Player recalls Muirfield magic

Player with the famous Claret Jug in 1959, the first of three Open wins

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of Gary Player's first triumph at a major championship; the 1959 Open at Muirfield.

The first of nine major championship victories, the South African has vivid memories of his seminal triumph.

In testing conditions, he shot a final round of 68, which included a horrible double bogey at the last, to lift the Claret Jug at the age of 23.

"Flory van Donck was a marvellous golfer and I thought he or Fred Bullock were going to beat me," Player told BBC Scotland.

"The Open Championship has always been the most important tournament in the world and I wanted to win it very badly.

"The night before I had dinner with an English gentleman who sponsored me and I said 'tomorrow you're going to see a miracle, I'm so fit and the wind's going to come up and I'm going to win the Open.' He said, 'oh, my dear fellow, that would be a miracle, wouldn't it?'

"I won and I finished with a double bogey on the last hole. I went down to the prize-giving with my white sports jacket and I sat there for half-an-hour before anybody even started coming. I looked over the beautiful Scottish countryside and said a little prayer of thanks. It was a very special day.

"That was the start of my career, really."

Now 73, Player played in this year's Masters - a record 52nd appearance - but would he ever consider playing in the Open again?

"No, no, no. I think I played in the Open 47 straight times - it's a record," he replied.

"It's for the young fellows and I've had a wonderful time and I've watched the Open every year, even when I've not been playing, I always come over.

"This will be the first time I will not be there. I'm going to visit my golf courses that I'm designing in Poland, Austria and Bulgaria so unfortunately I'll just be watching it on TV."

Renowned for his dedication to health and fitness, Player believes mental strength has been the most important element of his success.

"I used to go to the scoreboard everyday before the tournament and I saw my name there and I visualised it," explained Player.

"The mind is the big thing, it's not how well you swing or how far you hit the ball.

"When you get to a certain standard of the top 20 players in the world, what separates them is the mind and that's what Tiger Woods is so good at, he's got a phenomenal mind."

Woods is closing in on the record of 18 major championships held by Jack Nicklaus but Player believes the current world number one can still improve.

Woods needs to improve his swing, according to Player

"Tiger is almost twice as good as anybody else, he is a remarkable young man and when he learns to drive the ball well, he might win every tournament he plays in, that's how good he is," Player added.

"He misses a lot of fairways and he gets very confused sometimes with his driving. It takes time, nobody just starts off with everything that is perfect.

"He will get that right because he's a highly intelligent young man and a hard worker, he's set a great example with his work ethic.

"He's doing, in my opinion, just a little thing wrong in his swing and I'm sure he'll find that out.

"It looks like in time to come, if he stays healthy and doesn't have accidents, he could turn out to be the greatest player that ever lived.

"But people are so quick to always say people in their time are the best in the world.

"If you look at Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson, there've never really been three better players in the world than those chaps. From the day I started, there's always been fierce competition.

"It was harder in my opinion for Jack Nicklaus to win a major championship than for Tiger. There were a lot more players that could win major championships when Nicklaus was winning. Tiger just annihilates everybody."

Gary Player was talking to BBC Scotland's Brian McLauchlin, while this article was compiled by Andy Campbell