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Gary Player

Oh, he leaves him in the dust.

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Gary Player

I'm a doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When I got on the golf course, suddenly something smitched and I was so mean. First prize was a thousand pound. Now it's millions. Work at it day and night. Nine years of age. We all do things wrong. We're all sinners. We all do something wrong. A year later. I think. I think I'll try that it works because you persevered and Rory Pers had difficulties. He made such a mess, now sat like it. I say you will never feel sorry for. You're going to be the most positive man in the world. You going to win this grand slam whether it's the last damn thing you do. Best thing that could have happened to him.

Interviewer

I think we should start with a round of applause for tonight's guest, Gary Player.

Gary Player

Thank you. Thank you.

Interviewer

Well, Gary, welcome to high performance. Thank you. You're 90 years old, you're still training, you're still playing, you're still traveling. When does it stop?

Gary Player

I think that depends on something that I have no answer to. Depending on healthy, how long you stay healthy for. And I am extremely healthy, extremely fit, never get tired, tons of energy, still travel as much as anybody. Love my work, love people, but who knows? You don't know if you might get cancer tomorrow. With all the stuff that they put in food today and the sprays on vegetables, et cetera, et cetera. You don't know when you're going to get sick. So I take a day at a time. My dream, my ultimate dream, is to live to a hundred. I went to India to study this, and that was, I think, a very wise thing to do. But being 90, you never take things for granted. And adversity is around every corner, thank goodness, because it's the greatest gift bestowed upon man or woman.

Interviewer

And I want to talk about why adversity is so important to you and has been so important to you. But when you sit there and say, I don't get tired, I'm full of energy, I still act in the way I always have. I mean, I'm half your age and I get tired. I'm not that full of energy. You've obviously got even more energy than me. And I'm really interested in the things that you do daily that give you this amount of energy. What does your training regime look like at 90?

Gary Player

Well, the man in India said to me 11 things of which I adhere to, to the best that I can. Best of my knowledge, anyway. First of all, he said, the. The. Now, first of all, you gotta understand, Jake, it is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than to get people to actually do something to stay healthy. We can't say everybody subconsciously thinks they're gonna live a long time. But no, nothing happens automatically in life. The old saying about work applies. It's so true across the spectrum. And so I work hard, I exercise, but the most important thing is what you eat. The most important thing to live a long time is what you eat, how you eat. You gotta under eat. We all overeat. We all eat like it's the Last Supper. And so he says, for a start, what did you weigh in your prime? I said, 153. He says, what do you weigh now? I said, 163. He says, well, you're 13 pounds overweight. I said, no, no, that's 10 he says, when you get to 50, your heart is not as strong. Your knees, your ankles, et cetera, et cetera. He says, you've got to be. If you want to reach your target of 100, you've got to be. Go back three pounds lighter than you were in your prime because you were at your ultimate strength then, which makes sense. And everybody, everybody you see is 90% of people are overweight, okay?

Interviewer

So undereating, okay?

Gary Player

That's number one exercise. Laugh a lot.

Interviewer

Why does that matter?

