Ladies and gentlemen, here’s a date for your diaries – the 12th July. Why? Because you’ll be able to see the above body without any clothes on.
Yes that’s right! At 77 years young, Gary Player will feature in all his glory in ESPN The Magazine’s “Body Issue,” where some of sports greatest athletes, past and present, will be posing naked for the magazine.
Mr Fitness, a nickname he earned in the fifties, took to Twitter to announce his anticipation about the forthcoming issue of the magazine.
I know I’m no Olympic athlete but have worked hard to look after myself. Hopefully @ESPNMag Body Issue will inspire others to do the same.
— Gary Player (@garyplayer) June 26, 2013
I was at first hesitant, but @ESPNmag‘s Body Issue celebrates the human body. No matter what your age, we should all look after ourselves!
— Gary Player (@garyplayer) June 25, 2013
After a lifetime dedicated to health & fitness I’m chuffed to be in @ESPNmag‘s Body Issue to hopefully inspire others to workout & live well
— Gary Player (@garyplayer) June 25, 2013
The South African will join San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Olympic volleyball medallist Kerri Walsh Jennings, NBA players John Wall and Kenneth Faried, and baseball players Matt Harvey and Giancarlo Stanton in the fifth-annual “Body Issue”.
Mr Player will become the oldest athlete to appear in the special issue. However The Black Knight isn’t the first golfer to have posed naked for ESPN The Magazine. Sandra Gal, Christina Kim, Anna Grzebian, Belen Mozo, Suzann Petterssen and Camilo Villegas have all featured before.
We’ve been a bit eager and decided to have a go at making our own version of what Gary Player might look like when the magazine is released.
The nine-time major champion’s appearance in the magazine serves to remind readers that keeping yourself in good shape is not reserved solely for the young.
In 1984, at the age of 48, Mr Fitness came very close to becoming the oldest ever major champion, finishing just behind Lee Trevino at the PGA Championship. And in harsh conditions at the 1998 Masters, in strong winds, he became the oldest ever golfer to make the cut, smashing the 25-year record that was previously held by Sam Snead. Player has credited this amazing feat to his devotion to the concept of diet, health, practice and golf fitness.
The Black Knight is also often recognized for making physical fitness a very important part of professional and amateur golf as he is well known for his extreme exercise regime, which comprises of 1,000 sit-ups a day, and admitted he had been working-out particularly hard for the shoot.
“When other players first saw my weight-training program back in the 1950s, they thought I was crazy,” he said.
“In fact, lifting weights has made me a better golfer.”