Player bows out of Masters at 73
US PGA Tour | 2009 US Masters | General | 07 Apr 2009
Rob Johnston: On behalf of the Media Committee, it’s my pleasure to welcome you all to the 2009 Masters Tournament, our 73rd anniversary. We are delighted today to have a legend with us, Mr. Gary Player. Mr. Player participated in his first Tournament here at Augusta in 1957, at the tender age of 21. He has gone on in his illustrious career to win nine majors, including three green jackets, the first being in 1961 as a first international Masters Champion, followed again with championships in 1974 and 1978.
He is one of only seven Masters champions that has won three or more green jackets. This year marks Mr. Player’s 52nd appearance at Augusta. He is indeed an extraordinary ambassador for the game of golf throughout the world and we are truly privileged and honored to have him with us.
Gary, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate all you have meant to Augusta and to the game of golf. We would invite you if you have any introductory comments before we open it up to questions.
Gary Player: Thank you very much, Rob. Rob, I just wanted to basically say to my friends in the room here, because I’ve known them for a long time, and also to you, that I’ve decided that I would like to make this my last appearance in the Tournament.
I’ve enjoyed it so much. I think when I basically arrived here, you mentioned 1957 and I drove through those gates and I couldn’t help making a comparison to today. I arrived here, I doubt whether I had $5,000 to my name, and I drove through these gates, and you can imagine I was in absolute awe, and overwhelmed, in fact.
And the people I’ve met over the years, and the battles that I had with Arnold and Jack and others, and now to see all of these young fellows coming along. I played with some of them this morning, and playing so well, and enjoying the Tournament that has improved every single year.
We all have our favorite tournaments, majors, tournaments around the world, but this has been the best-organized golf tournament that I have ever played in. But it’s got a great advantage in the fact that it’s the same place every year. But they have really done a fantastic job, and the word that comes to mind is really spectacular. I am getting old. You know you are getting old when you have to tune in on Sunday night to find Gunsmoke. (Laughter).
As I said to my American press friends, it’s a little different – they heard me say this, my international friends didn’t hear me say it, I said, “I’m hitting the ball so short now, I can hear it land.” (Laughter).
When I think of the players that I played with today, Martin Kaymer said to me, “Well, how many times have you played here?” And I was telling him, and I suddenly realized that most of the players in the field, other than the senior players – well, Vijay Singh, was he even born? He wasn’t even born when I first played here. So it is an awful long time. And the hole is getting the size of a Bayer aspirin, you wonder whether you can press it in there or squeeze it in there.
I must say something to you guys, the media. A lot of athletes today, and I notice this, they are not always that keen to do interviews, and they are avoiding them and they don’t do them. I’m very proud to say in my career, I have never refused an interview. And I realize the media, the importance, my father, a coal miner, a very poor man. He said: The media is so important. When we were having our tournaments in South Africa, as a young man, they were helping the sponsors, and obviously as greet a tournament as this is and as financially sound as you are, you need the media, and they informed the public. And they have done so much to bring people to the game, which we all love so much, and have added value to us athletes and I never understand somebody sort of pushing the media aside.
So I say, thank you very much for the years that you’ve covered me in this particular tournament. This will be my last major championship that I will ever play on the regular tour. Obviously I’ll play some on the Senior Tour. But I’ve been blessed to win nine majors on both tours, the regular and senior tour. Quite honestly my nine majors on the Senior Tour were a greater effort than the nine majors on the regular tour. It may be strange for people to hear that, but you only have got eight years to do it; whereas you have 35 years to do it on the regular tour.
I think the word that comes to mind is that I am very, very grateful and thankful and I’ve never taken anything for granted, and I realize that the talent that I had was loaned to me. It was not on a permanent basis, something that I could take credit for.
And that’s about all I have to say. If anybody has a question, I’d be delighted to answer it.
Q: What made you come to this decision, Gary?
