South African golfer Gary Player is to dispose of his trophies, including his Masters’ green jacket, through Christie’s of London, in a sale certain to raise eyebrows in the golfing world, the Times reported on Wednesday.
Player (66) had passed all his memorabilia to the London auction house, for ”a negotiated private sale” within the next six months, the newspaper said, stressing the sale would not be by public auction.
The collection, expected to raise up to five million dollars, is to be kept together. According to the Times, there are 300 or more items, including replicas of the trophies that he won at all four major tournaments. The money will go in part to the Gary Player Foundation to help underprivileged children, and a school on his estate in South Africa, and in part to a trust fund for his children and grandchildren.
There is some controversy about the green jacket he won at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, which is not intended ever to be worn — for reasons of tradition rather than sartorial elegance.
The Times said that in Player’s day, the winner was not even supposed to take it away. It was put on and then given back. Player took his away in 1961 by mistake and was allowed to keep it, on condition he did not wear it.
Augusta National Golf Club declined to comment on the sale, but the Times suggested chairman Hootie Johnson was likely to issue an instruction on the disposal of all future green jackets. Player, alongside Bobbie Locke and Ernie Els, is one of South Africa’s greatest golfers. The little man in black, as he was known to many fans over a long career, often had to face anti-apartheid demonstrations while playing in the 1960s and 1970s. A favourite trick of protesters was to throw additional golf balls onto the green as he was about to putt. – Sapa-DPA