text: Gary Player will attend his 58th Masters this week fully expecting to welcome a new member to the game’s most exclusive club and salute what he considers would be one of the sport’s finest accomplishments. The great man considers Tiger Woods completing the career Grand Slam at the age of just 24 as the best golfing feat he has seen. So you can imagine how excited he is at the prospect of Rory McIlroy becoming just the sixth player to win all four majors at only 25. ‘I’m not sure people fully realise what a magnificent effort it would be,’ said the South African legend. ‘When I completed my Slam at 29 I said to my wife that you will never see that done again. Then Jack Nicklaus came along and did it at 26 and then Tiger at 24. Jack Nicklaus watches his shot go for a birdie on the 17th at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta in 1986 . Rory McIlroy meets up with South African Golf Legend Gary Player during the pro-am in 2009 . Rory McIlroy, pictured in action at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and is favourite to win the Masters . ‘Now we have Rory, and I tell you this: I honestly believe he is going to do it. I just believe everything is going to fall into place for him, that he will learn from the mistakes he made when he messed up in 2011 and put everything right.’ It is not hard to see why Player would have such a special affinity for McIlroy. Two men of similar stature who came from a foreign land to take on the Americans in the majors in their own backyard; two men with a commitment to fitness with minds strong enough to ward off all the criticism. Forget Tiger. It was Player, of course, who wrote the book when it came to golfers and fitness. Heavens, he is still doing 1,300 sit-ups and squatting 300lb every morning even now, at the age of 79. He is withering in his contempt of those who say McIlroy is ‘bulking up’ too much in the gym. ‘I’m going to guess most of the critics are fat and don’t watch what they eat,’ he says. ‘Just because they’re lazy, they can’t grasp that fitness is so vital. Tom Watson presents Player with a Green Jacket after the 1978 Masters Tournament at Augusta National . ‘I was told that because I was so keen on fitness my career in golf would be over early and I wouldn’t win any tournaments after the age of 34. I was told I had no chance of winning the US Open if I was squatting 325lb the previous evening. What rubbish. ‘I’m just so pleased to see travelling gymnasiums on the circuit and that most players see the value of putting themselves through the pain barrier. I used to go down to the local YMCA wherever we were playing and sometimes wait 20 minutes to use the equipment. But it you want to be a superstar, and by a superstar I mean a player who has won at least six majors, there are no short cuts. Woods could pose a threat to McIlroy at the Masters after confirming that he will play at Augusta . ‘Rory will be an absolute superstar when he wins the Masters. And yes, I can see a lot of similarities with myself. I love the fact he is a people person, for example, and engages with the fans. That’s what I used to love, and still do. So many pros can’t be bothered to talk to the fans and it’s so wrong.’ Player also gives short shrift to the idea that completing the career Grand Slam is a modern media invention. ‘I tell you it was electrifying when I completed it in 1965,’ he said. ‘I so wanted to follow Gene Sarazen and particularly Ben Hogan and become the third player to achieve it, because Hogan was the best player I’d seen. Jack and I were both in competition to complete it and it was a piece of advice Jack gave me that helped me over the line. ‘I was due to play a tournament at Greensboro in 1965 when Jack said if I wanted to win the US Open and complete the set I should go with him to the US Open site and practise. I said I needed the money, that I had loads of children to look after, but I went with him. So he played a key role. McIlroy manages a smile after throwing away a four-shot lead on the final day of the Masters in 2011 . Jack Nicklaus  waves before hitting his drive at the ceremonial start of the 2014 Masters golf tournament . ‘It was amazing afterwards. Everyone wanted to know how a man from a small country who lost his mother at the age of eight and his dad worked in a mine could achieve such a thing. How on earth could it happen?’ Player and Nicklaus have remained lifelong friends. They will be partners in a team competition in the autumn before Player heads to Greece for his 80th birthday celebrations. ‘There will be 35 people there and Jack and I will need to win that event for me to be able to pay for it,’ said Player, laughing. As for Augusta, he is looking forward as ever to hitting the ceremonial first shot on Thursday alongside Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. And then, 50 years on from his own date with history, he will join every other fascinated observer to see if another non-American can complete the set of majors and join him on what former US Open champion Curtis Strange evocatively refers to as golf’s Mount Rushmore.
target: Gary Player considers Tiger Woods Grand Slam at 24 as best golfing feat .
  South African will attend his 58th Masters this week at Augusta National .
  Player is excited at the prospect of Rory McIlroy joining exclusive club .
  McIlroy could become only the sixth player to win all four majors .