West Palm Beach, Florida - 2025
Golf and Wall Street have always been closely connected. Club Memberships are often coveted and require decent salaries and social standing and then the weekend’s golf game can provide levity to dealing room banter on a Monday morning. Meanwhile, Pro-Am charity golf days offer the chance for high rolling stockbrokers and asset managers to spend a few hours with someone they normally only see on a PGA leaderboard. The pros give the Wall Street types some shots, some stories and some tips and everyone goes away happy, with money raised for a good cause. It’s all fairly standard stuff.
But this matchup between nine times Major winner - Gary Player - and the infamous Wolf of Wall Street - Jordan Belfort and his entourage - looks a little spicier. For one thing, Mr Player is a man of principle who chooses his company carefully and then Mr Belfort is a competitive man who does not take kindly to be being shown up by a gentleman in his 90th year on the planet; it is not on brand. He wanted to impress the girls and not get his ass kicked.
The juxtaposition of these two individuals offered the premise for a photograph that would merit a second look and that is always a good starting point for me.
Of course there was only winner on the day. Gary Player is living proof that age is just a number and we are all humbled by his fitness and, of course, his golf game. He is as good a talker as Jordan and better still, most of his stories are child friendly.