Gary Player

Well, the old saying, laughter is the. When they say laughter, what's the saying? Laughter is. Pardon? The best medicine. The best medicine, right. That's an old saying. I write them down, you see, because anybody who tries to remember things is a conceited fool. And another thing is, a blunt pencil is better than a sharp memory. So I take an ice bath every day. That's as long as there's an ice bath available that is a miracle for your health. But I've been doing it for 70 years, and all athletes are doing it now. Now they call it cryotherapy. You know, it's a new name. I laugh a lot. I sleep. I can sleep anything from nine hours to 12 hours. If I have to get up after six hours, I can do it. So sleep builds your immune system, there's no question. And they're finding out with more as time goes by how important that is. Make. Have friends. Have friends. You know, the old Italians who are living a long time, they go down in the village in the morning and they see their friends, and they have a wee drum a little, and they have a lot of laughter together. And having good friends, I think, is very, very important. I think love. If you said to me, what is the single most important word in your life? And there's a reason why I'd say without a question, is love. It seems to have taken care of all my problems, all the adversity I've had. And, you know, I lived in a hobo jungle as a young man, basically speaking, and suffered like a junkyard dog. Now, not as bad as a lot of other people in the wars, et cetera, et cetera, but it was the greatest gift I ever had, greatest gift I ever had. And it stood me in such good stead when I was playing in big tournaments, coming down the line. Now, I didn't win every tournament when I had a chance. I often didn't win the tournament, but I never choked. And I wrote something here, if I may read it to you. And I did this just sitting down way one day and I said just what came to my mind and I wrote and I said, after I won my first big tournament, I was so confident, I was so keyed up, but not relaxed, not relaxed. I was keyed up. I felt I had a soup of armour impervious to almost anything except a bullet. And I believe that. So the mind is what rules your life. We haven't even got to first base when it comes to the power of the mind. So that's why I was not better than. A lot of players were better than me playing the golf. But I beat them most of the time when it really mattered, because my mind was superior, if I may say that, in being humble when I say that. But I worked on that. So, you know, something inexplicable struck my mind. I was on my way and I was going to be a champion. I was convinced about that. Something strange happened. I will never choke, I said to myself, I will never choke. Because I sat there and pondered and I thought, all the tournaments that I've had a chance on the last hole, $10 million winning, whatever it may be, just the honour of winning, never mind the money. The fact that I suffered a lot. My mother died when I was nine and I adored my mother. But I had lived in this terrible, poor suburb. My headmaster or my sports master tried to keep me at school because he knew I was going home to an empty house. And you know, Jake, it was quite something. You'd arrive there, go in the house. It was a dark house at nine years of age. I'm cooking my own food, I'm able to wash my clothes and I lay in bed. But I vividly remember this. Lying in bed day after day, crying, wishing I was dead. Greatest gift that ever happened. And that's why I realised how important I needed love subconsciously. And that's why it was such a prevalent word in my. In my life.

Interviewer

So when did you link the hardship and the struggle of your young life to this determination that something great was going to happen?

Gary Player

It's hard to go back, you know, when you're 90 years of age, it's hard to go back, exactly. But this is when I started winning the big tournaments and I wanted to put it down on paper and how this message came through to me and why I was a champion. And I can't tell you the exact year it was. I won the big tournament in Australia, which enabled me to get married. It was the biggest tournament outside of America at the time. And I wanted to marry my girlfriend, who I'D been going out with since I was 14. And so I remember winning that tournament. £5,000. In those days, that was a fortune. In fact, when I won my first British Open, the Open first prize was £1,000. Now it's millions. But money, funny enough, even being poor, and I mean poor as a junkyard dog, never played for money. I wanted to win. I wanted to be the best. It was a gift from God. Now, people who don't believe in God think that's crazy. But I was not that good to achieve what? I achieved the most golf tournaments in the world without boasting. I was the only man to win the Grand Slam. On both tours, I won the most tournaments in the world. Today I won more international national titles and Tiger woods on upon and Jack Nicholas together. Now I'm not that good. This was a gift that was loaned to me. And I put emphasis on the word loaned. Now, a lot of people will find that hard to understand, but that's what I believed, and that's why I became a champion. And what you've got to do to become a champion is not the swing, it's your mind. And you've got to believe you're the best. I played Nicholas and beat him as many times as he beat me. They won't say that in America, because they can't. He was an icon, and I understand that. I understand that 100%. But when I played him, he knew I believed I could beat him. I played him in the World Match play championship in London. 36 holes on a wet golf course. I beat him six and four, five and four. And so I believed. And by the way, Nicholas was the greatest gentleman I ever played golf with. His record is the best record in golf. Nobody can deny that. And you judge players not on what they could have done. The worst word in sports is if. If this, that, if that. If I was born in America, I would have won probably another four major championship because I was going back to South Africa and back and back to be with my family. And those days took you 40 hours to get there.

Interviewer

Would you have achieved what you have achieved if you hadn't had the upbringing that you had?

Gary Player

Well, that's a debatable thing, because Nicholas, on the other hand, his parents went, what I'd say wealthy, but well to do. He went to a great university in Ohio. And he had a life, a very, almost. Well, in terms of reality, a luxurious life, and became the best record. So it's contradictory, isn't it? I think it's horses for Courses, it's like, you know, people say to me, why do you believe? Give me some reason why you believe in God and you believe in these things. I said, I'll show you the greatest miracle that existed in my life. That thumb there. See the size of that? When you put your fingerprint down like that, if I said to you, Jake, give me 50 different patterns there, you couldn't do it. But there are nine billion patterns in that thumb. Nine billion patterns in that thumb. And that got me thinking. Besides the fact that my mother and father taught me to have respect for the Lord. It's a great man to have. When you do something wrong, we all do things wrong. We're all sinners. We all do something wrong. I could fall back not having had the parental guidance that I would love to have had, that my children have had, and many of the people in the room whose children are lucky. But I could always call back and say I was wrong, admit I was wrong, you know, help me to get it right. So it was just. It's what suited me.

