you feel like you had a chip on your shoulder and something to
prove? Is that too much of a reach?
GARY PLAYER: You can ask anything I like. I'm open to
anything you ask. I don't think that -- when I stood on the tee
with Arnold or Jack, it was an interesting thing, I was talking
to my wife about this the other day, I never stood on the tee,
and even though I was smaller and physically I wasn't as strong,
but I was much fitter. I always remember playing and thinking,
man, I'm going to whip their ass today.
I never felt -- I suppose because you exercise, and because
where I used to go to boxing lessons and on my way there were a
couple of young rednecks that used to beat the crap out of me,
and because I was exercising so hard, I wasn't scared to be in a
fight. It's how you get brought up. It's really interesting,
isn't it? So psychologically I never, ever felt -- because I'm
small. I said man, I know one thing, I'm fitter than anybody.
And even today at 72, if you took a 40 year old across America
I'd beat 80 percent of 40 years old in a fitness contest at 72.
You always see guys that are training at 30, training hard.
Q. Talk a little bit about what makes you commit to playing
certain tournaments on the Champions Tour, you played Toshiba,
you shot your age, bettered your age. Now you're playing at the
Ginn Championship, what is it about this tournament, what brings
you out to tournaments that you play in your limited schedule?
GARY PLAYER: To try and go to places -- I've always tried
to, playing the Champions Tour, and even the regular Tour, I
tried to go places that I've not been. I remember going to
Syracuse where I hadn't been before, and to certain tournaments,
and I think that's something that the pro golfers should try to
do. I don't think they should try to go back to the same places
every year, to keep the sponsors happy. I cannot put enough
emphasis on the importance -- I'm delighted to see young guys
playing for a million dollars every week. We never played for a
million dollars on the entire Tour. Money wasn't our criteria,
at all. We wanted to compete. We wanted to beat each other. We
wanted to be the best. But now that you do have all of this
luxurious -- it's almost a false -- it's almost a mirage it's so
good. But we have a great obligation. And even today, to satisfy
the sponsors, to satisfy the media, and to satisfy the public.
And this is -- when I think of a guy like Chi Chi Rodriguez
playing out here, man, what he did for this Tour was
unbelievable. He used to give people clinics and he was great.
That's the kind of thing that helps build a golf Tour. And we
really need -- the world is in a very precarious situation
today. It doesn't take much to have another September 11th. It
doesn't take much. The world economy is bad now. It doesn't mean
to say there are going to be these million dollar tournaments
all the time.
Now as we stand in history today in the precarious position
we're in the world, guys should be working harder with the
sponsors, harder with the public and harder with the media to
maintain it, because it's just as we champions of the world were
here today and they won't be tomorrow, this Tour can be here
today and it doesn't mean to say it's definitely going to be
here tomorrow. Is that logic in what I'm saying?
Q. This might dovetail a little bit. But you do have a
limited playing schedule and you go around and visit 16
different places in 8 days and log many thousands of miles. How
do you go about balancing your playing with all the design and
site inspections and traveling that you have to do on that end
of your business?
GARY PLAYER: And 20 grandchildren. And a ranch, which is
my favorite time of my life. And our different businesses. Yeah,
I'd say I'm a workaholic. I'm a workaholic. And I suppose that's
something that's engrained in me. And that's why -- I finished
yesterday and I'm up at 5:00 yesterday morning and I come here
and play in the Pro Am and go to the gym last night. It's
something engrained in me. And I have this desire, I have this
great desire to show young people what you can do if you look
after your body. When somebody said to me you'd be playing the
Tour when you're 72, I said Jack, I'll be finished, I'll be
retiring at 35. Because I'd won the Grand Slam. And I said I'm
going to retire at 35. Jack said, me, too. Every time we go to
The Masters and we walk in the dining room Arnold Palmer says am
I seeing things? Gary, are you and Jack at the dinner here
tonight? I said yes. He said, you said were going to retire at
35. And it's 37 years later, and you're still here. Arnold said,
I'll keep playing. I love golf. He didn't have any doubts.
