What’s it like to fly with Gary Player to the Masters? We found out

The horse they call the Double Grand Slam is in last place. Gary Player is not happy. He sits back in his chair and crosses his arms.

“This doesn’t look good,” he said with a sigh.

In his San Antonio hotel room, the 90-year-old Hall-of-Famer is glued to his laptop as the TAB Empress Club Stakes unfolds in South Africa. He has a plane to catch, but first, he must see if his precious hole can pull off a miracle.

The race is close to the last 500 when the Double Grand Slam starts to make a move. He passes another and passes again. Then one more. The Double Grand Slam has seven routes to go, but he running now. The player wakes up and puts his arms on the table. A framed picture of a horse taunts him on the wall. A call rang on his phone but he quickly hung up and pushed it away. The Double Grand Slam is about to be won. The TV commentator takes over:

And that’s it! Compete more! It’s all Double Grand Slam!

The player steps back, smiles, closes his eyes and raises both arms in the air as if he has just won his ninth major title. Thirty minutes later, he’s still confused when his Lexus arrives at his private jet at San Antonio International — “My horse won a race today, a big race!” he tells the crew – and he’s still beaming as his eight-seater Bombardier Challenger 350 speeds down the runway. The player downs a bowl of green vegetable juice like a shot, picks up his phone and tries to keep up with the flood of congratulatory messages coming in. Fifty and counting. He responds to each one – word to text – with a few quick but thoughtful offerings of thanks.

“I’m leaving,” he said to the last one. “I’ll call you when I get there.”

Gary Player goes to the Masters.

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IF YOU WONDER why are you on a private jet with Gary Player, well … we just asked. He likes to boast that no one has flown more miles than him, and while we’re not here to dispute the validity of that statement, it did make us wonder what it would be like to fly with the world’s most traveled golfer.

The player and his team were fine with it. The same was the case with Vista Jet, the private airline that aired the Player worldwide last year. On Saturday morning’s jaunt from San Antonio to Augusta en route to the Masters, a luxury flight to the first major of the year was found.

Up in the clouds, probably somewhere over the golf course he is designing, Player picks up a dollop of honey, puts it in his coffee and shakes it. He’s dressed as you’d expect: all black with the Black Knight logo on his polo shirt and a sport coat on top, which he’s not wearing because his father once told him that “good style is always in style.” When the pant legs come up high enough, you can see the Masters logo on his socks. He still plays golf four times a week — “I’ve beaten my age now more than 3,000 times in a row and I’m still shooting par,” he said — and he works like crazy. Sometimes on the plane, he will do push-ups or tuck his legs under the seat and do sit-ups.

She doesn’t recommend carbs, but today she picks a banana nut muffin. Flying like this is not like the way he used to travel, back when he and his late wife, Vivienne, crossed the ocean with six children who sometimes slept in the aisles.

But the reason he racked up all these miles — too many to count, he says — and became the world’s first superstar is simple: He wanted to win golf tournaments more than anyone else, and to do that, he couldn’t get complacent. He didn’t buy a house in the States until a few years ago, which meant he had to travel across the globe from his native South Africa. He won in America. In England. Japan. Australia. Brazil. France. in Chile. More than 160 professional degrees.

His schedule isn’t as hectic as it was in his playing days, but he doesn’t sit still. He was in Texas for a clinic at the Valero Texas Open, and after the Masters he headed to Florida and then Long Island. Then Texas, United Kingdom, back to South Africa, then back to the UK again.

Back in the 1960s and ’70s, many of the Player’s tours required several layoffs. Sometimes up to six. He insists he would have won more majors if he had stayed in the States all those years. Although the grueling travel schedule helped shape one of the core principals of the Player from his 20s: He had to learn how to manage his body properly in order to cope with this lifestyle.

The player has no flying superstitions (he doesn’t believe in the name) or quirks, but he has picked up tricks along the way. He likes to exercise before and after flights. Avoid large meals on airplanes and stay full of water or fruit or vegetable juices. He loves to read, although the key is sleep. Try to get at least nine hours a night.

