Carnoustie, Scotland 

This year’s Open Championship marks the 50th anniversary of Gary Player’s 1968 Open Championship success.

It was here at Carnoustie the champion South African golfer captured a second Open and the fourth of nine Grand Slam titles.

Astoningly, Player won 165 professional victories in his career and in visiting the Open Championship Media Centre on Wednesday I asked the now 82-year old how he judged success and what he based his opinion.

“If you run a business of any kind, you judge it by the bottom list and if you have a good marriage, which I am happy to say I’ve been married for 61-years, you judge that by how much you tell your wife you love her every day,”  he said.

“There’s always a bottom line in every business.

Gary Player & his tribute to his wife – He penned the comment on this picture that was hanging here in the Media Centre.

“So when you judge players, and I have a very different way of judging players. It’s just my personal view, not to say I’m right, I got by the bottom line what people did, what’s on paper. Not how the charismatic they were, not how far they hit the ball, not how good a putter they were or what they won.

“And I’ve always said, you know, I’ve set the bar high, to be a superstar .. there are categories.  Superstar, star.  There’s not a lot of difference between a superstar and a star.  But as I’ve always said, to be a superstar, in my opinion, because you’ve got to set the bar high – six majors.  That’s why a man like Nick Faldo in this country, he won six majors, he’s a superstar.  He didn’t continue to play golf a very long time after that.

“It was the same with Seve Ballesteros, he had a very short career.

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