Awesome at Augusta

Gary Player won his third Masters on Sunday with a final round tour de force that shattered the serene ante-bellum atmosphere of the Augusta National Golf Club.

Displaying the steely intensity that has characterized his approach to the game, Player rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt on the amphitheater 18th green for a resounding 64.

It would have taken a very keen student of the game to predict that the wiry young South African with the ungainly swing, who missed the cut in his first Masters back in 1957, would go on to become the fourth man in the history of golf to win all four major tournaments.

Before entering the winner's circle, Player witnessed the destruction of the bids for victory of Hubert Green, defending champion Tom Watson, and veteran Rod Funseth.

Green, who led most of the way, needed a birdie on the 72nd hole to force a sudden-death playoff. He ladled an 8-iron approach to within three feet of the flagstick. Then he jabbed the pivotal putt to the left of the cup and Player had earned his third green Masters jacket.

Player's competitive fiber is legend. His father, who was mine captain of the Robinson Deep Mine in Johannesburg took him out for his first round at age 15. He parred the first three holes, and thereafter he dedicated himself to improving his game with demonic determination. Short and frail, he adopted a brutal regimen of calisthenics in order to increase his length off the tee.

Player also became a health food devotee, subsisting on fruits and nuts before such a diet was in vogue. At the 1966 U.S. Open the press corps checked into its hotel and was greeted with a complementary bunch of bananas from Player and the Chiquita company.

Player is renowned for his Spartan, black tournament wardrobe. He wears black for a specific purpose: "To absorb the strength of the sun." Player also derives inner strength from his faith in God. He once pontificated, "my strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure."

Player's ancestors were French Huguenots who emigrated to South Africa in the early 18th century. His great-grandmother participated in the Great Trek of the Boers north from Capetown in 1847. She married James Powers, whose intimate knowledge of South Africa's veldts and wildlife has been inherited by Player. In fact, Player's brother Ian was chief game conservator of the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi game reserves in Zululand.

Player once said: "All South Africans have this powerful feeling for land, and this has come down through the generations, too. My father had a keen eye. He was very good with a rifle, very good with golf clubs, and had this feeling for the lie of the land ... I do believe that I have some of it, in relation to golf ... I certainly have a feeling for the drainage of a golf hole, the sheltering effect of trees, the feel of the surface soil under my spikes and so on."

Player's sixth sense has been invaluable for a golfer who regularly plays in championships on every continent. This year he won his tenth South African Open. On Sunday he displayed all of his dexterity in gauging the manifold contours of Augusta's greens, which hold approach shots much better than the hard greens of South African courses.

Player's great success in the Masters over the years is uniquely fitting. The course was designed by Alister Mackenzie, an Englishman who had fought in the Boer War. Mackenzie was deply impressed with the Boers' ability to consistently ambush the British forces because of their familiarity with the terrain. When it came time to design Augusta, he was inspired by the subtle techniques of camouflaging he had learned in South Africa.

After he sank his birdie putt on 18 on Sunday, Player, whose demeanor is akin to that of the dour Scotch pros of old, erupted into a victory jig. He also punched the air in triumph. This is a common gesture nowadays, but before the 21-year-old Gary Player joined the U.S. tour in 1957, it had never been seen in America.