Famed golfer Gary Player faces criticism for accepting medal from Trump after Capitol invasion – The Globe and Mail

South African golfer Gary Player is facing a growing backlash for his decision to accept a medal from President Donald Trump less than a day after the violent invasion of the Capitol building by a mob of Trump supporters.

The public outrage, especially within South Africa, has cast a renewed spotlight on Mr. Player’s extensive support for apartheid in the 1960s and 1970s, including his work in recruiting business investors and undermining the sports boycott of the apartheid regime.

He is a long-time friend and occasional golf partner of Mr. Trump and is one of just 51 people followed by Mr. Trump on Twitter.

The medal ceremony on Thursday morning, in which Mr. Trump gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mr. Player and fellow golfer Annika Sorenstam, was reportedly Mr. Trump’s first official White House event after the storming of Capitol Hill by thousands of his supporters. No media were permitted to attend the ceremony.

Even the golfer’s eldest son, Marc Player, tweeted his criticism of his father’s decision to accept the medal. “I wish my father would simply & politely decline this ‘award’ at this time,” he said on Twitter. “Tone deaf. In denial. Wrong!”

Jonathan Jansen, a prominent South African educator and former vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, was equally critical. “Why is Gary Player accepting the U.S. Medal of Freedom today from a man who incited insurrection yesterday?” he tweeted on Thursday. “Gary, stand down on principle. Don’t embarrass South Africa.”

Pierre de Vos, a well-known South African constitutional lawyer, said the decision to accept the award from Mr. Trump was “vile.”

Mr. Player had not responded to the criticism on his social-media accounts or website by Friday afternoon. But when the award was first announced by Mr. Trump’s office last March, he tweeted: “I love and respect the USA and feel greatly honored.”

Mr. Player, now 85, was a vocal defender of apartheid for many years, and was often the target of protests by anti-apartheid activists in the 1960s and 1970s. The United Nations cited him as a violator of the boycott of apartheid sport. He later reversed his stance, saying that he had been “brainwashed” by a regime that “pulled the wool over our eyes.”

After his decision to accept the medal from Mr. Trump this week, many South African researchers have been quoting excerpts from books – by Mr. Player and others – that documented his support for apartheid.

In his 1966 book Grand Slam Golf, after becoming the youngest golfer to win a career Grand Slam of major tournaments, Mr. Player wrote: “I must say now, and clearly, that I am of the South Africa of Verwoerd and apartheid.” (Hendrik Verwoerd was a former South African prime minister and key architect of apartheid.)

In his book, Mr. Player defended racial segregation and described apartheid South Africa as “the product of its instinct to maintain civilized values and standards among the alien barbarians.” Africans, he wrote, “may well believe in witchcraft and primitive magic, practice ritual murder and polygamy; his wealth is in cattle.”

A book by a former apartheid propagandist, Les de Villiers, documented how Mr. Player worked for an apartheid organization, the Committee for Fairness in Sport, to counteract the movement to boycott South African sports in the 1970s.

Another book, by Eschel Rhoodie, a former secretary of information in the apartheid government, said Mr. Player wrote letters to top U.S. business executives from 1975 to 1978, at the government’s request, to invite them to golf with him in South Africa. This made it easier for the government to meet the U.S. investors and persuade them to resist the political pressure to withdraw their investments from South Africa, the book said.

South African journalist Micah Reddy said Mr. Player could have used the White House medal as an opportunity to renounce his former apartheid views in a clear public statement. “It was an easy opportunity for Player to help correct his past support for white supremacy,” Mr. Reddy tweeted.

“Player had a clear shot, but blew it by accepting that award … . He probably won’t get an opening like that again.”

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