Interviewer

And you say a prayer five times a day?

Gary Player

At least. Five times a day, at least.

Interviewer

What do you say?

Gary Player

Thank you. Gratitude. Gratitude. Enjoy the beauty. For example, today we're playing, the weather's lousy. The caddies are saying it's lousy. I'm saying, man, this beautiful fresh air. I've got a little bit of rain on me. It's cold. It's a good test, you know.

Interviewer

What does that do for you?

Gary Player

Well, it inspires me, and it gives me courage and to be a champion, you know, Golf is the most difficult sport of all sports in the world. No question. And it's not like tennis. You know, tennis, If I play against you in the final, if it's windy, we both play in wind or rain. But in golf, you play in the morning and the weather's perfect. In the afternoon, it's terrible. So it's not playing under the same conditions. And when you play against tennis, it's one on one. When we win a major championship, it's one against 156 guys. Think about that.

Interviewer

I want to talk about the time that you first picked up a golf club or that someone first mentioned, because growing up in the slums of South Africa, as you say, as poor as a junkyard dog, golf is not a natural avenue.

Gary Player

No, you're right.

Interviewer

How did it happen?

Gary Player

My father, who worked on the mine, all the gold mines in South Africa had their own golf course. And if you were an employee, you were allowed to play there. Occasionally. And he invited me out and that's how I started. And the first time I played, I had a lot of bad scores, but I got the bug. That's how I got the bug. And then I met my girlfriend. And funny enough, I was living in this poor neighbourhood and there was a wall between my neighbour and myself, and I put a rock there so I could meet him in the morning. And my brother was on the rock. He says, come and look at this little girl next door here. I get on the rock and I said, good morning. My name's Gary. What's your name? She says, vivian. She says, do you play golf? I said, well, I'm starting. She says, we'll pick you up on Saturday. My father's a pro, my brother plays golf and my mother plays golf.

Interviewer

I.

Gary Player

We'll take you to our course. I got off the rock and I said, christopher, I'm going to marry that girl. He said, are you crazy? You're better for a minute.

Interviewer

How old were you?

Gary Player

Well, I did 14 bit later.

Interviewer

Tell us what Vivian did for you.

Gary Player

So my wife, now, she'd have to fly to America. Think about this. When I was going over early to make some money, she travelled on her own with six children. Can you imagine that? Even today, with the luxury of flying, even if you have your own jet, which most of the players have now, it would be tough, never mind sitting in that aeroplane with six children in airports and getting them around. So where are you going to find a wife like that? Very, very difficult. She was a wonderful golfer. I made a big mistake once. I was playing in Kentucky and I won the tournament three times in a row. And the press said to me, gee, you're hitting your driver further. I said, yes, like an idiot. If I had to choose between my wife and this driver, I'd miss her. Well, next day, headlines in the paper. We're playing in Oregon, the next state. I get on a plane, I arrive there, she'd arrived before me. I walk in the bedroom, she's hiding in the cupboard. I walk in the room, there's my driver on the bed with a negligee wrapped around it. You've chosen your new mate. May you hit it long and straight. I won't be at the gate.

Interviewer

So she had a great sense of

Gary Player

humor as well, and she could beat me occasionally. In fact, when I won my first Masters, I went back home and I played her a match and I said, I'll give you five shots off your tees and I don't want any strokes. I shot 69 and I lost. That's when I decided to have six kids. Stop her practicing quickly.

Interviewer

And what did she do when it came to winning tournaments? Why did her love matter so much? It's one of the very first things that you mentioned.

Gary Player

Yeah, because, you see, she brought the children up with manners and education. You see, for me, education is the light. I mean, I look at young people today, they're not reading anymore. Look, the phone has taken over the world and it will continue to do that. And you're entitled to have your phone. The present girlfriend I've got wants me to get married to her. I said, can't you marry to your phone? She's never off the phone. You follow? She's sitting right here. She loves me to tease her. But anyway, can you imagine getting a girlfriend at 90?

