Gary Player at 90: Golf Legend Takes You Inside His ICONIC Career (E424)

**Gary Player** (0:04)
I'm a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When I got on the golf course, suddenly, something smidged, and I was so mean.
First prize was a thousand pounds. Now it's millions. Work at it day and night. Nine years of age. We all do things wrong. We're all sinners. We all do something wrong. A year later, I think I'll try that. It works, because you persevered. And Rory persevered. The difficulties, he made such a mess. Now, is that like it? I'll say, you will never feel sorry for yourself. You're going to be the most positive man in the world. You're going to win this Grand Slam whether it's the last damn thing you do. Best thing that could have happened to you.

**Jake Humphrey** (0:50)
I think we should start with a round of applause for tonight's guest, Gary Player.

**Gary Player** (0:54)
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

**Jake Humphrey** (1:01)
Well, Gary, welcome to High Performance.

**Gary Player** (1:03)
Thank you.

**Jake Humphrey** (1:04)
You're 90 years old, you're still training, you're still playing, you're still traveling. When does it stop?

**Gary Player** (1:12)
I think that depends on something that I have no answer to. It depends on how long you stay healthy for.
I'm extremely healthy, extremely fit, never get tired, tons of energy, still travel as much as anybody. Love my work, love people. But who knows? You don't know if you might get cancer tomorrow with all the stuff that they put in food today, and the sprays on vegetables, etc. You don't know when you're going to get sick. So I take a day at a time, my dream, my ultimate dream, is to live to 100 I went to India to study this and it was, I think, a very wise thing to do.
But being 90, you never take things for granted. And adversity is around every corner, thank goodness, because it's the greatest gift bestowed upon man or woman.

**Jake Humphrey** (2:07)
And I want to talk about why adversity is so important to you and has been so important to you. But when you sit there and say, I don't get tired, I'm full of energy, I still act in the way I always have. I mean, I'm half your age and I get tired. I'm not that full of energy.
You've obviously got even more energy than me. And I'm really interested in the things that you do daily that give you this amount of energy. What does your training regime look like at 90?

**Gary Player** (2:33)
Well, the man in India said to me 11 things of which I adhere to, to the best of I can, best of my knowledge anyway. First of all, he said the, now first of all, you've got to understand, Jake, it is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than to get people to actually do something to stay healthy. We can't say everybody subconsciously thinks they're gonna live a long time. But no, nothing happens automatically in life. The old saying about work applies. It's so true across the spectrum. And so, I work hard, I exercise. But the most important thing is what you eat.
And the most important thing to live a long time is what you eat. How you eat, you gotta under eat. We all overeat, we all eat like it's the last supper. And so, he says, for a start, what did you weigh in your prime? I said 153 He says, what do you weigh now? I said 163
He says, well, you're 13 pounds overweight. I said, no, no, that's dead.
He says, when you get to 50, your heart is not as strong, your knees, your ankles, et cetera, et cetera. He says, you got to be, if you want to reach your target of 100, you got to be, go back three pounds lighter than you were in your prime, because you were at your ultimate strength then. And which makes sense. And everybody, everybody you see is, 90% of people are overweight.

**Jake Humphrey** (4:05)
Okay, so, undereating is one.

**Gary Player** (4:07)
Okay, that's number one. Exercise, laugh a lot.

**Jake Humphrey** (4:11)
Why does that matter?

**Gary Player** (4:13)
Well, the old saying, laughter is, when they say laughter, what's it say? Laughter is, pardon?
The best medicine, right. It's an old saying.
I write them down, you see, because anybody who tries to remember things is a conceited fool.
And another thing is a blunt pencil is better than a sharp memory. So I take an ice bath every day, right. That's as long as there's an ice bath available. That is a miracle for your health.