Gary Player - "Winning at Muirfield" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

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

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

You probably remember the prize money that you won in your first open championship, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Yes, I do. And I I won it, I'll tell you, even more uh noticeable. I played at Wilmington and I finished uh 20th and won$25. So I didn't cash the check. I framed it to put in my office. The guy said, Why didn't you cash your check? You won$25. Well, those days you could get a room for$5, you know, you misremember that.

Mike Gonzalez 0:51

Yeah, a lot of young people don't understand why uh some of the great uh players, particularly Americans, I guess, at the time, didn't play more in the British Open. But we look here in 1959, Gary Player wins the the Open Championship at Muirfield, thousand pounds first prize. Uh go go nine years later. Nine years later, you win by two over Bob Charles Jack Nicholas at Carnoostie. The GMO, the Greater Milwaukee Open was a new tournament that year. The first year they ever played it. It played in competition that same week with the British Open. Its winner made five times what you made.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Yes, correct. And you know, two things I want to tell you about uh is uh is Carnousty to remind me, and then the other thing is uh at the at the Open Championship, I I hadn't I didn't I couldn't afford to go back to South Africa and see my first daughter being born. So I met Vivian in England and we went up to Mearfield. And I walked into Mearfield and uh the secretary there, Colonel Evans Loam was his name. He was a colonel. What do you want here? I've got such a shock. I said, Well, sir, I've come to practice for the open. He says, You're not practicing here. This is Mearfield. Don't you know that? Don't you know about this club? I said, Not really, sir. I'm very sorry, I'm ignorant of the fact. So I said, But sir, do me a favor, I'm very poor. I've got my first baby here, and I'm gonna win the open. He says, Not only are you not going to practice here, you're an arrogant young bastard. Those were verbatim words. So now I'm really, as we say, stumped. So I've got to think very quickly. And I said, Sir, I have this child. I need to practice to make some money. Please be a decent human being and let me practice here. He said, Come into my office. He gave me a cup of tea, I befriended him, and then I was playing on the practice rounds ten days before, all day long. I was an animal with practicing and still am. And anyway, so we play this the 15th hole, driving a wedge, driving a wedge, driving a wedge. He says, My boy, when you play the torment, the wind could turn around, you had a drive and a two-iron there. I said, Really? So I started hitting him off with a six-iron, and I hit a lot of two irons and three irons to the green. Lo and behold, we played 36 holes, which a lot of people don't understand. We played 36 holes in all the major championships. Well, the open and the US Open with 36 holes the last day. Well, in the morning I hit a three-iron to the green and birdied it. In the afternoon, I hit a two-iron to the green and birdied it, and went on to win with a score of 284 with that crappy old ball, excuse my language, and those clubs and those bunkers and those that are not raked properly, and spike marks on the green, and no shortcut fairways. And Phil Mickelson only beat me by four shots with his victory in perfect weather, with perfect clubs, with all perfect conditions, and I was the youngest man to ever win the British Open at that time. And at the prize giving, Colonel Evans Loam stood there, the old fashioned you know, with his hands under yeah, like this, like he'd won it. But I made a fuss of him, you see, I made a fuss of him and it it paid off. So instead of being military, uh instead of fighting back in a militant fashion, I gave the love and it conquered the man.

Mike Gonzalez 4:47

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 5:10

It went smack down the fairway.