Gary Player, steroids, creatine and a bunch of bull

Gary Player’s pronouncement that perhaps 10 players in all the worldwide professional golf tours are using steroids is patented Gary Player garbage. He’s looking for media attention, and I here I sit guilty of giving it to him, so I’m just as bad as he is.

He said they may be using creatine, to which I say, “Who cares?” Creatine is a legal substance. And why such a small number? Ten total? Hell, that’s not even worth talking about. Have you seen professional golfers? Those who aren’t skinny are fat. Tiger’s the only one I see even partially yoked up.

Player says he got the information from a golfer who actually uses steroids and he promised not to reveal the guy’s name. So why say anything at all? I’ll tell you why - because Gary Player can’t stop himself from talking.

From a golf writer’s perspective, I can tell you that I interviewed him one time and he spent a good bit of our time proselytizing and telling me that I should be reading Proverbs.

I’ve also seen him several times at the Memorial Tournament and he always has the same joke about Jack Nicklaus - which Jack seems to really dislike. He always says Jack wasn’t the best winner in golf, he was the best loser, because he took all those second place finishes with such grace. I actually made a bet with another sports writer at the opening of the Jack Nicklaus Museum on the amount of time it would take Player to come off with that bit. It came early in his opening and I collected.