Maximilian ‘Max’ Rottluff got the maximum seal of approval for the biggest win of his career as none other than the legendary Gary Player himself took time out to congratulate the German on his maiden Challenge Tour victory.

The 30-year-old teed it up alongside the likes of Road to Mallorca No. 1 Ugo Coussaud, DP World Tour winners Matteo Manassero, Álvaro Quirós and Oliver Fisher plus a host of risings stars last week at the UAE Challenge at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club in Abu Dhabi.

But, along with the hefty €43,000-plus pay cheque, the biggest pay day of his career, Max was maxed to the hilt by the man who designed the course — and who also picked up nine majors during the course of his prolific career as a player.

Gary Player in action at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club

Rottluff, making his first start on the Challenge Tour this season, carded a final-round 70 to reach 14-under and finish one stroke clear of Coussaud. He also hit a course-record 63 on Saturday on his way to the top — and was admired by the man whose UAE course he mastered after a memorable triumph.

“I’m thrilled for Maximilian Rottluff and his first victory on the European Challenge Tour,” said Player to Golf Digest Middle East. “The tournament seemed to have everything for him — from a course record at Saadiyat Beach to a final-round comeback even after a bogey on his opening hole. Many congratulations to Maximilian, but remember, the work really starts now!”

Following a career that included 159 professional wins — including those nine majors — Mr Fitness, who is still hitting it better than most at the age of 87, turned his hand to golf-course design, and Player prides Saadiyat Beach GC among his finest, along with many of his South African home’s best course such as Gary Player Country Club and Leopard Creek, plus illustrious overseas venues like Wentworth in England. He has been involved with more than 400 design projects.

 

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That is heady respect indeed for Max to take after a 63 and the Abu Dhabi crown.

For a bit of review of this past week in Abu Dhabi, despite his Saturday heroics, Rottluff started his final round two shots back from overnight leader Manuel Elvira. But, even after bogeying his opening hole, he showed nerves of steel to turn it on after the turn, whacking in five birdies in a seven-hole stretch on his way to victory.

Max is up to 14th in the Race to Mallorca standings and has already secured his spot on the Challenge Tour next season. But if he continues this form he may get a money-spinning spot on the DP World Tour next term.

As Player says: “The work really starts now!”

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Gary Player dabbed at his eyes as Masters chairman Fred Ridley introduced him on the first tee at Augusta National Golf Club. It’s hard to say what might have been going through the mind of the three-time Masters champion, but the diminutive South African clearly was overtaken with emotion before he hit the first of three honorary tee shots to begin the 87th Masters Tournament.

It was either a good act or a necessary catharsis.

Six-time winner Jack Nicklaus and two-time Masters champion Tom Watson completed the line-up of honorary starters for the second consecutive year at 7.40am in Georgia. Nicklaus has served as an honorary starter since 2010 and Watson was added last year. Player, 87, has been part of the ceremony since 2012 and, being the oldest, has been hitting the first ball since 2016, the last time Arnold Palmer made an appearance, though he didn’t hit a shot.

Player’s emotional reaction before striping his tee shot down the fairway was perhaps in some way instigated by a feeling of regret he might harbour for recent comments he made in an interview with The Times. In that interview, Player complained about not being able to play a practice round at Augusta with his grandchildren unless accompanied by a member and said: “If it wasn’t for the players, (Augusta National) would be just another golf course in Georgia.”

He added: “I’ve played my role. I’ve won it three times. I was in the top 10 15 times. I made the most cuts in a row ever [23], yet here we are struggling to get a round. It’s just sad. And I put great emphasis on the word ‘sad’ … that Augusta doesn’t make you feel welcome in that regard because I helped make this tournament what it is.”

Juxtaposed to those comments were Players’ comments on Thursday after the ceremony when he talked about a life lesson he gleaned from his time at Augusta National. Irony pervaded his response.

“A prevalent thing in winning this tournament is gratitude,” Player said, obviously intent on making a point to walk back his criticism of Augusta National. “To have the opportunity to play in a tournament of this stature and to meet people like President Eisenhower, being from a country that practised apartheid, that was always a very big imprint on my life when you think of what a marvellous role he played.

“And then meeting Bobby Jones here as well, such a wonderful golfer, gentleman, maybe the best player that ever lived. He played with a walking stick and a ball that went 80 yards less than today. So I think the word is gratitude, just to be able to … particularly for me, this is my 65th appearance here, and you walk on the first tee, and you say, well, this might be the last one. So I think gratitude is the one for me.”

This is the second time in three years that controversy has swirled around the nine-time major winner and one of only five men to win the career Grand Slam.

In 2021, it was the actions of Player’s son, Wayne, that caused a stir during the honorary starter ceremony. Wayne Player, serving as his father’s caddie, stood behind Lee Elder with a sleeve of OnCore golf balls he held awkwardly but which gave the brand clear visibility. Wayne Player soon was banned from future Masters.

The post Masters 2023: Gary Player’s harsh words for Augusta National take on softer tone a week later appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

More than any other player in history, Tiger Woods at his peak refuted the adage that no golfer gets it all. The image of that once-supreme completist from the century’s first decade remains indelible and continues to magnify light onto every part of the game — especially the elements that constitute greatness.

Those who can perceive and convey that last piece with the most precision are the elders in an ultra-exclusive fraternity that includes Woods as a junior member. So as Tiger embarked on his latest comeback — begun remarkably free of back pain and with correspondingly surprising success at the Hero World Challenge — Golf Digest sat down with five of the best: Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo.

