Special Player, once and forever

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Every once in a while someone will be described as "walking history," and every once in a while that description will be 100 percent correct.

Gary Player is walking history.

The Man in Black is 71 now, and his presence here is ceremonial. Oh, he can still play a very nice round of golf. "I have broken my age since I turned 70 or 71 at least 43 times," he reports. "I broke my age twice in the same tournament." But he competes here in 2007 as a courtesy this unique tournament extends to all past winners. They can play until they keel over, or come to their senses. Unlike some (e.g. Billy Casper), Player will never embarrass himself.

We want Gary Player to tee it up because he is Gary Player and because this will be his 50th Masters. Fifty! And it may not be his last, either.

"When I say -- and I pray when I say this is my last time it is my last time -- it's my last time," he chuckles. "I don't want to say it's my last time and then come back."

(Paging Roger Clemens . . . )

When the South African began his Masters play in 1957, the field included the winners of the 1934, '35, '36, '37, '38, '40, '41, and '42 tournaments. The field included demigods Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, and such august names as Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Lawson Little, Horton Smith, Jimmy Demaret, Craig Wood, and the venerable Brit, Henry Cotton. You got chills yet?

Player would go on to win nine majors, including this tournament in 1961, '74, and '78, when he was 42 years old. He was right there with Arnie and Jack, and, later, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson, competing to be known as the best golfer in the world throughout the '60s and '70s.

But his legacy far transcends those notable accomplishments. A case can be made that he was the first truly international golfer. "I wanted to travel and try to have the best world record in golf," he explains. "That was my ambition. When I first started, I said I wanted to have the best world record in golf, beating guys in their own countries, and I was brainwashed to that degree."

And there is no question he was decades ahead of his time in recognizing the importance of physical fitness in his sport. Long before the exercise trailer was a staple of the PGA Tour, Player was back in his hotel room knocking out push-ups and sit-ups and hoisting free weights in the gym and doing whatever else came into his fertile mind. At 71, he proudly works out for a vigorous hour and a half five times weekly when the endless plane flights don't get in his way.

No one's opinion is more valued in golf. Is there anyone better qualified to evaluate the relative merits of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, for example? Not that I can think of.

"To compare Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods is like comparing oranges with bananas," Player maintains. "Jack Nicklaus never played a green with soft spikes applied. Big, big thing . . . Every green we played had hundreds of spike marks on the greens. That's what Jack Nicklaus played under. He never used a metal head in his prime. He never went into a factory and said, 'My golf ball is climbing too much. Can you adjust this with my clubs?' This was stuff Hogan, a scientist, never even thought of.

"How do you compare Nicklaus and Tiger Woods? The ball goes at least 55 yards farther. If you imagine Jack Nicklaus having hit the ball 55 yards farther, what would he have done, or players of our time, 55 yards farther, every bunker is just a uniform with a raking?"

More:

"Now let me tell you, for a long time in his life Jack Nicklaus was extremely strong. His legs were just as strong as Tiger's, and he hit the ball the exact same distance if you gave him the right club, the same equipment. But Jack Nicklaus's body went on the wane; it deteriorated at a certain age. Whereas Tiger Woods, his body is going to go on for a long time.

"Jack Nicklaus putted as well as Tiger Woods. He drove the ball straighter than Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods is a better wedge player, better flop-shot player, better chipper, a better bunker player . . . They both had phenomenal, phenomenal minds . . . I would say the mind is something we haven't given enough credit to. If you look at Tiger, he's got a focus that enables him to play -- and listen to what I'm saying now because this is a very important thing -- to play the right shot at the right time. I played with Nicklaus all my life. I very seldom heard him say, 'You know, I shouldn't have played that shot.' But I hear that all the time. 'Why did I play that shot? I played the wrong shot at the wrong time.' "

(Wonder if he has any big southpaws in mind?)

The summation:

"Jack Nicklaus, if he played, hypothetically, 500 majors -- or, let's say, 300, more realistic -- if he played 300 majors could have been effective in 250. Tiger Woods, if he plays 300 majors, will be effective in 290 because the one man is obsessed by being a real athlete."

Who can speak better to the changing golf times than Gary Player? When he played that first Masters in 1957, no one drove it 300. And now? Says Player, "I said this on the BBC years ago: It's only a matter of time before players start hitting the ball 400 yards. And the two fellows I was sitting with said to me I was talking absolute nonsense. They are doing it now."

Listen to this. "We are in our infancy in golf," Player contends. "This is hard to believe: We are in our infancy . . . The way we are going now, we're going to play golf courses that are 8,000 yards long in x amount of years' time. It doesn't seem possible, but that's what's going to happen."

It's just evolution, he says. "Now imagine we've only had one big man play golf in my 60 years that I've been associated with and that was George Bayer [all of 6 feet 5 inches]. But you wait until you get the Michael Jordans and Shaq O'Neals and these fellas coming out to play golf, and have got a flair, obviously of a professional golfer. Four hundred yards is going to be common. It's just going to be very, very ordinary."

But will any of them have the mind and resourcefulness of a Nicklaus, a Woods or, yes, a Player?

Gary Player tees off at 9:06 this morning with 2006 US Ryder Cupper Vaughn Taylor and 21-year old British Amateur champion Julien Guerrier. Wow, 18 holes with Gary Player. Sometime around 1 p.m., Messrs. Taylor and Guerrier can say they had just spent four hours walking with history.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.