Turned Professional: 1953
International Victories: 163 so far including 24 PGA Tour victories, 19 Champions Tour Victories, 3 time winner of the Masters and British Open, 2 US PGA championships and the US Open Crown.
Gary Player is regarded as the best bunker player of all time. He has won over 160 titles worldwide and is one of only 5 golfers to have won the Grand Slam. So far Gary has had a whooping 24 PGA Tour and 19 Champions Tour victories. Gary Player is the most successful golfer in the world. He has won over 60 more games than Jack Nicklaus, the man considered by some to be the greatest golfer.
Player obsessively practises and prepares for every game and follows an intense fitness regime which has earned him one of his many nicknames - Mr Fitness. He is fitter than men decades younger than him.
Gary Player has been dubbed the ‘Black Knight' as he always dresses in black on the golf course. He won his first major title in 1959 at the British Open despite being eight shots off the lead halfway through. That year he won a further 6 titles. Gary is always determined to win as he was in a similar position in 1978 when he won the US Masters after starting the final round seven shots down but in the final 10 holes of the couse he shot seven birdies to win. By 1961 Gary became the first non-American to win the US Masters. In 1965 the Black Knight became the third golfer to win the Grand Slam of all four Majors; since then only a further two golfers have achieved this victory. In 1985 Player joined the Senior PGA Tour and has won 23 more titles. Player is the only person in the 20th Century to have won the British Open in 3 different decades 1959, 1968, 1974. Gary Player also shares the record of lowest ever round in professional golf of 59 which he got at the 1974 Brazilian Open.
Gary Player along with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer dominated world golf during the 1960s and early 1970s. The three players were nicknamed ‘The Modern Triumvirate.' The accolades Gary Player has received demonstrate his importance in the golf world. He was the tenth person to be named an Honorary Member of the Royal and Ancient at St Andrews in 1994. By 1999 he was named the World Federation of PGA Tour's International Ambassador of Golf Award.
As well as successfully playing golf the Black Knight is a renowned golf course architect. He has designed over 200 golf courses worldwide. Gary is a shrewd business man too. He runs Gary Player International which includes golf equipment, a golf academy, licensing, publishing, videos and memorabilia.
Aside from golf Gary loves horse racing. He owns the Gary Player Stud Farm which has been publicly praised for breeding top horses. Gary also operates the Player Foundation which promotes education.