Interviewer

Very impressive.

Gary Player

Very impressive. Yeah, she's rich. And I said, I don't need your money, you don't need mine, but if you die before me, leave me some. So

Interviewer

you did before meeting your lovely girlfriend. You lost your wife in four years.

Gary Player

I was in a desert and I was so lonely. And I tell everybody in this room and anybody who's listening to this podcast, you, one of the two of you, will die. And when you do, you pay your homage. You pay your respects, but don't feel sorry for yourself. Realize you had a great time with your wife or your husband. You had a feast, you leave a feast, you've had sufficient search. Get a girlfriend, get a boyfriend. Because loneliness is a silent killer. And I tell you what has changed my life. This woman, she loves golf, she loves traveling, she loves gymnasium. We're both in the gym here today together. We're both laughing. I love to tease and laugh.

Interviewer

I want to talk about the mindset you had when you were at the top of your game, because I think it's amazing to sit here and discuss all your life lessons. Age 90, but you were doing things at the very start of your career that people simply weren't doing. Weight training is wonderful.

Gary Player

Yes.

Interviewer

But I want to talk about the mental side of what you were doing, the visualisation, the obsession with the tiny details. Can you take us back to, I don't know, the period when you won the Grand Slam?

Gary Player

Yes, good question.

Interviewer

What was the work that you were doing behind the scenes that nobody saw to get yourself mentally prepared for that?

Gary Player

Well, first of all, when I got on the golf course, something. I'm a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and I can't. And I often sit down and ponder and Say, why was it like that when I got on the golf course, suddenly something smitched. And I was so mean and so keyed up and so determined. Maybe because I suffered and had difficulties. And now I have an opportunity to do well. And yet I'm the biggest crybaby in the world. I watch a serviceman in America today, and the soldier's sitting there, and he's now going to retire. And you see his dog, this German shepherd, come running up, and the dog looks at him like this and puts his paw on him, saluting him. And he says, it's time for us both to retire now. Man. I start crying because I realize what these people do to give us the life that we're having. And I love people. That's such a big thing. But I get so choked up with anything sad.

Interviewer

Okay, so that's what you're like off the golf course.

Gary Player

Off the golf course, I'm a crybaby. On the golf course, I'm a son of a bitch.

Interviewer

And what does it look like being a son of a bitch on a golf course?

Gary Player

Well, you hit a bad shot, you're not going to feel sorry for yourself. Because you've had torture. And you know it's torture in your mind. Not to everybody else, but to win the British Open, the Open, or to win the Masters or the US Open or the pga and to win these tournaments, you practiced. I mean, when it was cold, I went out in the cold. Cause I was making £30amonth for three years. I went out when it was cold, just a shirt on. When it was hot, I put a sweater on. Because I said, I'm gonna play in hot weather. I'm gonna play in cold weather. And the thing that I did when I wanted to beat Jack Nicklaus to win the Grand Slam, no golfer's ever prepared to win a tournament like that. And I won it with Jack Nicklaus. Help. He said, come with me. You want to win the Grand Slam before me? Let's go and practice together. I said, no, Jack, I need the money. I've got to go to Greensboro. I reluctantly conceded to go with him. Now, in the evenings, I'd sit there in front of the mirror. I never went out to dinner. One night, I was lifting these heavy weights, and I'm going to come back to this weight story. I was squatting with £300. I still push £300 today without boasting. I've got a stomach. It's like a plank. Okay? Most guys at 90 do that. They hit the damn deck yeah, don't

Interviewer

do that on me.

Gary Player

They haven't seen their tochers in five years. They got a stomach out here, you know what I'm saying? But anyway, I sat in front of the mirror like this, in a tai chi position. See this? Now you sit like that position. You just try and sit like that for a minute. Just a minute. Just a lousy minute. And I sat like that. I say, you will never feel sorry for yourself. You're going to be the most positive man in the world. You're going to win this Grand Slam whether it's the last damn thing you do. And I slapped myself. That's when I first found out about Nivea cream, because my face was so damn red every night. I never went out to dinner. I went to a Catholic church. I'm not a Catholic. And I prayed not to win. Never did that, because there might be other people. Why would he choose me? But I wanted to keep my head dead still when I was putting. And I prayed for that, because anxiety is a big thing when you want something too badly. You look, you peep. Every one of these guys putt like this.

