Gary Player is unquestionably one of the best golfers to have ever graced our wonderful game.
However, the wider and more interesting debate is: Who is the greatest golfer of all time?
Gary Player won 159 professional tournaments worldwide, including a mightily impressive nine major championships.
Jack Nicklaus stands above everyone else with 18 major championship wins while Tiger Woods has 15 majors to his name but holds the joint record for the most PGA Tour victories, with a remarkable 82.
Player recently named Nicklaus as the greatest golfer of all-time, with Woods the second best in the South African’s eyes.
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The nine-time major champion then suggested that he himself is the third greatest golfer in the history of the sport.
“When they judge players, it’s quite interesting, they put Bobby Jones and Arnold (Palmer) ahead of me,“ Player explained.
“You can’t tell me that an amateur golfer has a record that I have in golf. His record is not close to mine.
“You look at Arnold’s record, it’s not close to mine. I won more majors than Arnold. I won more tournaments than Arnold. I won more senior majors. My stroke averages were better. He didn’t have the record, and he was my brother.
“But I love the fact, in a way, that they do that, because what he did for golf, and I grew up with him, he was supreme. Jack is number one, Tiger number two, and I’m number three.
“There’s not even a question.”
While some may not agree with the 90-year-old’s assessment, his argument is definitely a fair one to make.
However, the big problem with Player’s recent comments is that he completely contradicted the opinion he shared on the matter a few years ago.
Gary Player changed his mind regarding who is the greatest golfer of all time
Since he stopped playing competitively, Player has forged a reputation as one of the most uncompromising analysts in the game.
The South African golfing legend always says it how he sees it and that is what makes his opinions so highly-sought after.
However, it’s fair to say that one of his strongest opinions has changed over the past few years.
When speaking to Today’s Golfer way back in 2015, Player responded when asked who he believes to be the greatest golfer in history.
“Ben [Hogan] was the greatest of all-time, no question,“ Player said.
“No one ever played golf like Ben. No one in my time, all the guys today… he was far superior to anybody else at hitting a golf ball. Now, he didn’t have the short game of someone like Phil Mickelson, but then again he never played on greens like they do today.
“We wore steel spikes and there were spike marks all over the place. Phil Mickelson wore spikes at the Masters six years ago and he and Vijay Singh nearly came to blows over it. I played in that tournament and I saw five spike marks. I thought, ‘They’re having a fight because of five spike marks?!’ When we played there were 100 spike marks on every green.”
Gary Player tripped up by his own logic with Ben Hogan claim
Ben Hogan was obviously a terrific golfer, with 64 PGA Tour victories including nine major championships to his name.
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Perhaps the most impressive thing about Hogan’s career was the fact that he returned from a near fatal car accident in 1949 after he collided head-on with a Greyhound bus near Van Horn in Texas.
After that road traffic accident, Hogan remarkably went on to win another six major championships.
Naming Hogan as one of the greatest golfers of all time is far from controversial, but to put him at the top of the pile certainly is.
Player more recently suggested that Nicklaus is, in fact, the greatest of all time, using the Golden Bear’s major wins as the real benchmark for success.
And if that is the case, Hogan should be the joint fourth greatest golfer of all time, according to Player’s very own logic.
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