Gary Player: Doug, the golf course, I’m exercising profusely, but it’s very difficult at 73 to build strength. The golf course is so long. It is just so long. I mean, I’m hitting a wood to almost every single hole, other than the third and maybe -
Q: 12?
Gary Player: 12. (Laughter) That’s why I’m retiring from it now, so I don’t have to. But there are very few holes that I can hit irons into. Obviously 16 if the flag is in a certain position, and No. 6.
But it’s just too long for me. I cannot get around. And I’m so – Ernie Els said something to me five days ago. He said, “You know, Gary, one of the greatest rounds you ever shot at Augusta?”
I said, “Yeah, when I came back at 30 to win the tournament.”
He said, “No, when you shot the 77 a couple of years ago and the greens were hard, and you tied something like 22 guys and beat 25 guys.” And he said, “I think that’s one of your best rounds.”
So I’ve managed to break 80 the last two years, but it’s getting to a stage now where I don’t know whether I can do that out here, it’s so long and I’m getting weaker.
Q: What’s the biggest change you’ve noticed on the golf course? Is it simply the length or anything else from the first time you got here?
Gary Player: I think it’s holes like No. 7, for example, where they have gone that far back. I think Augusta have been brilliant at the way they have altered the golf course according to the golf equipment.
But there are still holes like No. 7, it lies this way, and you’re shooting from there, so it’s really not designed to play that long. So I felt that’s a very tough factor. There are a lot of other tough factors that one has to take into consideration.
Playing in the wind today was very interesting with these three really wonderful young golfers. At No. 4 they were hitting 3-woods in there and the ball was getting up in the air and they were dropping 50 yards short of the green. It was particularly difficult.
And I think this course has set a trend for the Tournament, but we have to be very careful in golf today. And I think one of the problems we are facing, they are making the golf courses too long, the greens too undulating, and members are not able to play and play to their handicaps.
I see it all the time; these severe undulating greens on the golf courses. Costs are just abnormal, with water, which we are running out of very quickly, oil, manpower, machinery. Oh, my gosh, the costs are getting high and we have to be careful, particularly in the economic state we are in right now.
This course is a different thing. It’s a tournament, and this tournament has meant a lot to them; it’s meant a lot to us and it’s meant a lot to the world because people sit with their little TV cameras all around the world in India and South Africa and all over the world watching this tournament as they do the British Open, and it means an awful lot.
Q: The 52 years, is that a record that you think will never be broken?
Gary Player: Oh, no, it will be broken. We are in our infancy when it comes to the mind and the body. You know, when I first started doing weight training 53 years ago, I mean, there was a famous man here, I won’t mention his name, and he saw me when I was squatting with 325 pounds in the old YMCA. He said, “Can you imagine this man doing these weights? He’ll never last 35 years.” When I won my tournament in ’63, I said (looking up towards heaven) “How are you up there? What’s it like?”
(laughter).
Well, the exercise routine; and golf is in its infancy, they have a man in Canada, he weighs 165 pounds and he hit the ball 444 yards in the long driving competition. And we have not had the big men playing golf, the Michael Jordans and Shaquille O’Neals. They are coming, because they have seen Tiger. Tiger is playing a vital role. They are seeing this guy is making more money as he’s going along and everyone else got to 30 and they were finished. So they are going to come into golf. We are going to see a lot of very interesting things.
Q: So you think somebody will come along and do more than that one day?
Gary Player: Oh, yes, because of the technology, mind-wise, physical-wise; and I was ridiculed and teased when I spoke about – there was nobody using weights. That was an absolute no-no. And now the next technology is coming along now, and of course they will all say, well, it’s crazy, but it’s food.
My grandchildren’s children will never eat any of the foods that we eat today. It will be a complete different system of eating. You’re going to find bionic men playing in time to come. I hope you guys are out. I’d love to see it, but we are going to see some very fascinating things coming long.
Q: The fact that this is going to be your last Masters appearance as a competitor, what will it be like going to the champions dinner tomorrow night with a fellow South African presiding over the meal, and do you have any plans for Trevor at the dinner?
Gary Player: I do, because Ben Crenshaw has asked me to introduce him, which I appreciated very much indeed, having been around Trevor.
We were playing in Cape Town one day and I looked out and there was this little five-year-old boy, no teeth in front of his mouth and he looked up and he said to me, “Mr. Player, I love golf.”
So I picked him up like this and I put him in my arms and I said, “Man, give me a hug.” And next thing, this camera has this picture which is in the magazine; I think it’s in your magazine right here. There’s no little teeth there, and I got to know his mother and father and the family and they are such a wonderful family. I watched Trevor with great enthusiasm playing in the Junior Championships and progressing rapidly.
To see him win Augusta, because it’s 30 years since I won here I think; to see Trevor win is a great thrill for me, and South Africa has been an incredible country with golf. We have won more major championships as a small country than any country in the world post-war, other than the United States, which is quite a feather in our cap. I’m sure you’ll see other South Africans come along and win in the future.
Q: Given this is your last Masters, what sort of advice would you give to guys like Danny Lee and Rory McIlroy, playing their first Masters?
Gary Player: I would say that I played with this young boy, Louis Oosthuizen today. Wow, I was impressed with this young guy. He’s having quite a meteoric rise and I had never played with him.
I said, you play well enough to win, you must understand that. And same to Rory. He must not come here just as an experience. This guy, Rory, Mark O’Meara said he’s as good at this age as Tiger was. I was quite shocked to hear that, because I’ve never seen Rory play.
If you think of Tiger Woods, to digress for a minute. I won the Grand Slam at 29 and I thought, wow, and I wanted to beat Jack Nicklaus to do that so badly and I did it. And here I’m kidding myself, well, who will ever win the Grand Slam at 29 again.
And Jack comes along and wins it at 26 and Tiger wins it at 24. Actually I think that’s probably the greatest feat that’s ever been accomplished in world sport, to win the Grand Slam at 24, because everybody in this room knows what a tough game and how competitive golf is.
So Rory must now say to himself, look, you must use Tiger as a role model and raising the bar. He won the Grand Slam at 24, so I’ve got to move and I’ve got the game. Because he’s really, I don’t know where he’s ranked, what is he, 16th or 15th in the world? It’s remarkable. And what a beautiful swing, having only seen him on television. And it’s a lovely story with his parents making a sacrifice and Ireland, a great country for golf.
Really, he’s remarkable, and the world is at his feet. Same as Ishikawa in Japan. I saw him hitting balls in Japan, unbelievable.
Then I saw this Danny Lee this morning who I’m playing with on Wednesday. Just beautiful. I mean, great swing.
And Kim, he can really play. If he is dedicated, don’t know him at all. I know what his lifestyle is like. If he’s dedicated; of course today, you’ve just got to do more than just be able to play golf.
Q: As you go about doing a lot of things for the last time here, driving to the house, coming to the course, unpacking clubs and all that, which things have been emotional or nostalgic to you, and have any things caught you by surprised?
Gary Player: I’ve tried to read a lot in life and I’ve tried to improve my mind as much as I can. There’s a great saying that the Chinese have. They say, “Everything shall pass.” And that’s what we have got to realize.
There’s nothing worse than you see these boxers and athletes saying they are retiring and they come back and they get their knees knocked in and they ends up punch-drunk. I’ve had such a wonderful career. My goodness, when I think of the career I’ve had; you can’t have it all, and I did have it all. I’ve had it all. You can’t be greedy, that’s the word.
So I’m very happy in my life. I actually prefer ranching to golf, and I have one of the most magnificent ranches in the world in South Africa, and I’m still going to come back here. I’m still going to come to the dinner. I’m still going to come to this tournament and I’m still going to come see all of these young guys and how they are progressing and I’m still going to be playing some tournaments on the Senior Tour. So I’m not getting out of golf.
