Gary Player - "Mark McCormack" SHORT TRACK

Mike Gonzalez 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started. Let's go back uh oh maybe sixty years or so, and uh there's a fella that came on the scene by the name of Mark McCormick. Right he formed a company called IMG, and of course uh the stable that he uh assembled at the time included, among others, uh yours truly, Gary Player, Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer. Uh the devil was part of that at some point. Take me back to those days. What was just your reflections on that whole experience, Gary?

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Well, I get a call from uh Mark McCormack, and he says, uh, I'd like to manage your affairs. I manage Arnold Palmer, and we'll do it on a handshake, uh, which I did, and then the next one he signs is Jack Nicholas. Now, can you imagine? You know, luck, I always say luck is the residue of design. I believe you bring luck upon yourself to a large degree. So now who does he sign as the fourth person? The Pope. And then he signs Twiggy.

Mike Gonzalez 1:23

Was that Pope Paul?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Oh no, don't ask me. I'm too old to remember that. Then he then he signs Pele. So I mean, this guy he became he met me, he used to meet me at the airport as a lawyer, and he made$22,000 a year. That soon stopped. I had to get a taxi eventually, he became so rich. But anyway, I mean, here he manages these people and becomes a multimillionaire and a icon. And what a brain. Can you imagine? In all the years that he represented me, he never forgot one thing. He had a two by three card in his pockets, a stack like that, and he wrote everything down. And man, did he teach me a lesson? Here's my my pad right here. Here are my things, and I write down every single thing. And he said, anybody who tries to remember is a conceited fool. And he said, A blunt pencil is better than a sharp memory. And this guy went on to do, and it was so sad the way he ended his life. He went to Cleveland Clement for a checkout, they gave him a clean bill of health, he had a little thing on his his chin here somewhere. So he goes into the this office in New York, and they give him uh I forget what it was, uh, to calm you, and he's allergic to it, and he basically ruins and dies in the chair eventually. Uh, through that, he died through that. I mean, you know, it was it's very sad. So you you never know when you're one tick away, and that's why I say, be hoppy, man. Don't make a trouble, you'll make a double. Be hoppy, because you know you're only one tick away, my man.

Mike Gonzalez 3:04

We hope you've enjoyed this short track of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody. It went smack down the fairway. And it started to slice, just smit offline. It had it for two, but it bounced off nine. My head is as long as you're still in the state, you're okay. It went straight down the middle.