Gary still a Player at age of 80

Gary Player turns 80 today, but his birthday party has been been put on hold as he’s on a plane to China.

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Gary Player turns 80 today, but the South African golf legend’s birthday party has been been put on hold as he’s on a plane to China, where he will be making a site visit to a course his design company is building there.

He will instead celebrate his birthday at a glittering function at The Palace at Sun City on November 11. “My friends are coming from all over the world,” he says.

That will be followed on the Lost City course from November 12-15 with the South African leg of his global Gary Player Invitational series, which yearly raises funds for disadvantaged children worldwide.

The 2015 series began at Wentworth in London in July before moving to New York and the Lost City event, presented by Coca-Cola, is expected to raise another record amount for charity.

Player, meanwhile, has no plans to slow down. “What is so exciting about turning 80 is that I still have so much energy, and work as hard as I did at 25,” says the man who won 165 tournaments, including nine Majors and nine senior Majors, in his long, hugely successful career.

And even at 80, he still regularly breaks par for a round of golf.

“I don’t feel 80 at all. I feel more like 40. I’m as strong and healthy as ever, I’ve had a wonderful and privileged life and am more inspired than ever to keep making a difference in this world.”

In August, in a celebration at Soweto Country Club to mark 50 years since he completed golf’s Grand Slam, Player was named captain of South Africa’s golf team for next year’s Rio Olympics.

There seems to be no slowing down for the man who even at his age has been cast as Mr Fitness with his body displayed on the front cover of magazines.

His view of the modern game is he is pleased about the great rivalry between twentysomethings Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, current top three in the world.

There is talk of them being the new Big Three, just as Player, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were in the 1960s and 1970s. But Player reckons it’s early to reward them with such an accolade.

“It’s encouraging to see these guys playing at such a high level, wanting to be the future Big Three,” he says.

“But you’ll never have a Big Three like Arnold, Jack and myself.

“Playing wise, yes you might although they will have to win hundreds of tournaments to pull that off.

“But the thing that we did that you’ll never see again – we travelled together, they came to my farm in South Africa, we went down gold mines, we went to game reserves. I stayed at their homes.

“We travelled like three close brothers around the world playing golf. And at the same time we wanted to beat each other so badly. It’s a unique friendship, a competitive act and a travelling schedule that you’ll never see three athletes do again.”

– THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT