Player In Paradise

"Here's the way I look at it," Player went on, using the canvas on his beach chair to indicate what would be the fairway on a golf course. "If I hit a driver," he said, "I aim down the middle of the fairway, which gives me a margin for error of only half the width of the fairway in either direction. If I take a four-wood, however, and aim it down the right side of the fairway with a slight hook or draw on it, then I've got the entire width of the fairway as a margin for error.

"I also figure that I can hit a four-wood with a draw or hook about the same distance that I can hit a two-wood straight, so I've only sacrificed one club length. If someone else is hitting a six-iron to the green, I'm hitting a five-iron, and I have the advantage of knowing that when I drive I can place my ball just about where I want it to be.

"In golf, you should always try to play the shot you know best—your 'bread and butter shot,' as Chick Harbert once called it. That's the shot that you can always hit with confidence and know you can repeat. You've got to do what you know suits you best.

"Of course, if I'm playing the 15th at Augusta or the 8th at Augusta , there's no way in the world I can use a four-wood off the tee and hope to get on in two. In fact, at Augusta , there's only one hole where I'll use a four-wood off the tee, and that's the 7th. Augusta is long and wide-open. It is a course that you've got to attack all the time. The Open courses put more of a premium on accuracy than on length, so I'll certainly use the four-wood much more frequently in the Open.

"You have to remember that I expect to be outdriven by Arnold and Jack, so it doesn't bother me. Arnold weighs 25 pounds more than I do and Jack 50 pounds more. Yet I'm confident that by the time I'm 30 I'll be hitting the ball almost as far as they do—not quite as far, but almost. This is because I have started doing my exercises again. Every day I can feel myself getting a little stronger. It's amazing what a man can do with his body in three years by exercising. Until about a year ago I was doing a lot of push-ups and other exercises that built up my chest, but those aren't the best muscles for golf, I decided. So I stopped my exercises for awhile. Now I'm doing things that build up my arms and shoulders and legs. Like this."

Whereupon, Player got off his beach chair and did a deep knee bend on one leg. "Try that," he said, "and see how difficult it is. You do a few of those, and you can really feel it. Three years ago I wouldn't have dreamt of using my four-wood off the tee, but I can do it now because I'm stronger where it matters. It's not that I haven't confidence in my driver; even now, I use my driver a lot more than my four-wood. I love my driver. But there are many times when it makes more sense to use the four-wood and be sure you know exactly where you are going."

It was time for lunch, and the Player family changed clothes in a nearby cabana. Gary emerged in the uniform that has become his trademark across all the golf courses of the world—black slacks and black turtleneck sweater precisely tailored to his trim figure. Up came Pancho Gonzales , who is the resident tennis pro at Paradise Island. Gary addressed him as "Richard," not Pancho. It reminded one of how considerate and well-mannered Player has always been, qualities that have endeared him to his fellow pros when it might be easy for them to resent him as a South African who has made an annual practice of raiding the treasury of U.S. professional golf.

Gonzales on this day was anxious to get Player's opinion on an idea he had for shortening the shafts on his wood clubs. "I can hit my irons straight consistently," Gonzales told Player, "but I spray my woods all over the place. Supposing I shortened the shafts so that I could swing my woods the same way I do my irons. Wouldn't that be a good idea?"

Player advised against this expedient, and in doing so he underlined another aspect of his personality—his enormous interest in the capabilities of the human body. In fact, Gary looks after his own body the way a sky-diver takes care of his parachute. "Richard," he said, "you're very tall and very strong. If you shorten the shafts on your clubs, you won't be able to hit the ball with as full an arc. You should take advantage of the gifts that God has given you."

During lunch Player observed with approval the brown sugar that is served at Paradise Island. "It's much better for you than white sugar," he said, "because it's unprocessed. You should never eat processed food if you can avoid it. If you eat food made from wheat, it should be made with brown wheat rather than processed wheat, which is white. The same with sugar. People are always doing things with food that ruin its natural qualities. They'll take a good fresh vegetable and boil all the vitamins and food values out of it."