Gary Player: The Smallest of Golf's Big Three

My father told me never to blow my own trumpet. It was far better to let others tell you how good they might think you are. This is clearly a piece of advice that was never given to Gary Player.

Gary Player was a great player. He wasn't the greatest, but he was awfully good and has the absolute right to consider himself one of the greats of the game. Unfortunately, Mr. Player never seems to pass up the opportunity to tell all and sundry how great he was and how tremendous he still is for an old guy. How much this blowing of his own trumpet has affected his status is anyone's guess. But his constant bragging must have soured more than a few golf fans. It's hard to listen to.

In Gary's latest attempt to remind us of how good he was, Gary couldn't resist trying to steal Bernhard Langer's thunder by talking about how three US Senior Opens that he won, but were not at the time counted as Majors, meant that he was essentially just as good as Langer. Sad, when you think about it. Here is a guy with what seems to be a giant inferiority complex. I can find no other reasonable explanation for it.

At last year's Masters, a friend of mine attended a South African barbeque at Gary's place. He has just taken up the game and had no real opinion of Gary Player. However, when I asked him about the evening, and what he thought of Player, he responded by saying, "The guy's an arsehole."

When I asked him why he felt this way, he told me that Gary not only spent the evening lecturing everyone on diet and fitness, along with his usual childish displays of calisthenics; he also made several derogatory remarks about Jack and Arnie--remarks that, quite frankly, don't bear repeating. These remarks only serve to prove that Gary was the smallest member of golf's Big Three in more ways than one.

It's sad when a man Gary's age still finds it necessary to tell everyone how good he is/was. He really needs to get over himself. And what's more, I don't trust a man who doesn't drink! Just kidding.