All are multiple major winners — collectively their total is 41, the inverse of Woods’ 14. All are essentially retired from competition yet remain avidly connected to the current scene. All are close students of a figure who has transcended and brought scrupulous attention to the game they once mastered.

For them, Woods is both an illuminating prism and a mirror.

Our idea was to exploit a premise that has proved reliable since Woods first came to world renown as an amateur in the mid-1990s: The better the player, the better the take on Tiger.

To varying degrees, each Hall of Famer possessed some or even all of Woods’ myriad qualities and strengths. But to allow the interviews to form a more coordinated whole, the subject matter for each former player focused on the area he most closely compared with Woods.

With Nicklaus, it was the uncanny ability for making it happen. For Player, an indefatigable self-belief. For Trevino, an undying obsession for the game. For Miller, a nearly identical crucial head start as a youth. For Faldo, a relentless focus on majors.

The individual framing allowed each of our sages to pull from personal experience and observation. The result is wisdom and insight about what it takes to reach the very highest levels of golf — and through a more intimate understanding of five all-timers, a more refined appreciation of Woods.

Greatness in golf will remain fascinating and mysterious. The current question: When, if ever, will Tiger, now 42, achieve the kind of late-career climax — Nicklaus’ 1986 Masters at 46 the epitome — that provides each of our five elders such an enduring satisfaction? As 2018 develops, they’ll retain the most interest and empathy as a renewed Tiger — still very much a completist — chases his missing pieces.

NICK FALDO: The Journey to Thursday Morning

Tiger and I were similar in that we could almost be in the zone for four days. I had this ability to focus on golf. You hear the psychologists say you should bounce around, but I didn’t. Sometimes Fanny [caddie Sunesson] would go off on a subject, and I used to drag her back: “No, no, no. Just keep talking golf.”

The preparation time between majors is vital, and this is where I think Tiger was absolutely phenomenal. It’s the journey getting to Thursday morning of the US Open or whatever, and if you’re really smart and know more about the game, it starts the week before or two weeks before or, in the case of the Masters, months before. But you’ve got to start well, to be absolutely ready for Thursday morning. I remember reading that Arnold Palmer said he would take the intensity of 17 and 18 on Sunday of a major and bring that to Thursday. And that was a little jolt to me. I used to say to myself in the majors: Every shot is history on Thursday as well, so don’t waste them.

With Tiger, I think of the opening nine holes when he shot 40 at the 1997 Masters. [Faldo, the defending champion, was his playing partner in the first two rounds of Woods’ 12-stroke victory.] I wonder if that was one of his epiphanies where he said: ‘I’m never going to do that again. I’m never going to set myself up to get that far down. I’m going to find a way to prepare.’ And I think that’s what he did so brilliantly. How he could go out, win a tournament, disappear for three weeks and come back out in a major, and there was no wastage of shots or sloppiness. And the number of times you would say, How does he come out holing every putt?

Tiger knew he was different. Special. He hit a golf ball differently — full stop — than anybody else. Nobody could drive it like him, nobody could hit long irons like him, or the wedges and the putter. There wasn’t anybody ever who was that good in every department. And then he’d believe he was better prepared for Thursday than anyone else, and it became a pattern.

It’s true in other sports. With Tom Brady, I tune in to make sure I watch his first possession. I love Formula One racing. How come these guys will all qualify within tenths of a second, and then on the first lap of the race, Lewis Hamilton will be a full second ahead of everybody?

I birdied a lot of opening holes at the Open Championship. You psych yourself all week, and you visualise it, seeing yourself knock it out there, on the green, in, and off you go. Whereas some people stand up on the first tee, and they can’t see the fairway.

I’d like to do some of my career differently. I made mistakes working too hard at tournaments. I know I wore myself out, wore out my golfing batteries. But I said to myself, I don’t want to get to 45 and regret that I didn’t try hard enough. Because I know some golfers, I watched them get into their 40s, and they were lazy. And suddenly it’s gone. You’re an athlete given a window of opportunity. And while you’ve got your nerve, you’d better make the most of it. Because once your nerve starts to go, you ain’t getting that one back.

That last round at the 1996 Masters [overcoming Greg Norman’s six-stroke lead] was the best round mentally I ever had. The swing wasn’t quite right, and I had to mentally push myself through each shot. I would think to myself: ‘Are the wheels coming off?’ And I had to yell at myself: ‘No, they’re not! Come on, what are we going to do? OK, hit it, land it there, piece it together,’ and I’m going to do this in the swing, because I know if I do this, I’ll hang on to it. I had a little checklist I had to go through. I’d lost that 100 per cent self-belief, or whatever the percentage is where you’re Superman. Once it gets chinks, it becomes: ‘Oh, I got away with it.’ And then one day, you say all those things to yourself, and twang! — it goes sideways. And that’s the day when you go: ‘Oh, blimey.’

To go to a major with the intention of winning it and doing it, that gives me the greatest pride. I did that in three of them [1990 at the Masters and St Andrews, and 1992 at Muirfield were among Faldo’s six major victories]. With Tiger, I don’t know if he’s done 14 with the intention quite like that. It gives you that sense of power. You definitely feel everybody must be looking at you. The way you act probably [annoys] a lot of the players — has to. Because I’m sure that’s when you’re at your rudest. Because you’re so focused, you’re so engrossed.

Tiger was quite happy to come into a tournament with a horrendous spotlight on him. I was amazed how he could do that. I’ll never forget, I was on the range doing TV at Augusta. He came on the range, and you could feel the aura. Every player would turn and look. All the gallery, every eye was on him. He turned it into energy. I’m sure Ali had that.

