Gary Player

Gary Player is certainly one of the great players of the modem era, with a record second only to Jack Nicklaus. A man of iron determination, he spent countless hours practicing and when asked once about a "lucky" shot he had holed from a bunker replied, "It's a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get". The first tournament of note that he won was the Dunlop Masters at Sunningdale in 1955 at the age of twenty and the following year he won the first of 13 South African Open titles. He also won the Australian Open seven times. His record in the majors is also outstanding and not just in the number of victories but the manner in which they were achieved. His first major championship was the Open at Muirfield in 1959 when his last two rounds of 70 and 68 gave him a two-shot victory. He then became the first non-American player to win the Masters in 1961, which he won twice more in 1974 and 1978, when he came from nowhere in the final round with seven birdies in the last ten holes. He also won the USPGA in 1962 and 1972 and the US Open in 1965, and so became one of the greats who have won all four majors. Perhaps his most memorable win was his second Open at Carnoustie in 1968 when he beat Jack Nicklaus and Bob Charles into second place. He won a third Open in 1974. Player was also the supreme exponent of match-play, winning the World Match-play Championship five times between 1965 and 1973, including one of the greatest golf matches ever played, against Tony Lema. He is a living testimony to the virtues of fitness, practice, determination and hard work.