Dubai: Nine-time Major winner Gary Player says World No.1 Jordan Spieth is the best putter he’s ever seen.
“Rory McIlroy and Jason Day have the best swings but the best putter is Jordan Spieth,” said the 80-year-old South African on the sidelines of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
“He might be as good a putter as I’ve seen. Although Tiger Woods takes a lot of beating, what he did. But this man day-in day-out is such a great putter.
“It’s going to be fascinating to see who does the best in the end,” he added of Spieth, McIlroy and Day. “All I can say is that the old saying that the Scottish people came up with, ‘you drive for show and you putt for dough’, is so damn true. This man is such a putter.”
Player also credited Spieth’s decision to play in Abu Dhabi and Singapore recently but waved off fears of burnout surrounding the jet-setting 22-year-old American. “I think tiredness is in the mind. I don’t know how you get tired playing for $1 million (Dh3.67 million) every week.
“I’m pleased to see he’s playing internationally. All the superstars of the game played international golf and proved that they could win anywhere in the world.”
Of flailing 14-time Major winner Tiger Woods, who is struggling with a persistent back injury, Player said: “He’s at the crossroads, and we are all hoping that he will do well, because he is vitally important for golf.
“He gave golf a boost as much as I’ve ever seen in my life. So it’s important that he comes back. But what a challenge he’s got on his hands.
“Fifty per cent of me says ‘yes’ [he will return] because he was the most talented man that ever lived, and 50 per cent of me says ‘I have my doubts’.
“We were so accustomed to seeing him hit a chip shot this close, or holing a putt across the green or hitting his driver 330 yards down the fairway. Now you see him in the rough and duffing chips; and three knee operations, two back operations and a few of the other problems he’s had – wow – but if anyone can do it, it’s Tiger Woods.”
One player who appears to have made a comeback this week after almost quitting last season is four-time Major winner Ernie Els.
“He just had a bad patch and that happens to everybody in their lives,” Player said of Els, who had been struggling with his short game after the ban of the belly putter and a bad case of the yips, which are involuntary shakes that plague golfers on the green.
“I keep hearing people say, ‘well, he’s 46’, but strictly speaking that’s the prime of your life. He’s still a young man, he’s not old, I mean I’m 80 and I’m averaging 70 on a normal golf course.
“I’m expecting big things from Ernie, I really am, because he has such talent.”
