91بب±¬

This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.
Skip to main content


 
You are in: Learning English > Moving Words > Celebrity choice
Learning English - Moving Words
Moving words logo
Gary Player
My Choice...

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

Sir Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill is one of my great heroes, along with former South African President, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. What all these people have in common is that each one of them was or is a very positive person, looking to overcome adversity rather than succumbing to it.

When I was very young my mother died of cancer and my father worked long hours in a mine. It taught me that in order to succeed in life, one needs to work hard and to make a choice to look at things positively.

Every morning when I wake up, I make a conscious decision to have a good day, to find the good in people and to have a positive impact on everyone that I come into contact with. This attitude has helped me throughout my golfing career, where I was perhaps not the most talented, or the biggest or the strongest, but I certainly had the determination to succeed.

Now that I am 70, there is no reason to change this way of thinking. Perhaps my days of winning major championships are over, but making a difference in people's lives is not. If more world leaders could find a way to lead their people this way, perhaps we would have fewer conflicts around the globe. Now wouldn't that be wonderful?

Facts on Gary Player

Gary Player is one of the world's most traveled athletes, clocking up more than 14 million miles.

He completed the Grand Slam at age 29 in 1965.

He has been dubbed "the Black Knight", "Mr. Fitness" and the "International Ambassador of Golf"

 

More about Gary Player...
Gary Player

Gary Player is one of the most successful golfers in the history of the sport.

He has ranked first in total professional wins, with at least a hundred and sixty-six, and tied fourth in major championship victories with nine. Along with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus he is sometimes referred to as one of the "Big Three" golfers of his era; the era being one when golf boomed in the United States and around the world, much encouraged by television coverage.

He was the only player in the Twentieth Century to win the British Open in three different decades. Being from South Africa, Player never played in the Ryder Cup in which American and European golfers compete against each other, and he was no longer an eligible player when the Presidents Cup was established to give international players the opportunity to compete in a similar event.

However Gary Player was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. Now retired from golf, he currently runs a stud farm that has received worldwide acclaim for breeding top thoroughbred race horses.

 

Gary Player
His own Moving Words

"The first time I ever saw Arnold Palmer, I said, "There's a star." The first time I saw Jack Nicklaus, I said, "Superstar." I feel the same way about Tiger Woods."

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."

"Golf is a puzzle without an answer. I've played the game for 40 years and I still haven't the slightest idea how to play."

"We create success or failure on the course primarily by our thoughts."