Once you get everything right, it’s that wonderful feeling knowing that you’re going to do it. I had that once: walking down the first fairway at St Andrews, in 1990. They had put the flag just over the burn, into the breeze, and David [Leadbetter] came to tell me that balls were spinning back into the burn. So it’s a 9-iron, but I’m worried, so I’ll hit 8. And then I get a little more nervous and take out a 7. So I chip a 7, and I land it right in the back of the green, and I’ve got a 30-yard putt. And I said to myself, Just relax. You’re going to win.

You can say it now 30 years later, and people don’t think you’re an ass. But how cool a line is that to say to yourself? That is your ultimate. The millions of golf balls and the thousands of hours just to be able to say you know what to do and how to do it under the ultimate pressure, and you love it.

JOHNNY MILLER: The Father Influence

When Tiger came up, I saw a lot of my golf upbringing in him. I don’t know exactly how Earl worked, but I could tell he had that affirmation thing going big time with Tiger. I mean, he said, This guy’s going to be the greatest, and he probably said it a million times to Tiger. He also paid the price with Tiger with his time, doing a lot of things my father did. Everything was centred around his dad, right?

With Tiger, what I saw was the drive, even a stronger drive than I had. And he had the rarest of all abilities: If he needed to make the putt, somehow he could make it go in. Not many guys can actually make it, you know. I think of [Billy] Casper, Nicklaus — for a while, Trevino. It’s very rare to have a guy who actually improved his putting when it mattered the most. Tiger was definitely that way. I could do it with my ball-striking. But you still had to finish it off with the putts.

I think Earl had that sense that this guy is special, and I think it was a special relationship. Tiger wanted to please his dad and follow what his dad wanted to accomplish with him. Sometimes you hear some of the negative, but I think most of it was pretty amazing. I believe Tiger, if it wasn’t for Earl, would be just another guy. I really believe that.

When my dad started me out hitting balls into a canvas tarp in our basement when I was 5, you couldn’t use too much loft because it would hit the rafters. So I hit a lot of 5- and 6-irons. And I would wear out this dark-green canvas, making a little light green line where it would start to shred. I’d aim for that little stripe about 15 feet away, and I knew where a perfect 6-iron would hit. The thing that the basement did for me, is that it really got me to know what the sound and feel of a pure shot was. You could hear the strike, and you could feel no vibration. Trying to get that would really focus you.

I was very little. When I graduated from ninth grade, I was 5-feet-2, 105 lbs. I was a phenomenal putter. I’ll bet you when I was 12, I was in the top 10 in the world putting. I once had 16 putts for 18 holes [at San Francisco’s Lincoln Park]. On terrible greens, by the way.

But I loved the game, everything about it. My dad, he made me like a little pro, had me practise how I put my hat on, how I tipped my hat, how I put my glove on, and how I squinted my eyes and gritted my teeth. Sort of a little Hogan. He always talked about psyche. And he had a blackboard with certain things he wanted me to do because I was small and I needed to be strong — push-ups, squeeze grips, pull-ups.

He would work the midnight-to-8am shift so that he could sleep while I was in school. After school, he’d take me to San Francisco Golf Club, where I was taking lessons [from John Geertsen], and the club sort of adopted me. They averaged only 20 players a day, so in the afternoon no one was even out there, so I could hit as many balls as I wanted. Even on approaches into the greens, I could hit eight balls, fixing my divots.

If I hit a bad shot, my dad didn’t really focus on the bad at all. It was just: ‘OK, one more shot.’ It was always one more, no matter how many balls I had hit. It was: ‘OK, let’s see you hit another one,’ never: ‘OK, let’s go home.’ I don’t think he ever said: ‘Let’s go home.’

He was a smart guy, and he was teaching the best he could. He’d give me 10 things to try, and eight of them were just way out there. But I would analyse why each one was not a good idea. And then one of the ideas was really good, and one was fantastic. Like when I was 10 or 11, he had me carry a left-handed 5-iron. So I became quite good left-handed, about a 6-handicap. Now coaches recommend swinging left-handed as a training aid. It wasn’t boring, because he was super creative.

I was a good little fighter. My dad was a boxing fan, and he taught me how to box. I didn’t get in that many fights, but I never lost a fight. The fight would last only 30 or 40 seconds, but that’s the way you settled disagreements back then. When he taught me how to box, that gave me confidence, too.

When I was a young player, I didn’t even know what a bad stretch was. Never played bad. Never. It’s not like I would shoot a bad round and then a real good round. It was just always good. I was a plus-2 when I was 16 years old on the Lake Course at Olympic Club.

I do think you need a start like I did to get a head start. All my friends would work as hard as I did, but they were always a little behind me. They didn’t have their father involved. That can work negatively if the guy is overbearing. But my dad was always about affirmations — “You’re doing great. You’re on the right track. Keep doing those exercises. You’re going to be a champion.” Over and over. He’d call me Champ — that affirmation of potential. Actually, not just potential, because I knew when I was nine years old that I was going to be a champion golfer. Something inside me said: ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re going to be a champion, like your dad said.’ So that affirmation of greatness or being successful from your father is the strongest affirmation there is for a boy.

JACK NICKLAUS: Making It Happen

When you say: ‘Making it happen,’ I think the key to that, and what Tiger and I both understood, is knowing what was happening.

I go back to some of the mistakes that I made. I look at the 39 I shot on the last nine holes of the US Open at Cherry Hills in 1960. At Pebble Beach in 1963, I came to the last hole tied with Billy Casper but three-putted from 22 feet by being too aggressive with the first putt and then missed the comebacker. As good as Casper was, my chances of beating him in a playoff were higher than making that 22-footer. Later that summer, down the stretch at Royal Lytham, I lost by one after bogeying the last two holes by not being smart.