Interviewer

You see?

Gary Player

They never hit a putt like that. Never. And so I had to brainwash myself to do that, to have bad times on the golf course. I'm going to hit a ball out of bounds. It's going to make no difference. I'm going to hit a bad shot. It's part of the game.

Interviewer

I think one of the most fascinating things about you is your passion for life, your passion for knowledge, your quest for information. How important has that been in your journey?

Gary Player

Education. Education. The mind is a muscle. You've got to build on it. You've got to search, and you will find. I'm always intrigued by everything. I love different subjects. I love so many things in this world. I have a zest for life. And so, yes, I don't want to be just known as another athlete. I would like to be known as the greatest orator of all athletes. And I read and I study and I try and do that. I try my best every day of my life to improve my world. At Nursium, I work at it day and night.

Interviewer

I want to go back to you and the Grand Slam and Jack Nicklaus. I'm fascinated by this image of you slapping yourself across the face.

Gary Player

I mean, I really slapped myself, seriously, really hard. And I went through at least 10 things. Gratitude. Have patience. You know you're going to hit bad shots.

Interviewer

But why slapping yourself?

Gary Player

Well, because it was, you know, it's easy to say, well, you know, tomorrow I mustn't do this. But you're so inundated with so many other things in your life. You say that, but it's not going to do it. Whereas if you give yourself a slap, you're going to remember it. And so I had to remember, don't feel sorry for yourself. Because this game can make you feel sorry for yourself. Even Tiger woods, let me tell you, I know he's gone home and he's had a few cries at night because things weren't going right. Doesn't matter who you are. This game punishes everybody. And so you've got to have a mind that is a steel trap when you're playing if you want to win the big ones.

Interviewer

Were you scared of mistakes and disappointment?

Gary Player

No. If you have fear, it's a terrible thing. You've got to avoid fear. Fear avoids being confident.

Interviewer

Right?

Gary Player

Being confident. And so I eliminated fear. Cause I'd had fear. I wasn't scared of fear. You follow? Yeah, I wasn't scared of that. And then I had to play golf that no other athlete has ever had to do. Even close. They wanted to kill me every day around the world. Every time. I played for years. I lost the PGA in America. In Dayton, Ohio, I played with Nicholas one round. He said, thank God I'm not playing with you tomorrow. They charged out of the galleries and tore up the green. They threw telephone books in my back, ice in my eyes, balls between my legs. Screamed when I was playing. I lost it by one shot. One shot. Now there was a challenge. No golfers ever had that.

Interviewer

Why was that happening?

Gary Player

Because I was from South Africa and they had apartheid system so they could get at me because I was the world champion. So they could get their coverage. Then I went to Australia. Now think about this. I'm playing golf. There's a police van too. Follow me up the fairway. And as these people charged me, the cops grabbed them, put them in the police van, took them to the jail, came back. This one then took the place of the other one. And this is how I had to play golf for years. And then three policemen in my house every night. Ten policemen. I sat here tonight. They'd all be in the corner there, go to dinner. There they go. There I'd go for a pee. There they are outside the toilet. I mean, it was a hell of a way to live, let me tell you. But you see, I trained my mind. No other golf would have accepted that. They wouldn't have continued it. I can tell you. It was, as they say in Scotland, murder, lady. It was murder, okay? And so but I was trained my mind. And that's why I won the most tournaments in the world today, because I had this without boasting. Through hard work and diligent training, I had a mind as I keep being without being repetitive. I steal trap.

Interviewer

We'll be right back after a quick

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Interviewer

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Interviewer

So how much of your success is mental and how much of your success is physical?

Gary Player

I would say mental. Mostly mental. It's not the swing that counts. It's not the swing that counts. It's believing in yourself, you know, to genuinely believe. I speak to young guys today and I say they're a plus three handicap. And I say, well, what do you think you'd score if I let you tee off in the Masters? The last day on the first tee? What do you think? Oh, I'd shoot 77. They wouldn't shoot 87. It's such a different environment. You can never. Words can never put it into common sense to try and explain to people what it would be like. And so the mind has definitely been the most. But fitness. And you see, I started weight training in 1953. If I tell you, Jake, how I was ridiculed. And even today there are people on the Golf Channel. There's one particular guy he still believes today he sees everybody doing weight training, or almost everybody. And he still says it's bad for people. Today I pushed £300 with my legs. I ran the treadmill. In fact, I ran the treadmill so damn fast. Look at that.