“Jack Nicklaus said that traveling with me is like traveling alone,” said Mdlali. He says, ‘Gary gets on the plane next to me and I say, Oh, this time change is so hard. I turn around and you sleep the whole way.’

The player does not sleep on this plane. He’s very happy with his horse, he’s looking forward to getting back to the Masters and, as you probably know, Gary Player. love to speak. About anything. (He even hangs up the phone to call the writer’s parents.) Some of his answers wander, but his mind is still dreaming. This will be his 68th appearance at the Masters. When Player made his Augusta National debut in 1957, at the age of 21, Ben Hogan was in the field; when, at the age of 73, he made his last Masters appearance – this was in 2009 – Rory McIlroy was playing for the first time.

His streak in golf’s most famous tournament is hard to break.

He won three Masters, in 1961, 1974 and ’78. In ’61, he became the first international winner. In ’78, at age 42, he started the final round seven shots behind.

“My son Wayne said, ‘Dad, you’re playing so well, if you putt tomorrow you can shoot 65 and win by a shot,'” Player said.

He shot 64. The player bogeyed seven of the last 10 holes and shot a 30 on the back nine to win by one and claim his last nine major titles. That final round of 64 tied the course record and is still unbeaten in the final round of the tournament.

He has 15 Masters top 10s and makes the cut as a 62-year-old; his 52 Masters starts record.

“Augusta is a very special place,” he says. “It’s the best-run tournament in the world and it’s a great venue — it’s an important part of my life.”

He used to walk down Magnolia Lane when he got to the site, though now he prays as he drives down instead. He loves the Champions Dinner but his favorite part of the week is the Thursday morning shots with Tom Watson and Nicklaus.

“They enjoy it and give you their love,” said the Player. Sometimes he raises his chair to emphasize a point. “It’s the chiefs, and you say, ‘They did it for me?’ I’m not that important. So it makes you very humble. And you should not think that you are important because you are not in God’s eyes, you are just another person. And the love that is given to you when you go out with that first tee and it brings back your memories of when you started to get angry. “

But Player, one-third of the Big 3 that helped golf flourish in the 1960s, doesn’t believe in legacies. You think you should make the best of your time here before your time is up. That is why he and his late wife founded the Gary & Vivienne Player Foundation (there is one in South Africa and one in the States), where they collect money and support children in need.

He laughs at the idea of ​​going slow; he loves it and still loves meeting people and enjoys work. You put in the time again. He has a thick journal with a worn, brown cover full of handwritten notes and notes that he keeps in a Hudson Sutler duffel. He calls for a bag and takes a book.

“I strongly believe that the pen is mightier than the sword,” said Mdlali, as he flipped through the magazine, looking for the passage he had just written to prepare for the speech. He found it, opened the paper and started: Something changed in my life, somewhere along the way. Eventually, I started winning tournaments. I was so focused, so uncomfortable. I felt that I had a suit of armor that was impervious to almost anything but a bullet. Of course my mind went into gear. Something inexplicable came to my mind. I was on my way – and I was going to be a champion.

“Don’t you have someone else writing your speeches?” Please.

He says: “No, it’s laziness. He points to the head, above the ear. “This is what you should use as you get older. You have to use your mind.”

AT 10:30 AMChallenger descends and cuts through the clouds, revealing a spectacular view. The airport is 60 kilometers and 14 minutes away when the Player calls Susan, his girlfriend, who had just texted him about the horse race. They talked and laughed. Susan always laughs, said the Player. He likes that about her. He says it is the key to longevity.

“It was unbelievable!” Susan said. “When he came back I thought there was no way he was going to win!”

The player leans forward and smiles as he talks on the phone. He looked out the window. His heart starts pumping again.

“I’m still very happy,” she says. “Fortunately, we talked and I didn’t think about the horse, but now I’m thinking about the horse again!”

It’s moments like these — the calm feeling of flying, the adrenaline rush of a horse race, the drive down Magnolia Lane and the bumps he feels Thursday morning at the Masters — that make him feel alive, which he believes is a gift. Because Gary Player says there are people who exist but are not alive. He knows which one he is doing.

You can reach the author at joshua.berhow@golf.com.