Those are things you learn from, how to assess a situation and learn who you are and what you can do. And you gain confidence when those lessons teach you how to choose the correct course. Ultimately you become that golfer.

If I had a putt on the 18th to make, that I needed to make, more often than not I made it. Inside 10 feet, more than likely I made that putt. With Tiger, the same thing. Think of Tiger at the [2003] Presidents Cup in South Africa in sudden death with Ernie Els. Particularly the second putt, the one in the dark. I mean, that was just … he made it happen.

In those situations, I always stood over a putt, and I’d say: ‘I need … I HAVE to make this putt. Period. I gotta make it.’ And more often than not, that made me focus more, and I made it. And once you do that a couple of times, you say: ‘Well, what should I say this time: Gee, I’d LIKE to make it? No. I HAVE to make it.’ Once you find something you tell yourself that works, you continue to do that thing until it proves it doesn’t. For me, it kept working most of the time.

I got nervous all the time, as nervous as the next guy. It’s just that I caught myself before it became destructive. You might be thinking: ‘Gosh, I’m worried about missing it.’ When you get that out of your system, you eliminate all the negatives.

I don’t know how much is innate. I mean, I started winning when I was 10, 11 years old. I was out playing with [wife] Barbara at Lost Tree on the sixth hole one time, a par 5, and Barbara hit three fairway woods up there and made 4. And I had a 25-footer for 4, and I made it. And she says: ‘You can’t ever let me win one?’ I said: ‘I’m sorry, it’s what I do. I’m like the scorpion and the frog. It’s my nature.’

Why, I don’t know. I wish I could answer that question, but I can’t — I just don’t know. It was not an accident. No, I worked very hard for that. But no, I never tried to figure it out. How does Jack Nicklaus know who Jack Nicklaus is? Whatever I had to do, I just went ahead and did it.

Sure, I could have gone the other way. Why didn’t I? Because I didn’t want to [chuckles]. I didn’t want to be a bad player. I didn’t want to lose tournaments. I wanted to learn why I made mistakes. I think Tiger does much the same thing.

My dad loved playing all sports, and so did I. I’ve played tennis all my life. I played basketball in a rec league until I was 40. I’d take the kids to football practice, and I’d throw to them in passing drills. Playing all those sports taught you a lot about yourself and about what you can do and what you can’t do. Especially when you’re dealing with team sports, you’re working with your teammates and seeing them make mistakes and their strengths. And you relate those things right back to yourself and how to make yourself better. Did what I learned from team sports help me to learn to rise to the occasion in golf? Absolutely.

Tiger was always a guy who once he got ahead, he was able to gain the ability to just bury everybody. And I never really thought about burying the field. All I ever thought about was, I got my lead, now how do I not do something stupid to lose my lead? The 1965 Masters [where Nicklaus won by nine], it just happened. And the 1980 PGA [Nicklaus won by seven at Oak Hill], I was playing terrible.

I try to subdue my emotion in competition. When I was a kid, I’d find myself getting excited when I did something good, and I’d lose my focus and wouldn’t get back down for a hole or two. I said, I can’t do that. So I was one of those guys who didn’t pump himself up by getting excited. I had to control it so I could continue to do something good.

The game is unpredictable, and it’s different every day. I don’t think I ever had two problems to solve in a round that were exactly the same, ever. You always have to figure out: ‘How do I really make this happen?’ I trusted my instinct. I always felt like any time I played a tournament, any place in a round, if I didn’t like how I was swinging, I would change it. I go back and look at a lot of times I did that, and who knows why I did it, but I just said: ‘This is not what I want to be doing. I need to make an adjustment, and I need to make it now, and I’ve got to do it without destroying myself to do it.’

GARY PLAYER: Bound for Great Things

Tiger had advantages physically and in his early exposure to the game that I didn’t have. It put him on the road to being the greatest golfer who ever lived. But the thing where we were equal, or I might have even had more of, was drive. Man, I was driven. There is never enough success for me.

One of the first things I noticed about Tiger is his strong belief in his destiny. He carried himself with a peaceful but powerful sense that he was bound for great things. I understand that feeling. It was vital to my inner view of myself, especially when I knew others might not have shared it. But that only made me more determined.

When I was 15, I broke my neck showing off for some other boys by jumping headfirst into what I thought was a pit of soft leaves and grass, and hit the bottom. I had to stay inactive for nearly a year. I had been playing golf for only a year, but I was already consumed by the game. During my convalescence, I would be alone in the house and stand in front of a mirror, saying over and over: ‘You’re the greatest golfer in the world.’ It was absurd, but something told me that mattered. Later, I learned from reading and befriending Norman Vincent Peale. He once wrote: ‘If you want something and you go for it, you will be astonished at the values you will find.’

My parents, Harry and Muriel, always encouraged us. I’m sure it gave me the belief that what I could conceive, I could achieve. It’s the greatest gift you can give a child.

My older brother, Ian, was a tremendous influence on me. I remember at 8 or 9 trying to run a five-mile course with him, but I fell down less than halfway, exhausted. I cried: ‘Ian, I can’t make it.’ He yanked me to my feet and very sternly told me: ‘You can do anything you want to. Remember that. There’s no room for can’t in this life.’ Then he kicked me on the backside to emphasise the point. Ever since, if I’ve ever been tempted to say I can’t, I feel that kick again.