Interviewer

I fell off.

Gary Player

Oh, no, look what I did to my knee. Okay, not today. Yeah, today. So. But that's part of the deal. Paid's good for you. So, you know, it's a. So the weight training, everybody said, oh, you can't do weights. Thank God Tiger woods came along, and I admired it so much. And he was lifting these heavy weights and he was so phenomenal. And then I saw Rory at the Masters and I admired his two wooden submarines. He's got the best swing in the world. Scotty Scheffler's the best. Gol. Rory's the second best. Rory's got the best swing in the world by a mile. And I said to Rory, I was on the practice tee early in the morning because we opened up the golf course, you know, three of us, must be 8,000 or 7,000 people there at 6:30 in the morning. It's an incredible experience. I said to Rory, he was coming by. I said, rory, how are you, Rory? I said, rory, what are you doing now, exercise wise? He takes out his phone and he shows me. Now, this is a deadlift. You know, when you do that, that's for the lower back and your core and everything like that. £400. £400. If you do that, £100. And you see how strong he is. You see the prodigious distances he gets. He works at it. And what we're going to see in the future. I told the golfing world that a man of 50 would win a major championship. You're talking rubbish. I said to Peter Ellis on BBC. Peter, we get our golf players hit the ball 400 yards. Tripe. Tripe, you know, most Americans don't know what tripe is. Rubbish. Hogwash. Now I'm going to say the way this ball is going, the distance as it's going, we've never had a big man play golf yet. They're going to hit it 500 yards. They got one man in America right now who's driven a par five. When we played the third hole at Augusta, Nicholas was as long as anybody today, except dechambro. Nicholas hit a drive in a wedge today. They drive over the green. They don't hit any further than Nicholas. So the big men are coming because you don't have to play the NFL, which is a marvelous sport. But if you play for three years, your knees are gone, your shoulder's gone, you got concussion. I mean, it's really. You ruin your health.

Interviewer

But golf, you can carry on golf,

Gary Player

you carry on forever. I make more Money today at 90 than when I was world champion. You can't do that in other sports.

Interviewer

I'm fascinated by the story around Rory McIlroy and constantly coming up short, failing being in the trenches psychologically.

Gary Player

Yes, good point. Best thing that could have happened to him. See, if he. Best thing he experienced that difficulties, he had to encounter those terrible difficulties. He made such a mess on the 10th hole that year. I mean, you could cry for him. And yet he persevered. Perseverance is a very eloquent word, I think. Perseverance. I've tried things. Persevering. And it doesn't work. I tried six months later. Doesn't work. I said, it's useless. A year later, I think. I think I'll try that. It works because you persevered and Rory persevered and to come along and win the Grand Slam. First of all, for international golf, that was a big thing because golf is a world sport. And I can imagine Ireland, that beautiful little country, how proud they were to see their man do it. But he's part of Britain, you know.

Interviewer

But I also think it was so much sweeter for him because of the. Because of the challenges. I think when he won that, yes, it was put into context by the fact it was difficult. On the flip side, you've got someone like Tiger woods.

Gary Player

Right.

Interviewer

Who has had challenges away from the golf course.

Gary Player

Correct.

Interviewer

That have been really highly publicized. What was the cost for you of competing at this level for all these years? Because we can sit here and we can laud the fact that you were strict with yourself and you were tough and you pushed yourself to the limit and you weight trained as a young guy and slapped yourself in the face and took on Jack Nicklaus and. Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice.

Gary Player

But I loved it.

Interviewer

But there must be a cost.

