Gary Player's 1962 PGA Championship win at Aronimink

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Nearly 70 years ago, Gary Player paid his first visit to England and he didn’t fare too well. He had missed the cut at Royal Liverpool, one of several cuts in a row he had failed to make.

Englishman Ben Wright, a reporter and former CBS golf commentator, recounted the conversation between Player and Hugh Lewis, a club professional in England who had missed the cut too, and was heading home to perform his usual duties.

“How can I possibly improve myself, Hughie, quickly, before I’m totally broke and have to go home?”

Lewis, in typically dour North Country tones, replied, “Gary, lad, why don’t you buy yourself a one-way ticket on a banana boat sailing for Johannesburg and find yourself an honest job? You’ve no business being out here.”

Wright recalled that Player was “plainly crushed, but in all truth, at the time he had an ugly, flat swing and apparently little aptitude for the game.”

Gary Player won nine major championships, including the 1962 PGA Championship at Aronimink GC, site of the 108th PGA Championship, in Newtown Square, Pa.

Player would show them. He’d go on to win nine major championships, including the only previous PGA Championship contested at Aronimink Golf Club in 1962, besting Bob Goalby by a shot and Jack Nicklaus and George Bayer by three. He earned $13,000 for the win. It was the first of two PGA Championship victories for Gary Player, who also won in 1972 at Oakland Hills.

The 1962 PGA Championship formed part of a remarkable year in golf, with Player and fellow members of The Big Three, Arnold Palmer and Nicklaus, securing all four men’s major championships. Palmer prevailed at Augusta in a playoff over Player and Dow Finsterwald. Nicklaus edged Palmer in a playoff at Oakmont to take the U.S. Open. Player missed the cut at the British Open at Royal Troon, while Palmer played arguably the best golf of his career and won by six shots over Kel Nagle.

Remember, back in those days, the PGA Championship was the last major of the season. Player had lost to Palmer in a playoff at Augusta National, been a non-factor at the U.S. Open and arrived at Aronimink fresh off a missed cut, so he showed up at Aronimink at the lowest ebb of his fledgling career.