Gary Player
The golfing great is also a record-breaking jet traveler
Interview by Matt Thurber - June 1, 2009
As Golf legend Gary Player’s Black Knight Enterprises continues to grow, his travel schedule is expanding to allow him to keep commitments all around the globe. These include speaking engagements; designing golf courses (more than 200 to date); working his farm in his South African homeland; overseeing Black Knight subsidiaries Gary Player Academy, Gary Player Equipment and Gary Player Enterprises; working at the Gary Player Stud Farm; and overseeing The Player Foundation.
The Cessna Citation Xs and other jets that Player relies on today are much faster and more efficient than the airliners that used to ferry him and his family on long flights. But the speed of his current aircraft doesn’t mean Player spends less time aloft–he takes advantage of that speed to cram more meetings into his schedule.
Still lean and pumping out 1,000 sit-ups every day, Player remains passionate about golf and immensely proud of his record as only the third man ever to win all four Grand Slam events. But for Player, life is not all about golf. His foundation focuses on helping disadvantaged children in Africa and elsewhere. And Player’s concern about the environment manifests itself in his current golf course design ethos, which minimizes water and fertilizer use.
Player also gets terribly excited about the subject of obesity. Healthy living, he claims, has nothing to do with body type. Anyone eating too much of the wrong foods “will start to get fat,” he said in his clipped South African accent. To help people understand this, Player is surveying healthy eaters in places like Japan, India, China and Africa and writing a book titled Mothers, You’re Poisoning Your Children.
He talked to us about this issue–as well as about private jet travel, water-wise golf courses, the perils of gum trees, wildebeest raising and the influence of his gold-miner father. Then the self-proclaimed “International Ambassador of Golf” and “World’s Most Traveled Athlete” jetted off in a Sentient-arranged Citation X to conclude another day of business, adding still more travel miles to a lifetime total that exceeds 14 million.
How much do you travel?
If a businessman travels extensively for 25 years, it’s remarkable, and if a pilot flies for 35 years, it’s also amazing. But I’ve been traveling for 56 years.
Right now we have 60 golf courses and design projects on our books in 20 countries. We’re also involved in eight real estate developments at some of the courses. I’ve got to visit them. Before Christmas, I was in 13 countries in one month. Now I’ve been doing this for this length of time, so how is it possible for anybody to ever travel as much as I have? I don’t think it is. I’m 73 and I’m doing more travel now than ever because I’m so active in all the businesses that I’m involved in.
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