Gary Player

Well, it depends. I don't call it a cost. I call it a gift. Depends on how you want to phrase it. You've got to love what you're doing. And I loved every minute. You know, even today, most guys are my age, they don't want to go and play golf every day. My girlfriend loves golf. She and I go play today in that lousy weather. Nobody at my age is going to go play rainy and windy and cold this morning. But I love the game. I don't look at it as sacrifice. Yes, you've got to make a sacrifice, but you can make a sacrifice and still love it, which I did. I loved every minute of it. I wouldn't swap anything. It was very difficult being away from my children and having such a great family. But everybody has a price to pay. But there are always difficulties and there always will be difficulties to encounter. It's part of the human race. It's part of our makeup. And life is a struggle. Yeah, it's a bitch. And then you die.

Interviewer

I'm interested what you think of the fact that the people doing what you did today are earning not just a few million, but tens of millions. What's the impact on those players, do you think the amount of money in sport,

Gary Player

you know, the amount of money they're playing for today is enormous? When I say enormous, Whatever you think, multiply it by five. Yeah, and that's fine, as long as you realize you have a debt incurred and that it's. Without the people, you wouldn't be making that money. And I tell you, the two best in the world today, dechambro and Tommy Fleetwood, they work with the galleries, they work with the people they go to children. They're never tired of signing autographs. We asked a top player the other day, we do some work for tunnels to towers and that they bring the soldiers back that came back that have got one leg, no eyes, no arms, and they give them a home and they pay their mortgage. And we wanted to get 10 flags signed by a top player. And his manager said, oh, my son went to ask him, Wayne, he says, you know, that's a bit much. 10 flags. I sat down and signed 2,000 autographs in the last month. And it's a pleasure because I've been given the love and the support. I will sign and sign and sign and never say I'm tired. Tiredness is in the mind, you know. I never forget saying to one of my caddies, we were playing golf, pro. We were playing. He says, we played 36 holes. He says, man, I'm tired. I said, peter, if I offered you £5,000, would you run to that clubhouse, which is two miles away, with vigor? He said, I sure as hell would. I. You just tell me you're exhausted. You can't do it. So the human being is a tough person, but he's also a weak person. And so you have the choice. They like happiness. Happiness is a choice.

Interviewer

Take us to the greatest moment in your career.

Gary Player

I think that the greatest moment in my life is when President Trump gave me the Medal of Freedom because I lived in apartheid. I was demonstrated against. But I resigned as the PGA captain in South Africa. Was a PGA captain of our pga. I said, if you don't put two black guys on, I'm resigning. They didn't. I resigned. I had demonstrations around the world. I took Lee Elder from America. I had to. The terrible thing is I had to get permission to bring a black man to play in our pga. How ridiculous. Imagine me telling my grandchildren that I got permission. I wore black and white pants at St. Andrews on the first tee as a quiet demonstration about black and white should get on together. I did so many things. I sponsored black golfers all over the world, brought them to America, brought them here, built schools, built hospitals, built churches for them. And so I was not shouting my mouth off about doing it. But President Trump did his homework and he realized what I did and he gave me the Medal of Freedom, which is the highest honor you can get in America. For me, it's the highest honour in the world.

Interviewer

Your proudest moment.

Gary Player

That was for me something that I never thought I'd ever get. I didn't even enter my mind, you know, because it was something I was doing and proud to do it. And yet there's some people in South Africa today who call me a racist. So, I mean, you know, but the old saying is you can satisfy some of them some of the time, but it doesn't matter what you do in this world. So one must never expect praise. If you get it, it's a bonus. You do what you believe is right and you hang in there.

Interviewer

I've got some quick fire questions that I want to run through with you, but before we get to them, you're 90 years old. As we said at the start of this conversation, I understand what drove you as a young guy. What drove you as a young guy was escaping a difficult upbringing. I understand what drove you as a golfer and it was to be the best in the world. What is driving you today?

Gary Player

Philanthropic work to raise money for underprivileged children. I don't know if I'm being repetitive. Did I tell you that Arnold, Jack and I had raised over 700 million, but now I' got a school in South Africa, a black school, and it's going to go on in perpetuity. And now my daughter is running the Gary Player Vivian foundation in Philadelphia and we going into the inner schools, the inner city schools, mostly African American who struggling to read and write to the extent that they should. They've been badly neglected in America. I love to help people. You know, it's funny enough I've never mentioned, but you know, I get in an airport and I see an old lady sweeping the airport. I'll give her a couple of hundred bucks. She looks at it like she says, that's for me because I remember what I went through and I know what that couple of hundred bucks is going to do. When I play golf, I always give the caddies way more money. They don't make a fortune. If you can spin, you can't take it with you. The old saying, enjoy it man, enjoy it. I've been around so many of the richest people in the world and they so damn tight, they've got no pockets or they've got deep pockets and short arms, you know, so you can't take it with you, man, Spend it, enjoy It. And I'm enjoying my wife, my girlfriend's money as well. So it makes it a double barrel.

