Golf and PGA Tour legend Gary Player is still playing as he turns 90.
The South African was the first international player to win at the Masters in 1961, and a star was born. Even though Player broke the tournament’s rules by taking the prized green jacket back home with him in 1962 despite losing to Arnold Palmer — only the reigning champion can take the jacket home, for that year only — a lifetime later, he is still making headlines.
‘I really suffered a lot. A lot.’
In April, Player shocked the crowd in Augusta, Georgia, teeing off at 89 years old and finishing his shot with a signature high kick.
“I’m standing here for the 67th time, and I think the word is gratitude, just being here,” Player said at the time.
He turned 90 years old on Nov. 1, and now one of the sport’s oldest stars is sharing his secrets to living a long life.
“Under eat. Exercise. Read. Prayer/meditate. Love. Ice bath. Gratitude. Sleep. Laugh a lot. Keep busy. Friends. Do things you don’t want to do,” he said recently.
The secrets were not his, though. While he may have the rules written on a laminated card in his wallet, he once received the advice from a gerontologist as a list of 12 keys to living to 100.
“All the gerontologists varied to a degree, but basically what they all agreed on to live a long time is under eat,” Player told Golfweek. “Everybody’s eating too much. Obesity, which is killing them.”
Publicly declaring that living to 100 is now his goal, Player shared more of his regimen for good health.
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Arnold Palmer (L) presents Gary Player (R) with the green jacket at the 1961 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. Photo by Augusta National/Getty Images
Working out or playing golf as many days as possible is part of Player’s plan. Weight training, walking the beach, and swimming are included.
“But not far out,” he said. “Because I’m very wary of sharks.”
The thought of living to 100 is in Player’s head “every day,” he explained, saying he thinks he will get there so long as he does not contract a disease. “[It] can happen because the food is all sprayed, you know, and it’s the things that prevent you from becoming a hundred.”
Player opened up about his younger years in South Africa, saying that when he was a kid he thought of golf as nothing more than a “sissy sport.”
Soccer, rugby, and cricket were more revered in his eyes.
“When you experience what I experienced as a young man, which is living like a junkie or a dog …” he told the outlet. “I went to this great school, which really helped me, but I’d go home at night, nobody there, cook my own food. I’d get up at 5:30 in the morning to travel to school.”
When he eventually started playing golf, Player said he made a promise to himself that if he ever became a champion, he would help others in a similar situation.
He continued, “So I really suffered a lot. A lot. I lay in bed for two years on and off wishing I was dead, crying in bed. That was the greatest gift bestowed upon me ever. And that’s what made me a world champion.”
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Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images
Player has 24 wins on the PGA Tour and 22 wins on the PGA Tour Champions. He has victories in nine majors, winning three Masters: 1961, 1974, and 1978. He also has 118 international wins.
Player was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Through all his success, Player says he knows why people die — it comes from retirement.
“I think people retire too early,” he said.
“To me, it’s a death warrant,” he explained. “They say, ‘I’ve worked hard; I’m going to take it easy.’ And yes, literally, they do. They go home and they sit there and they overeat and they watch television and they die within three years.”
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