Player In Paradise

Player gives a great deal of thought to his diet and is extremely careful about what he eats. "I always use honey instead of sugar when I can," he said. "And I always eat one banana and one avocado every day, because they're full of all the best natural oils. One of the best things you can do is to take some raisins and other dried fruit and nuts and grind them all up in a mixer. A bowl of that is delicious and very nourishing."

That afternoon Player repaired to the Arawak Golf Club, Hartford's Paradise Island course. Only nine of the club's 18 holes are ready for play, but every afternoon while Player is in residence at Nassau he shoots a practice round with guests of the hotel who care to sign up for the privilege.

Having hit a couple of fine drives off the first tee, Player strode jauntily down the fairway swinging his arms in the military style that characterizes his golfing gait.

"You know," he said to one of the others in the foursome, "getting this affiliation down here was one of the greatest breaks of my entire lire. How can you beat this life? I can spend the morning on the beach with my family and devote the afternoon to golf, and by evening I feel tired and just wonderful. I can't help remembering that before I won the Masters I relaxed on the beach for a week at Delray. It's wonderful what sun and salt water can do for you.

"They're even thinking of building a house down here for me, which would be a perfect situation. I always enjoyed having the children on the tour with me, because I'm more relaxed when I'm with my children. Playing with them gets my mind off golf for awhile, because one thing they can't talk about is golf. But there is no discipline for them on the tour, what with the moving from city to city and the eating at odd hours. Down here the whole family is happy. When they're happy, I'm happy."

As he played along, Gary gave an occasional pointer to the men playing with him, and he turned out to be a good teacher. One of the men had a habit of saying "no" every time he hit the ball, as if he expected it to do something disastrous. Finally, Gary said to him, "You mustn't say no all the time like that. When you hit a golf ball you must always feel that the shot is going to succeed."

All the while Player marched along with the air of a man at perfect peace with his surroundings. His robust spirits seemed to add many inches to his stature. For more than a year now the public has affectionately cast him in the role of David against the Goliaths of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus . Yet Gary now looked far larger than his actual dimensions.

"If you were a millionaire and could do anything in the world you wanted," Player asked the man walking beside him, "what would you do?"

"I suppose I'd do pretty much what I do now," the man said.

"So would I," said Player. "I just love to play golf."