A golfer’s true greatness is revealed not when he’s playing his best, but when he’s not and still manages to win. For all his talent, Tiger has shown even more will, and so often when he was fighting his swing he still found a way. There were many times in tournaments when I was lost, hitting absolute rubbish, but I would get the ball on the green and make the key putts. How does that happen? Desire. Tiger has always had more of that than the players he’s beaten. You feel as if he cares more than anyone else. I was told that when I played, I gave that impression.

Tiger has hit so many amazing shots under pressure. Often, with some players more than others, pressure can destroy performance. But I’ve found it’s amazing how the intense pressure of the crucial moment, when something special is required, produced the best shots of my career. I don’t know if you can say it’s luck if you continuously did that. Talent, maybe?

Obviously I’m pulling for Tiger — I am a big Tiger Woods fan. But I think we could look back and say that his downfall was striving for too much perfection. He was on the way to being the best player the world had ever known. He wins the US Open by 15 shots, and shortly after he’s having lessons and changing his swing. There is always a limit, and I don’t think he could have gotten better. I pursued better technique my whole career — my only regret is a lost chance to learn from Ben Hogan — and it’s a capricious thing that often doesn’t lead to improvement. Golf is such a very, very intricate game, and there is a limitation.

LEE TREVINO: A Reason for Everything

Tiger, like me, is obsessed with golf. People have to understand that he made himself what he is. He wasn’t born with that. Superstars make themselves that way.

When you want to be the best, you gotta do something extra. You can’t just do the same thing that everybody else is doing. All the great ones do that. I outpractised them. The better I did it, the more I’d like to see it, and the more I practised.

The secret is, everything that you do, there’s a reason. The good players figure out the why. Why that ball’s doing that. And why you can do this. Most people don’t do that.

I played a hook with a pretty swing until I came back from the Marine Corps and saw Ben Hogan hitting fades at Shady Oaks. After that, I figured out a way to play to avoid the left side. See, I play with two flags. I aim at this flag, but I hit it at that one. I’ll stand here, and I’ll go like this [simulates his open stance]. I’m looking right at the target. I don’t have to do this [looking more over his left shoulder from a square stance]. And then I played a block fade. You have to, if you’re aiming left. It’s in your mind, it’s in your make-up, it’s in your body. Putted the same way. Copied Jack Nicklaus, the greatest putter I’ve ever seen.

You have to respond to the target. During the swing, I look for the target in my subconscious mind. You can’t think when you swing. The more you think, the worse you’ll play. What’s happened, unfortunately, and I mean no disrespect by this, is that people who are teaching are getting way too crazy with too many little movements and muscles. You can’t let too many people mess with you. Mr Palmer had it right when he said: ‘Swing your swing.’

Tiger outsmarted himself. He didn’t realise that if he just maintained, he would still be winning everything. Instead, he wanted to do something else. He got bored. He wasn’t satisfied winning by 15. He wasn’t satisfied by winning 30 per cent of his tournaments. It was too easy for him. He was actually too good, and it got in his way.

Here’s what Butch Harmon told me. I said: ‘Tiger?’ He said: ‘Lee, I can’t teach him anymore. He knows more than I do about the swing. You can’t believe what he knows about this thing.’

Because Tiger dissected it like me. He knows why it happens this way when you do a certain thing. But like Butch said: ‘There are some guys that want somebody watching over them.’

I didn’t. Jack told me one time: ‘You’re the smartest golfer I ever met.’ That was the best compliment I’ve ever had. Ever had.

You never stop dreaming it. I love the art of it. I love the people. And still being able to go out and perform. With Tiger, it’s even more so. It would be very easy for him to say: ‘I don’t even want to mess with it.’ I mean, his retirement fund alone has got more money than AT&T. So no, he loves the sport, he loves competition, he loves to win, he loves to play well. That’s his whole thing. If Tiger does not hurt anymore, I think he’ll play until he’s 50, and then he’ll play the majors on the Champions Tour.

One of the greatest feelings in the world is when you’re out of pain. When my L-5 nerve was completely trapped, I was in that bed upstairs for three months. Wasn’t able to even put my pants on. I could not move. Then [after a 2004 procedure to implant a spinal spacer], no pain. It was like cutting me loose with 31 flavours. Tiger is going to be the same thing. He lost his body, but he didn’t lose his talent. And the longer he goes with no pain, the more confidence he’s going to build. And then he’s going to get up one day and say: ‘I’m back, baby!’

The post Speaking to the best — from Nicklaus to Faldo: What made Tiger Woods great? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In August, the nine-time major winner released a statement on social media claiming his trophies and clubs were being sold without his permission. “I would like to draw the public’s attention to the fact that several trophies and other pieces of memorabilia that form part of my legacy have been put up for auction by my son and ex-manager, Marc,” the statement read. “These items belong to me and I have taken action to recover them. I have placed no items for sale — whether by auction or otherwise.”

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Gary Player’s wife dies of cancer

Marc Player’s lawyer, Darren Heitner, asserted the claim was “baseless”, with Marc adding: “You cannot take back what no longer belongs to you.”

Heitner claims that in 2002, Marc Player worked with Christie’s London to catalogue almost 300 items from his father. Heitner said in the statement that this collection of items was sold eventually to South African billionaire Johann Rupert, with Marc receiving none of the earnings despite an agreement in which he would get half. The remaining items Marc Player possessed “were validly gifted” to him by his parents and remain his.

It now appears the matter could head to court. Player’s attorney Stuart Singer told the Palm Beach Post that Player warily decided to go down this path. According to the Palm Beach Post, Player filed suit against Marc in May in Palm Beach County, Florida. Marc’s son, Damien, was listed in a separate suit filed in November.

