PGA Tour extends Lifetime Achievement Award to veteran Gary Player
PGA Tour has now decided in principle to extend a Lifetime Achievement Award to one of the most celebrated golfers of all times.
Gary Player has been selected to be the 10th sportsman who will receive the coveted award and will be given out to him at the Players Championship on May 9.
The grizzled South African is overwhelmed to be considered for the accolade and vowed to give back to the sport what it had given him in all these years.
Player said, “Being recognized with true gentlemen of the sport like Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson and Jack Nicklaus is humbling, and I will continue to help promote and support this wonderful game until the day I die”.
Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem also spoke on the occasion and lauded the achievements and the contribution Player has made to the sport.
He said, “As one of the most accomplished – not to mention most-travelled – players in all of sports, Gary Player’s love of golf and his desire to use his talents to help everyone he comes in contact with make him most deserving of the PGA Tour’s Lifetime Achievement Award”.
Player is one of the most respected and highly revered golfers not only in his home country South Africa but all over the world.
Now 76, Player has won no fewer than nine major titles in his grizzled career and some 24 PGA Tour titles. He has a total of 165 professional victories around the world.
Player is the 10th person to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award after Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Jackie Burke Jr., Pete Dye, Deane Beman, Jack Nicklaus, and former President George H.W. Bush.
Player was also the Captain of the President’s Cup International team in years 2005 and 2007.
For the moment, Player is running a world renowned course designing firm and has designed some 300 golf courses around the world.
He is currently engaged in his latest project in India where he is designing one of the best golf courses in the country.
Player is already a World Golf Hall of Famer and was inducted in the same in 1974.
Tags: