The ultimate player

The South African man in black keeps turning up at Augusta to prove that staying active throughout life is a model all people should strive for. Simon Lewis reports

WHEN GARY PLAYER rolls up Magnolia Lane this week to play a record 51st time he will do so with the same vim and vigour at 72 years of age that saw him to three victories in the prime of his life.

The South African got his first Masters invitation when his father wrote a letter of introduction for the young golfer to the tournament’s co-founder and Augusta National chairman Clifford Roberts in 1957 at the age of 21.