Gary Player Biography

The professional golfer Gary Player was born in 1935 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Gary expressed an interest in the sport of golf from the time he was very young, and shortly after he lost his mother to cancer when he was only eight years old, his father saved up enough money to pay for a set of golf clubs for Gary to use. Gary took advantage of the opportunity to immerse himself in practice, and by the time he was seventeen, he’d made his professional debut.

Gary Player went on to become the golfer who is widely recognized as the greatest in the history of the sport. Before he reached thirty, Player had become the only non-American at the time to win all four majors, including the 1965 U.S. Open. Over the course of his career, which lasted for six decades, Gary won more than one hundred fifty tournaments around the world. Other career highlights include: three Senior British Open Championships, six Champions Tour victories, and nine major Championships on the regular tour. Player has been honored with numerous awards, most notably the Bob Jones Award in 1996, one of the highest honors for golf professionals.

Today, Gary Player remains very active in a number of pursuits. He recently appeared nude in ESPN Magazine’s annual Body Issue for 2013, becoming the oldest athlete to do so. But Player is probably best known today for his renowned golf course designs, currently totaling over through hundred around the world. Gary’s designs focus on environmental sustainability and water conservation, bringing the art of golf course design to a whole new level for the new millennium.

Player also breeds top thoroughbred race horses, and he oversees his own foundation, The Player Foundation, which promotes international education to underserved areas of the world. The foundation also hosts the Gary Player Invitational series of events each year, to raise charitable funds to help the foundation reach its goals. Gary Player’s philanthropic and altruistic nature appears to run in his family; his brother is Ian Player, the highly respected environmental educator who is credited with saving the white rhino from extinction.