“Only with the greatest reluctance and after many years of trying to avoid this did Gary have to enforce his rights in this way,” Singer said. The lawsuit also claims Marc Player did not transfer social media accounts and the web domain name GaryPlayer.com to his father.

Marc Player’s attorney Heitner told the Palm Beach Post that the lawsuit is in its infancy and he filed a response claiming a settlement reached in 2021 is invalid because the property rights are owned by a trust.

This is far from the first time Player and his son Marc have waged legal battles. In 2020 Player won a $5 million lawsuit from unpaid royalties from a five-year period (2014-2018) from the Gary Player Group, which is run by Marc Player, one of Gary’s six children. Along with the payout, Player received the rights to his name and likeness back from the company. Player’s oldest son Wayne was at the centre of controversy at the 2021 Masters that resulted in his removal from the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club. In an interview with Golf Digest this year Wayne said he was subsequently banned from the tournament.

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“Come here young man,” the 87-year-old Player said. He signed his flag and quizzed the boy with some basic questions. Do you play golf? He did. Could you break 90? He could. Turns out, he’s a junior golfer who takes the game quite seriously.

“Great!” Player says. “Listen, I have two things I want you to know.”

1. Right elbow in, and turn

The exchange only lasted about two minutes — Player was due on the tee soon — but it was jam-packed with the kind of information that had the assembled crowd leaning in curiously.

Player’s first piece of advice involved the full swing.

“There are so many good players that stand over the ball, they’re thinking so much. They get paralysis by analysis,” Player said.

There’s nothing worse for a junior golfer, he explains. Keep thoughts at a minimum. The nine-time major champion took his golf posture cocked his arm into a position as if he was preparing to skip a stone.

“Once your arm is here position, turn your core, back and through,” he said demonstrating. “Hard as you can. Nothing else.”

2. Focus on one dimple

The second piece of advice was a putting tip. Again, with a clear mind, he told the boy: “Pick out one dimple on the golf ball,” he said. “Watch the blade hit that dimple, and only then, look up. You’ll remember that?”

The boy nodded his head. Player shook his hand and walked to the first. Behind him, he left some gems of advice in his wake — and a story one junior will never forget.

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Gary claimed on Monday that memorabilia belonging to him has been put up for auction without his permission by his son Marc.
The 86-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer from South Africa took to social media to issue a statement that his son, who managed his business affairs for more than 20 years, had put a number of items, including some of his trophies, up for auction without his consent.

However, on Tuesday, Darren Heitner, a lawyer representing Marc Player, released a statement describing Gary Player’s claim of ownership to the memorabilia in question as “baseless”. “You cannot take back what no longer belongs to you,” the statement read.

Heitner claims that in 2002, Marc Player worked with Christie’s London to catalogue almost 300 items from his father. Heitner says in the statement that this collection of items was sold eventually to South African billionaire Johann Rupert, with Marc receiving none of the earnings despite an agreement in which he would get half. The remaining items Marc Player possesses he says “were validly gifted” to him by his parents and remain his.

“For Gary, through James Throssell, to claim these other items belong to him and that he has never sold trophies or memorabilia is simply not true,” Heitner writes, “and to then interfere with Marc’s personal collection is not only legally wrong but smacks of a continued petty effort by Gary’s advisors to besmirch Marc’s name and reputation wherever possible.”

“I would like to draw the public’s attention to the fact that several trophies and other pieces of memorabilia that form part of my legacy have been put up for auction by my son and ex-manager, Marc,” the statement read. “These items belong to me and I have taken action to recover them. I have placed no items for sale—whether by auction or otherwise.”

James Throssell, brand and legal counsel for Gary Player and his grandson, told Golf Digest via email: “The auction house has taken the trophies down from the online auction and is holding them pending resolution of the dispute.” Throssell added that he was not at liberty to identify the auction house and that Gary Player is enforcing a confidential settlement agreement with Marc Player entered into last year.

Among the items, Throssell wrote, are “goods that Mr Player either won tournaments with, was given [to him] by sponsors [tournament bags etc.] as well as trophies won by Mr Player during his career.”

Throssell wrote that Marc Player was entrusted with the items during his tenure as his father’s manager, “with the belief they would be taken care of with Mr Player’s best interest at heart.”

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The post Son Marc hits back at Gary Player’s claims over auctioning memorabilia without consent appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 86-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer from South Africa took to Twitter and Instagram to issue a statement that his son, Marc, who managed his business affairs for more than 20 years, had put a number of items, including some of his trophies, up for auction without his consent.

“I would like to draw the public’s attention to the fact that several trophies and other pieces of memorabilia that form part of my legacy have been put up for auction by my son and ex-manager, Marc,” the statement read. “These items belong to me and I have taken action to recover them. I have placed no items for sale — whether by auction or otherwise.”

A statement on the unauthorized sale of Gary Player trophies & memorabilia. pic.twitter.com/2tilBplJOL

— GARY PLAYER (@garyplayer) August 8, 2022

Marc Player, contacted via direct message on Twitter, wrote that he was traveling and would not be available for comment until Tuesday.

James Throssell, brand and legal counsel for Gary Player and his grandson, responded to a Golf Digest inquiry via email, writing: “The auction house has taken the trophies down from the online auction and is holding them pending resolution of the dispute.” Throssell added that he was not at liberty to identify the auction house and that Gary Player is enforcing a confidential settlement agreement with Marc Player entered into last year.

Among the items, Throssell wrote, are “goods that Mr Player either won tournaments with, was given [to him] by sponsors [tournament bags etc.] as well as trophies won by Mr Player during his career”.