But there comes a time, and one thing I can tell you, when I tell you that’s it here, this is it, you will not see me come back and play the tournament. That is for sure. I ain’t going to do that.
Q: I wanted to ask you about Trevor a little bit, and specifically how he was, how he played today and more generally how you think he’s handled winning the Masters and what kind of effect that’s had on his game over the last year?
Gary Player: Well, he himself said it was such a big change in his life. Yes, it is.
I said to him today, “And when you win a second time, or you win another major, it will change again. It’s a process of change.” And the more majors you win, what a demand you will be in, but what a wonderful position to be in. Isn’t that terrific; isn’t that what we all want.
Q: Has he struggled with being more in demand?
Gary Player: I think initially, initially it was such a change, he got a bit of a shock to start with and he needed time to add just a minute. I think he’s making the adjustment well now and learning how to do it. But that’s pretty normal, isn’t it. It’s a very big change, but a lovely change.
Q: What do you imagine your emotion will be on Thursday morning when you tee off, and also what do you think your emotion will be when you come up the hill on 18 Friday afternoon
Q: Sunday evening.
Gary Player: One’s a realist and one’s a dreamer. No, I’ll be like everybody. I’ll be very nostalgic. The mind is an amazing thing, how memories go through your mind very quickly. The mind is an incredible thing.
The love, this is the thing, the love that I’ve been given by the galleries at this golf tournament; and I’m already telling myself not to start blubbering. You know what blubbering is? Crying. And I’m a damn big baby.
Arnold and I are two big babies with crying. Arnold and I, we just love people and we cry so easily. But really, I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to come up there – but it’s going to be tough. I think I will cry. And Winston Churchill, one of my all-time great heros always said: It’s never a bad thing to try. It’s a cry of appreciation and enjoyment, a cry of gratitude.
Q: If you were on your list of accomplishments, what do you think your favorite ones are? Is it the first and only international to win the career Grand Slam or the length of time of your career or your impact on the exercise portion of the game? What are the things where you think you’ve been most impactful?
Gary Player: I come back to – it comes back to me to win that the world Grand Slam. They have an American Grand Slam on the Senior Tour with tournaments here, but I’m the only man who has won it with the British Open in our majors with the British Open. So that Grand Slam, I wanted to win that so badly, and it took so long, considering I only had about an eight- to nine-year span.
I eventually won my ninth when I beat John Bland in the playoff at Portrush, which is the best links golf course I’ve played. I think there is no question in my mind that some people would laugh at it, some people would not understand it. Players who play the Tour will understand it. Golfers who play the Senior Tour will understand it.
But other than that, I’ve tried to – one of the things I’ve really tried to do is to have good manners. I think that’s something that’s important and I think it’s important when I’ve got a lot of young people around. I think every golfer player today has a great responsibility out there to have good manners, because everybody is watching, a vast amount of coverage that golf gets now.
Q: Have you called Jack or Arnie to sort of rub it in that this is your last one and they are not around?
Gary Player: No, no, no. I wouldn’t do that. No, no, no. I wouldn’t do that.
But it is encouraging when you have exercised as hard as I have and watched my diet pretty well, that I’m able to play 52 Masters. It’s a very encouraging thought.
I stood on the tee last year when I was waiting to play and there was a bit of a hold up, and I thought, damn it all, most of my friends at 72 are dead and I’m playing at the Masters? Most guys at my age, 73, have not seen their knees, never mind their private parts, for seven years. (Laughter) There’s a lot of feeling going on. At least I can see where I am. (Laughter).
Rob Johnston: Any other questions?
Gary Player: I think we’ll end up on that.
Rob Johnston: Mr. Player, we want to say that you are indeed much more than just a legend in the game of golf. You are an inspiration to all of us both on and off the course. We want to thank you for the 51 years of extraordinary memories here at Augusta, and we’ll be with you with every shot in your 52nd appearance. Thank you, sir. (Applause).
Source – The Masters
