GP: I say to myself, `Don't get too excited because you never know
what's around the corner.' And when I'm not doing well, I say, `Just keep
punching and plugging, because you'll be rewarded.' Today, I was
struggling to start with, and ended up with a 70. And I've done this so
many times in my career.
PT: You've said that golf helps mold the character of the people
who play it. What do you mean?
GP: Golf is such a humbling game. It's not like a team sport, where
you have a partner, and you get the ball and you pass it to him and now
he's got the load on his shoulders. In golf, you cannot get anybody else
to help you. Once that ball goes, you're on your own. Also, the game
lasts for a long time--it's four and a half to five hours.
And you can play so well, but the ball is traveling through the air
such great distances and the variances are so great. There's a line in a
poem on golf called "Forgin's Creed" written by a Scot that goes "so many
great shots end up in sheer disaster." That explains it very well. You
can be the best player in the world, and tomorrow you can be a
chump.
PT: How else does golf mold character? You were heckled on golf
courses as a protest against South Africa's then policy of apartheid? How
did that affect you?
GP: That was a difficult time for me, because I didn't formulate
that policy. I didn't believe in that policy. But I had to bear a brunt
of other people's inventions. But that was a very good thing for my
mind.
PT: How did you cope?
GP: Well, by a great faith. By a great faith in Christ. And that
anything can be done through Jesus Christ, who strengtheneth you. And,
whether you're a Muslim, whether you're Jewish, or whatever you are, I
believe you must have a faith. And through this faith, I think, is how I
managed to survive that. That was very difficult.
PT: When people were hurling insults, or yelling at you...
GP: Or throwing telephone books in my back.
PT: Oh, no!
GP: And ice in my face, and golf balls between my legs, and
screaming at me when I was playing.
PT: What were you thinking at those moments? Would you be praying
or meditating?
GP: I was just saying, `Please, give me strength. Give me courage.'
I never prayed to win. I prayed for courage, patience. And I always made
comparisons. I've traveled extensively--11 million miles--and have seen
great poverty and suffering, children begging and starving. I would
always say to myself, `Well, this is bad, but it's not as bad as some
people have it. So, you know, I'm still going to have three meals today'
You follow?
I find drawing comparisons very comforting and very helpful. It's
like I got on the tee yesterday, and I was feeling a little tired, and
then these kids came along who were mentally affected. And I shook hands
and spoke to them and I felt so strong. Because we need this reminding,
don't we?
And particularly so, Americans. They live in the land of milk and
honey, they have clothes, they've got a house, they've got a job, and
they've got food. If you've got that, you're so much better off than the
majority of the world, but Americans forget that, don't they?
PT: You've alluded to your great faith in God. How does your faith
square with your willingness to make the huge sacrifices of being away
from family and home?
GP: I think that when you have been loaned a talent--and I
emphasize the word loaned--by God, you've got to use it. I've seen so
many people in different walks of life, who've had a talent and just
thrown it away, which is a sin in His eyes.
I enjoy playing, first of all, I enjoy my work. It is a bit tough
that it takes me away from my family and loved ones, my country and my
ranch. But one has to make sacrifices in life. To obtain any success, you
have to make sacrifices. And if you're not prepared to make them, that's
fair enough, but then you must have a nine-to-five job, and be prepared
to stay at home and have a different life.
Now, that doesn't mean you're not successful, because you can be
successful in your marriage and your family, and have honesty and
integrity and things like that, which is important. But if you want to
attain success as an athlete, you have to make great sacrifices. The
average man in the street doesn't, and doesn't want to.
PT: Where does your ambition come from? How did you grow up?
GP: I come from a very poor family. I lost my mother when I was
eight and my father worked like a dog in the gold mines, 12 or 14
thousand feet underground. My brother at 16 years of age was fighting in
the last World War. My sister was at boarding school. To get to school, I
would travel by street car for 40 minutes, and then walk across town and
take another bus for 40 minutes and then reverse the whole thing to get
home. I would leave home at six o'clock in the morning. I wonder how I
did that at seven years of age.
I often wonder how I did quite a lot of things. Coming home to an
empty house every night. The loneliness. That probably gave me this great
desire, and saying, `Listen, you've got to be an achiever.' I think it
has a lot to do with your foundation.
PT: Tell me about when you won the Grand Slam in 1965 at age 29.
You were the youngest to win the title. That's still a record, is it
not?
GP: I'm not sure of that. I think it is, but I'm not sure.
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