Three Pack

It's a quaint notion to think that Gary Player got his well-deserved turn in the sun at last week's Masters. At 5'7" and a mere 150 pounds, Player has long been the littlest member of the Big Three, not just physically but--at least in this country--in terms of acclaim. It's not that he doesn't deserve a few moments alone in the spotlight. He's accomplished a lot, although trying to distinguish who has achieved more among him, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, is a nearly impossible task.

Nicklaus is clearly a step ahead in on-course feats, with his 18 majors, but each has won more than 80 professional tournaments and at least seven majors. Their competition extends beyond the fairways, to the realms of golf course design, business, real estate and even charity. All three have been enormously successful in a wide variety of enterprises, yet even now, despite shared smiles, they seem unwilling to concede an inch to one another.

That Player is the last man standing on the green is more than simply a payoff for never getting quite the billing of his Big Three brethren. It's the result of a hunger and drive that have not wavered even as he's gone (ever so gradually) gray. It's instructive to note that as the 76-year-old King and the 66-year-old Bear pulled on their green blazers for last week's champions' dinner, they were the pictures of satisfaction: tanned, thick-waisted guys who had flown in on their personal jets. Meanwhile, the 70-year-old Black Knight, still the fitness buff he was in the '60s, high-stepped through his 49th straight Masters, at which he shot a respectable 79-81 and crowed about how easy it was for him to get up and down the hills of Augusta National. He figures, he said last week, to play in at least two more Masters, breaking Palmer's record of 50 straight appearances and scoring another blow in the interminable battle.

It will be a hollow victory, though. Last week it seemed that almost every shot of Player on the course was followed by that same dopey scene of Nicklaus and Palmer next to each other at the champions' dinner sharing a laugh. The message was twofold: Jack and Arnie are just as happy sitting out, and Gary is not worth talking about by himself. At Player's press conferences he fielded endless questions about his two contemporaries, as if the assembled media didn't know what to make of him outside the context of his former rivals. Player has become so associated with the Big Three that his very presence conjures up Nicklaus and Palmer, although, sadly for him, the opposite is not necessarily true.

As long as we have Player, it appears, we will have Nicklaus and Palmer. History will permit the Black Knight an occasional bow but never, it appears, as a solo act.