Throssell wrote that Marc Player was entrusted with the items during his tenure as his father’s manager “with the belief they would be taken care of with Mr Player’s best interest at heart”.

In December 2020, eight of Player’s trophies, including replicas of four of his major championship trophies, were auctioned by Golden Age Golf Auctions. The four major trophies raised a combined $578,843. At the time, Golden Age Auctions said the trophies “were previously sold to a private collector to raise money for charitable causes”.

“These trophies have been put up for auction without my permission,” Player, one of five men to win the career grand slam, said in a statement at the time of that sale.

Gary Player’s eldest son Wayne was at the centre of controversy at the 2021 Masters that resulted in his removal from the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club and subsequently being banned from the tournament. During the honorary starter ceremony, Wayne Player, serving as his father’s caddie, conspicuously displayed a sleeve of OnCore golf balls as Lee Elder, who broke the tournament’s colour barrier in 1975, was being introduced on the first tee. His actions were perceived as a marketing ploy. He later apologised to Elder, who died in November 2021 at age 87.

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By Ryan Herrington
What might have been? That’s what Mito Pereira will be thinking for a while in the wake of the 104th PGA Championship. With 71 holes down, and one to play at Southern Hills, the 27-year-old from Chile needed a par on the home hole to close out a one-stroke win and become the first golfer from his homeland to win a major championship.

Instead, his drive found the creek right of the hole, and he could do no better than double bogey. Rather than of joining a list of rookies to win in their first PGA Championship appearance, he joins an ignominious group of golfers who have seen a major slip from their hands on the 72nd hole.

And, oh, what a group it is. Here are some of the most memorable 72nd-hole men’s major collapses:

Sam Snead, 1939 US Open
It was the one that got away for Snead after making a triple-bogey on the 18th hole at Philadelphia Country Club, falling two strokes back of a playoff between Byron Nelson, Craig Wood and Denny Shute. Snead never won a US Open, keeping him from being another member of the career Grand Slam club.

Ben Hogan, 1946 Masters
Herman Keiser’s three-putt on the 18th gave Hogan a birdie chance for the title. But then Hogan three-putted himself from from 12 feet for bogey that allowed Keiser to claim his lone major championship title. Hogan would get redemption with Masters wins in 1951 and 1953.

Gary Player. Bettman

Arnold Palmer, 1961 Masters
Palmer looked like he would be the first repeat winner at Augusta National, needing just a par on the 18th hole. After hitting the fairway, Palmer pushed his approach into a greenside bunker. He hit his third off the green, failed to get his fourth anywhere near the hole. An eventual double bogey allowed Gary Player to win and become the first international player to slip on a green jacket.

Doug Sanders, 1970 Open Championship
A short miss for par on the 18th at the Old Course cost Sanders the Claret Jug, dropping him into a playoff with Jack Nicklaus that he would lose the next day. Standing over the par putt, Sanders picked at a piece of brown grass, but then never restarted his putting routine, burning the right edge with his putt for victory.

Ed Sneed, 1979 Masters
Three shots in front with three holes left, Sneed proceeded to bogey 16, 17 and 18. It dropped him into a playoff with Fuzzy Zoeller and Tom Watson, the first of the sudden-death variety rather than a full 18 holes. Zoeller’s birdie on the second extra hole made him the second Masters rookie (and most recent) to win the green jacket.

Jean van de Velde. Getty Images

Jean Van de Velde, 1999 Open Championship
The Frenchman had a three-shot cushion stepping on to the 18th at Carnoustie, then proceeded to make all sorts of mistakes, starting with driver off the tee and then a third shot into the Barry Burn, en route to a triple-bogey 7. He could have made amends in a playoff, but eventually fell to Paul Lawrie.

Phil Mickelson.

Phil Mickelson, 2006 US Open
The most painful of Mickelson’s six runner-up finishes in the US Open came at Winged Foot, where Lefty needed a par to win, but hit a wayward drive, hit a tree with his second shot and tripped up with a double bogey to miss a playoff.

Tom Watson, 2009 Open Championship
A sixth Claret Jug and the honour of being the oldest winner of a major championship was there for the 59-year-old at Turnberry if he was able to make par on the 18th. But his approach just went long and he couldn’t get up-and-down from back of the green. He then fell to Stewart Cink in a four-hole aggregate playoff.

Dustin Johnson. Getty Images

Dustin Johnson, 2010 PGA Championship
DJ birdied the 16th and 17th at Whistling Straits for a one-shot lead, but pushed his drive on the 18th into a waste area. Surrounded by fans, he hit his approach to the green, and scrambled for bogey to seemingly get into a playoff with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson. But rules officials alerted him behind the 18th green he actually grounded his club in the sand, which was a breach of Rule 13.4 and added two more strokes to his score.

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The post The most infamous 72nd-hole collapses in men’s major championship history appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By E. Michael Johnson
AUGUSTA — As Tom Watson prepares to join Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as honorary starters for the 2022 Masters, the significance of joining a select group hasn’t been lost on him.

“It’s such a great honour to tee it up with Jack and Gary,” Watson told Golf Channel in January. “They are icons in the game of golf.”

Although the honorary starters are at Augusta National in a ceremonial capacity, they are indisputably a hefty part of the tournament’s lore. It is why patrons, media and even numerous tour pros make sure to arrive plenty early on Thursday morning and head to the first tee as soon as allowed to grab a spot. It is watching history in person.

The tradition began in 1963 with Jock Hutchison and Fred McLeod tabbed to do the honours. For nearly a decade leading up to that year, the pair often played nine or 18 holes together before withdrawing. The move to honorary starters merely formalised the arrangement.

