Player Under Pressure

"My game still leaves a lot to be desired," said Defending Champion Arnold Palmer on the eve of this year's Masters tournament. "And then, of course, there's Gary Player."

Going into the Masters, South Africa's short, swarthy Gary Player, 25, was the hottest golfer on the 1961 tournament circuit. Representing the Langhorne, Pa. Country Club, a place he has never seen, Player had entered twelve tournaments, placed in the money in all, and won two--including a taut, one-stroke victory over Palmer in the pre-Masters Sunshine Open. He began the Masters riding a streak of nine consecutive sub-70 rounds, and his confidence seemed unshakable. "I hate to tell you how well I've been playing," Player said as he finished his last practice round over the treacherous, 6,980-yd. Augusta National course.

The prospect of a dramatic, two-man duel for the richest prize in golf (winner's share: $20,000) brought 150,000 fans to the dogwood-dotted Augusta course. And the gallery got its duel. On the murky first day, Palmer fired a fine 68; Player hung on with a 69. On the sunbaked second day, they swapped scores, and Player narrowly missed a hole in one when his tee shot soared over the creek in front of the par-three 12th hole, landed squarely in the cup and ricocheted 15 ft. away. At the halfway point, Palmer and Player were tied at 137, seven strokes under par.

Helpful Spectator. The third day belonged to Player. His walloping drives carried a country mile down the fairway, his irons were crisp, his approaches deadly, his putting sure. When a tee shot went awry on the 9th hole, he sliced a spoon shot out of deep woods 250 yds. to the green. On the 520-yd., par-five 15th, his second wood overshot the green, but a spectator batted it back. "You people around here," grinned Player, "treat us foreigners very well." With a sparkling 69, Player became the first in Masters history to stay under 70 for the first three rounds of the tournament. Palmer, meanwhile, shot a disastrous 73. "I never got the right club in my hand all day," he gloomed.

Still Palmer managed to keep up the pressure. After rain washed out half a day's play, the defending champion squared away for the final 18, and teed off into gusty winds to whittle away at Player's lead. He turned the front nine in 33 and gained back a stroke. Player's deftness with a pitching wedge (riddled with holes to lighten its weight) let him take only eleven putts on the first nine--but he misjudged a chip shot on the loth, and Palmer was only two strokes back.

Unlucky 13th. After that came the unlucky 13th, a par-five, 475-yd. hole. Player's tee shot sliced into heavy woods at the right of the fairway. Impatiently, Player tried to bend a No. 2 iron shot around the trees, smothered his ball, sent it scuttling into a creek. He dropped out, took a one-stroke penalty, missed a 4-ft. putt, and scored an appalling double-bogey seven that left him tied with Palmer Shaken, Player fluffed a simple, 3-ft. puti on the 15th, dropped a stroke behind Staggering through a sand trap on the 18th; Player finished with a total of 280, eight strokes under par for the 72-hole tournament. Near tears and certain that he had lost, he hid out in Tournament Chairman Clifford Roberts' apartment to watch Palmer's finish on television.

Inside the tightly shuttered apartment, a soft drink balanced in his hands, Player stared moodily at the TV set as Palmer moved to the 18th tee, needing only a par to win. In his three previous rounds, Palmer had scored three straight pars at the par-four 18th; last year, his birdie at the 18th won the Masters. This time Palmer's drive split the middle of the fairway. But his second shot, hit too hastily, veered into a shallow trap at the right edge of the green--the same trap Player's ball had found minutes before. The TV cameras panned in, showed Palmer's ball "plugged"--half buried in the sand--and Player began nervously to sip his drink.

$8,000 Blunder. Then Palmer, normally a flawless sand player, made an $8,000 blunder. He blasted out too strongly, belted his ball over the green and into the gallery, 25 ft. from the pin. Palmer stalked about the green, shaking his head, talking furiously to himself, while his playing partner, Charlie Coe, holed out. Finally Palmer took a putter, addressed his ball--and pushed it a full 12 ft. past the cup. A return putt was wide. Palmer finished with an incredible double-bogey six, slipped into a second-place tie (worth $12,000) with fast-closing Amateur Coe. New Masters Champion Player gulped his drink, embraced his wife, danced a delirious jig of joy.

For all his excitement, victory was no surprise to cocky Gary Player. "I have dreamed of winning the Masters ever since I was a boy," he said, "and I was confident that I would." Player had never won an amateur tournament when he abruptly turned pro at 17. But under the careful eye of his future father-in-law, Johannesburg Club Professional Jock Verwey, he practiced religiously, eight hours a day, trimmed off excess weight with a diet of nuts, dried fruit and honey, built up muscle by lifting weights and doing 70 fingertip push-ups a day. From fellow South African Bobby Locke, Player picked up pointers on his short game. Later, from Ben Hogan, he learned how to grip his clubs properly. Says Hogan: "Gary is doing what I have long advocated: working hard on fundamentals and then working the fundamentals into his game. He is a fine, all-round player." In 1956, Player borrowed money to finance his first trip abroad. Since then, he has won the British, Australian and South African Opens, earned more than $100,000 playing golf. The top 1961 money winner--with $45,217, he now is $11,175 ahead of Palmer--Player has already staked out his next big victory: the U.S. Open in June. Says he: "I've got a wife and two kids to support, and a traveling nurse to pay. I have to be a hungry golfer."

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