Gary Player

Gary Player, born on November 1, 1935 in Johannesburg, is a South African professional golfer and golf course architect. He won nine majors: the Open Championship in 1959, 1968 and 1974, the Masters in 1961, 1974 and 1978, the PGA Championship in 1962 and 1972, and the U.S. Open in 1965. That U.S. Open victory completed the career Grand Slam, all four majors, and made him the first player from outside the United States to do it. He added nine senior majors, and in 1974 he entered the World Golf Hall of Fame. The black clothing he played in earned him the name the Black Knight, and the care he took over diet and training a second one, Mr. Fitness. From 2012 he joined Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as an honorary starter at the Masters.

Gary Player Design has been at work since the early 1980s and, by the firm’s own account, has taken on more than 130 projects in 38 countries across five continents. The best known is The Links at Fancourt in George, South Africa. The 2003 Presidents Cup was played there, with Player as captain of the International team. The Gary Player Country Club at Sun City, also in South Africa, is the home of the Nedbank Golf Challenge each December. The firm says its aim is to build courses that have beauty and balance and that the average golfer can still enjoy playing. In 2021 it entered a partnership with Nicklaus Design, Nicklaus’s own practice.

His connection with Asia runs through Thailand as well: in 2011 he was inducted into the Asia Pacific Golf Hall of Fame at Pattaya, alongside Nicklaus. Among the courses listed on GoGolf, three in Indonesia and Thailand are his design, and all three can be booked through GoGolf. Ria Bintan Golf Club on Bintan is, according to the club’s own site, one of the ten courses Player names as his favourites among his own work. Lotus Valley Golf Resort in Thailand keeps Player’s original routing, later reworked by TurfPro and others.

Player courses you can book on GoGolf

• Ria Bintan Golf Club (Bintan, Indonesia) — the 18-hole Ocean Course, opened 1998
• Sentul Highlands Golf Club (Bogor, Indonesia) — opened 1997
• Lotus Valley Golf Resort (Chachoengsao, Thailand) — the original layout was Player’s design

Tee times and rates for a given day can be checked on each course page or in the GoGolf app.

See the other golf course architects here.