Although neither won the Masters, both were major championship winners and had a connection to Augusta National. Hutchison won the 1937 PGA Seniors’ Championship and McLeod won the same event a year later — the only two times the tournament was held at Augusta National. Hutchison held the role until 1973 when he was 88 years old. McLeod continued alone until 1976 when he was 93.

After a brief hiatus, Chairman Hord Hardin revived the tradition in 1981 with Byron Nelson and Gene Sarazen taking on the role. Both among the game’s all-time greats, Nelson was a two-time Masters champion and Sarazen the owner of the greatest shot in tournament history, the albatross on No. 15 in 1935 that allowed him to tie Craig Wood and win in a playoff. In the early years of their tenure as starters they would not only strike the ceremonial swat, but like McLeod and Hutchison, play nine holes before retiring.

A little-known honorary starter fact is that Ken Venturi, who twice nearly won the Masters as an amateur, pinch-hit for Nelson in 1983 as Nelson was tending to his wife, who was ill. Other than that blip, Nelson, Sarazen and Sam Snead, who joined the pair in 1984, proved a fixture in opening the tournament, providing incredible cachet to the ceremony and making it a can’t-miss event.

Honorary starter Sam Snead watches as Gene Sarazen tees off during the 1984 Masters Tournament. Augusta National

The trio got the Masters off and running until 1999 before Sarazen passed shortly after that year’s Masters at 97. Nelson stopped after 2001, saying, “OK ball, one more time” before striking a reasonably solid final shot for an 89-year-old. Snead kept up the tradition one more year, with unfortunately an ugly flare to the right that struck a patron as his final swing at Augusta National. He passed the following month at 89.

The tradition lay dormant for a few years until Chairman Billy Payne asked Arnold Palmer — who played his first round in the Masters with Sarazen — to take on responsibilities. Although Palmer stopped competing in 2004, it took the four-time Masters champion a few years to come to grips with coming to Augusta National in a non-competing role.

“When I quit, I just wanted to think about not playing in the Masters, and get over that, and then I would be ready,” he said in 2007. “I’m ready.” Palmer also was asked at the time if he would twist Chairman Payne’s arm to have Nicklaus and Player join him. “To let them join me or to tell them to stay the hell away?” he joked.

Palmer went solo for a few years but in the lead-up to the 2010 Masters, Palmer asked Payne to have Nicklaus join him and the six-time Masters champion, who once said he did not want to be a ceremonial golfer, readily accepted the invitation.

“Billy called me and said that Arnold would like to have me do it with him,” said Nicklaus. “I’m old enough now, I can do that.”

In 2012, Gary Player completed ‘The Big Three’ by being asked to join the pair, a significance Player fully understood.

“Teeing off with Arnold and Jack is going to be very special,” said Player, a three-time Masters winner and the tournament’s first international champion. “I go back to Jock Hutchison. I always loved the history of golf. I stood there and watched Jock Hutchison hit off the first tee and watched that incredible swing of Sam Snead hit off the first tee. It’s got a lot of wonderful memories for me.”

Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer on the first tee at Augusta. Andrew Redington

The threesome started the tournament each year until 2016, when Palmer informed the club he could no longer continue in the role. That didn’t stop Palmer from being part of the proceedings, however.

“I plan to go out to the first tee with the chairman on Thursday morning and watch Jack and Gary sweat it out and hit the shots,” he said. And indeed, Palmer was there in his green jacket to join them. Palmer passed later that year and Nicklaus saluted Palmer during the 2017 ceremony by lifting his hat and raising it in the air as he looked toward the sky in perhaps the ceremony’s most emotional moment.

In 2021, Lee Elder joined Nicklaus and Player, and although he did not strike a shot due to physical limitations, his presence served as a poignant reminder of his legacy as the first Black man to play in the Masters in 1975.

Now it’s Watson’s turn, and it is certain to hold nearly as much meaning as his two Masters titles. Watson, who regularly plays with Nicklaus and Player in the Par 3 Contest, put the green jacket on Player in 1978. He also made sure to get a photo with Snead and Nelson in 2001 during Nelson’s swansong.

Now Watson joins the club and gains a new appreciation for the significance of being an honorary starter. Play away, please.

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By Kent Gray
Pioneering Jordanian professional Shergo Al Kurdi has joined World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player, fellow major champion Anna Nordqvist and PGA Tour winner Jason Kokrak as an international ambassador for Golf Saudi. 

Al Kurdi’s ambassadorship was announced on the eve of the PIF Saudi International powered by Softbank Investment Advisers where the 18-year-old carded rounds of 75-76 at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club to miss the cut by 7 strokes.

 

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After being given his break on the regional developmental MENA Tour in recent years, the English born but Jordanian raised Al Kurdi turned professional before Christmas. He missed the cut at both the Asian Tour’s two Phuket events but is considered one of the region’s best hopes and showed why by becoming the first Arab player to make a cut on the DP World Tour at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic earlier this month. He eventually finished T-33 at Al Hamra Golf Club, signing for rounds of 68-68-74-68 to finish -10, 12 strokes behind winner Ryan Fox of New Zealand.

Kurdi, who won €12,250 in RAK, has been charged with bringing golf to new audiences, by inspiring young Arab boys and girls regionally. He wants to let his golf to do the talking and believes his association with Golf Saudi will help him to achieve that. 

DP World Tour professionals Pablo Larrazabal and Adri Arnaus and Ladies European Tour players Camilla Lennarth, Amy Boulden and Anne van Dam are also listed on the Golf Saudi website as global ambassadors for the governing body.

golfsaudi.com

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