By Matt Smith
The Gary Player family feuds are just not going away.
Gary claimed on Monday that memorabilia belonging to him has been put up for auction without his permission by his son Marc.
The 86-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer from South Africa took to social media to issue a statement that his son, who managed his business affairs for more than 20 years, had put a number of items, including some of his trophies, up for auction without his consent.
However, on Tuesday, Darren Heitner, a lawyer representing Marc Player, released a statement describing Gary Player’s claim of ownership to the memorabilia in question as “baseless”. “You cannot take back what no longer belongs to you,” the statement read.
Heitner claims that in 2002, Marc Player worked with Christie’s London to catalogue almost 300 items from his father. Heitner says in the statement that this collection of items was sold eventually to South African billionaire Johann Rupert, with Marc receiving none of the earnings despite an agreement in which he would get half. The remaining items Marc Player possesses he says “were validly gifted” to him by his parents and remain his.
“For Gary, through James Throssell, to claim these other items belong to him and that he has never sold trophies or memorabilia is simply not true,” Heitner writes, “and to then interfere with Marc’s personal collection is not only legally wrong but smacks of a continued petty effort by Gary’s advisors to besmirch Marc’s name and reputation wherever possible.”
“I would like to draw the public’s attention to the fact that several trophies and other pieces of memorabilia that form part of my legacy have been put up for auction by my son and ex-manager, Marc,” the statement read. “These items belong to me and I have taken action to recover them. I have placed no items for sale—whether by auction or otherwise.”
James Throssell, brand and legal counsel for Gary Player and his grandson, told Golf Digest via email: “The auction house has taken the trophies down from the online auction and is holding them pending resolution of the dispute.” Throssell added that he was not at liberty to identify the auction house and that Gary Player is enforcing a confidential settlement agreement with Marc Player entered into last year.
Among the items, Throssell wrote, are “goods that Mr Player either won tournaments with, was given [to him] by sponsors [tournament bags etc.] as well as trophies won by Mr Player during his career.”
Throssell wrote that Marc Player was entrusted with the items during his tenure as his father’s manager, “with the belief they would be taken care of with Mr Player’s best interest at heart.”
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