But Jack -- if Jack Nicklaus was in the shape I'm in now he
could win on the regular Tour, not even a question. He could go
and win on the regular Tour. I played him in the Skittles, this
year and last year. He doesn't play for months, and he came out,
holing bunker shots and holing putts. It's unbelievable, but he
walks around like this, and he's shrunk. He's my height and he
used to be here. He shrunk three inches. They've got a feel for
it now. But to me it's very sad because he could really still
play.
Q. Have you ever told Jack any of this?
GARY PLAYER: I told him many times, I've discussed with
him. He used to travel with me. And he'd see me exercising. I
remember traveling with Billy Casper one year, we were in Miami
and shared a room. In those days we shared a room because we
could get a room twice as cheap. 12 bucks, 6 bucks each. Billy
Casper saw me doing all these push-ups and sit-ups and knee
bends and stretching. He said I guess I'll do mine, as well. He
had this big stomach, and he said good night.
There's one famous golf architect. I won The Masters, I was
squatting -- we went to old YMCA, put a towel around our neck.
Now you lie and you've got bench presses. Look at this gymnasium
you've got here. I say it's a mirage. So you go down there, you
go to this gym and you work out and this guy saw me working out.
And he said, Gary Player will never -- of course I was 20, my
early 20s, whatever I was, Gary Player will never play golf
after the age of 35. He says you cannot do weight training to
the extent that he's doing, because Frank Stranahan and I were
the only two players in the world that did it. And here I was
squatting and doing these heavy weights and all this stuff, and
he said, you'll never play, after 35, and that was the general
perception. He said you are absolutely mad. You cannot do weight
training and playing golf.
Now I'm in Dubai the other day and Tiger Woods walks in the gym
at 6:30 in the morning. Now he's playing at 1:00. One thing I
never did when I was playing that day I never worked out in the
morning. I worked out in the evening so my body could rest
overnight. He comes in first thing, and 25 pound weights
(indicating), and then he's playing at 1:00. So if the architect
had saw him, he would have a heart attack. If I said to somebody
in those days, this is what Tiger Woods is doing during a
tournament, they would say impossible.
I want to end up saying this, that in 30 years time, the way the
world is going in sports today is tragic. It's a tragedy for me
with performance enhancing drugs. You've all got to go buy
Sports Illustrated the 17th of March. There's the man who's been
the sharpest of all. You've got to buy this magazine on the 17th
of March. It's an article on what's happening in the world of
sports. Young people, young guys of 16, coaches putting them on
HGH. They're saying to their son, you don't have a father, we
cannot afford for you to get a scholarship. You have to get on
it. I'm telling you to get on it. And the athletes that are
dying from it. And you see what's happening in all these sports,
it's very sad.
What's going to happen in 20 times, they're going to be building
superhuman action, they're going to be hitting the ball well
over 400 yards. I've said this for the last three years, Peter
Ellis called me a nut at the British, he poohed me as if I was
talking baloney. I said they're going to be hitting the ball 400
yards in 30 years' time. They're doing it now. Tiger Woods
carried the ball 370 at Doral. They're hitting the ball on many
occasions 400 yards now. There will be a Tour of people like
Michael Jordan, and they'll all be hitting the ball over 400
yards, well over 400. We ain't seen nothing yet.
You're finding young people dying of these steroids and things
in their body. It's a tragedy what's happening. I saw a movie
the other night that had this thing and the professor at Harvard
said it is impossible to win the Tour de France unless you are
heavily, heavily drugged. This is the professor at Harvard.
Where we are going -- thank God for people like Dick Pound and
the Olympic Committee. The chemists are hiding it as quickly as
they're discovering it. You guys have to buy the 17th of March
Sports Illustrated.
Q. Going back to fitness thing. I heard a funny story, they
brought you out to Carlsbad when you signed your Callaway deal,
sitting down the table at all the suits. You took off your
sports coat, dropped and gave them 20 with the left hand and 20
with the right hand?
GARY PLAYER: That's a Texas story, I guess. I did 1200
sit-ups the day before yesterday, with an 80 pound weight on
here.
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