Gary Player remains an avid golfer and fan of the sport and has dedicated his life to it.
And his hard work definitely paid off, with the South African legend racking up nine major wins during his illustrious career.
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Golf has changed a lot since he was on the course, and the 90-year-old expects even more changes in the near future.
Gary Player predicts changes in golf by naming Scotty Scheffler
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, the player said:
“There are still people on the Golf Channel. There’s one particular guy who still believes that. He sees everyone doing weight training, or almost everyone doing weight training, and he still thinks that’s bad for people.”
“I pushed 300 pounds with my legs today. I ran on the treadmill. I actually ran so fast that I fell! But that’s part of the deal. Pain is good for you.”
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“But with weight training, everyone said you can’t do weight training. Thankfully, Tiger Woods came along and I was really impressed. He was lifting heavy weights and it was just phenomenal. He was such a great athlete.”
“Then I saw Rory (McIlroy) at the Masters and really admired his two wins. He has the best swing in the world.”
“Scottie Scheffler is the best golfer and Lowry is the second best. But Lowry has the best swing in the world by a mile.
“I said this to Rory as we were standing on the practice tee early in the morning when the golf course opened, and I asked Rory what he was up to in terms of exercise.
“He pulled out his phone and showed it to me. He was doing hip and core deadlifts. He was lifting 400 pounds. He was lifting 400 pounds.”
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“When you do that at 100 pounds, you see how strong he is. You see he’s getting tremendous distance. He’s working on it. He’s working on it.”
“What’s going to happen to us in the future? I told the golf world that a 50-year-old man was going to win a major. ‘You’re talking rubbish,’ they said. I told the BBC’s Peter Allis that we were going to make golfers hit the ball 400 yards. ‘Bullshit!'”
“Now we’re going to talk about the way this ball travels, the distance it travels. We haven’t had any big players play golf yet. They’re going to hit it 500 yards!”
“There’s one guy in America right now who drove a par 5. When we played the third hole at Augusta, (Jack) Nicklaus was hitting it as far as anyone today except (Bryson) DeChambeau.
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“Great guys come in, because you don’t have to play the NFL, which is a great sport. But if you play for three years, your knees are going to be bad, your shoulders are going to be bad, you’re going to get concussions, you’re going to ruin your health. But you can play golf forever!”
Photo by Richard Heathcote/R&A/R&A, Getty Images
Rory McIlroy shows off his power at the British Open
It remains to be seen whether Player will be proven right, but it’s safe to say that many of them are indeed huge hitters.
That includes McIlroy and LIV Golf superstar DeChambeau, and the duo put their power on display at this week’s British Open Championship.
However, the Northern Irishman has been particularly long off the tee, ranking first for driving distance (348.7 yards) and third for longest drive (389.2 yards).
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Fans especially enjoyed his drive on the par-4 ninth on the second day, finishing his shot from 377 yards just 11 feet from the pin.
read more: Gary Player reveals his true feelings about Bryson DeChambeau’s attitude towards golf fans