Sponsor Announcer

Perfect.

Gary Player

So we go to an inter. We go to a ladies luncheon. Hundred ladies at the luncheon, and I talk to them and the ladies say, do you mind if we ask you the question? I said, yes, it's gone viral. You have a girlfriend at 90? I said, she says, do you hold her hand? I said, ma', am, I love to hold her hand as much as I can. One lady says, you kiss her. I said, every opportunity I get, because I haven't got long to go, so I want to get a lot of kisses in. And I said, ladies, don't take advantage of what the situation is today. I'll end this up by telling you she's pregnant. Very good.

Interviewer

Right, we have some quick fire questions.

Gary Player

Wow. Italiano, eh?

Interviewer

I'm jealous in many ways. What is one thing that you do every single day without failing

Gary Player

many things? I try and read as much as I can. I try and exercise. I try and eat properly. Every day I try and eat properly and I try. And all I had today to eat for breakfast was a bowl of oats. Had no lunch. I try and eat two meals a day. I'd like to get down to one and a half meals. You don't eat all this food. Things that I don't eat, I would never eat bacon. I would never eat black pudding. I would never eat hagg. I mean, I listened to this guy here tonight. First of all, you can't understand a bloody word he's saying. All these guys. And I love the amber, the ambience of the place, it's fantastic. But nobody understood a word he said. He's got a stomach out here. He's never seen his toches before. He's like that. Okay. And my girlfriend says, what's he saying? I said, I don't understand. And my grandfather was Scottish, so. But, you know, life is so great. I think I wake up every day and I just am happy. I'm just happy. And I'm gonna try and make other people happy. My mind does a lot of things. It works overtime.

Interviewer

What's the best advice you've ever received?

Gary Player

Is that in life or in golf,

Interviewer

you can have both.

Gary Player

The best advice I've ever had in my life is faith. Yeah, that's. I've based my life on faith. And even if there isn't a God, even if there isn't, it's good. It can't do any harm. I'd rather be pro God than anti God.

Interviewer

How would you describe your relationship with God?

Gary Player

Gratitude. Gratitude and love. And you know, it's very difficult. I watched the Ryder cup this last time and it was a disgrace. Some of the public were using the F word and some of the players, not to mention their name, were using the F word back at them. Fatal. When I was being demonstrated which what they had at the Ryder cup was Mickey Mouse compared to what I had, Mickey Mouse. And they were wanting to charge me and threatening to kill me and everything, I kept saying, I love you, man. I love you, man. The other day I went to a breakfast to be speak at this very eloquent place and the lady says, I see you play golf with Donald Trump. I said, I play with him a lot. Yes, I do, ma'.

Commercial Narrator

Am.

Gary Player

I play golf with anybody I can. Doesn't matter who they are, what their political views are. She says, well, you like him. I said, I like him very much. I like his principles very much. Don't like everything about everybody. Nobody's perfect. I said, he's got a tough job. She said, if you like him, I hate you. Through my experience in life, the first thing I said, well, ma', am, I love you. It automatically came out. And that's better than swearing back and being fighting and wanting to go back. You don't want, nobody wins.

Interviewer

What advice would you give to a young Gary just starting out in life?

Gary Player

Work your tail off, study, exercise, eat properly. All the things I'm saying to try and do that.

Interviewer

And finally, what does high performance mean to you?

Gary Player

High performance means winning. You know, I was second so many times in my life. I was second in the Masters three times. I was second in the US Open twice. All these big seconds I had. Only your wife and your dog know who's second. That's if you've got a good wife and a good dog.

Interviewer

Gary, one of the most remarkable conversations I think I've ever had. You've done so much, seen so much, and thank you for sharing so much with us.

Gary Player

Thank you. I enjoyed it. Gary Plan.

Interviewer

Thank you very much.

Gary Player

Thank you.

Interviewer

Thank you very much.

Gary Player

Thank you.

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Gary Player

Oh, he leaves him in the dust.

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