Gary Player - "What If?" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to do it.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Let me ask you something. Gary, if looking back, if if you knew when you turned professional, what you know now, what would you have done differently?

SPEAKER_02 0:28

We come back to the ifs. In 1961, when I won the Masters, I was representing a company called First Flight. And there was an Irish American man called Jack Hawkins. What a character. He'd get on the plane and he'd say to the hostess, ma'am, you have change for a thousand dollar bill. He'd say, I don't even make a thousand a month. Are you kidding? So he comes up to me and says, Gary, I think you're gonna I think you're gonna win all the majors one day, and I'm gonna offer you right here and now a million dollars a year for five years. And but you've got to come and build a house, and I'll pay for it, a million dollar house in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I'd never heard of Chattanooga, Tennessee, quite honestly, at that stage. That is equivalent to nine million dollars a year today. And I said, Oh, thank you, uh Jack. I said, but I'm a South African, I've got to put, you know, people don't know where South Africa is. They think it's a jungle and it's one of the most modern, sophisticated countries in the world, and I've got to put it on the map. And had I accepted that, look, I had a wonderful life in South Africa. I still am a South African, I still travel on a South African passport, but I would have won a lot more majors had I accepted that. Because I used to travel, I never even played in the PGA in many years because I wanted to go and see my family. I was homesick. And I had to fly over here, and as Bruce knows, in those days it was 40 hours, no jets, had to stop four times in places on the way over, and traveling with all those kids, man, and not having a base, not having a home to stay in. Wow, what a difference it would have made in my career. But I'm very thankful and grateful for what I achieved. Under the circum under the difficulties that I had to play golf.

Mike Gonzalez 2:20

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.

Intro Music 2:40

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. And it started just like just smitch offline. My head is as long as you're still in the stage you're okay. It went straight down the middle, file away.