South African golf legend Gary Player is set to receive the Medal of Freedom from US President Donald Trump on Thursday.
The news has been confirmed by the Golf Channel website.
The 85-year-old Player was announced as a recipient of the honour all the way back in March 2020, but the presentation was delayed as the coronavirus pandemic swept the USA and the planet.
Annika Sorenstam and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who died in 1956, are also recipients.
According the Golf Channel Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Charlie Sifford and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to have previously received the award.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom awards "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavours", the site adds.
Trump has long been an admirer of Player, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest sportspeople South Africa has ever produced.
Player won nine Major championships between 1959 and 1978 and he is one of just 51 accounts that President Trump follows on Twitter.
The ceremony comes just a day after protesters and rioters stormed the US Capitol in Washington with Trump being heavily criticised for his role in what many experts are describing as one of the dark days in American political history.
- Compiled by Sport24 staff
Today President Trump will award the Medal of Freedom to golfers Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player, as well as Olympian Babe Zaharias, a White House official confirms to @CBSNews. It is not on the public schedule, meaning that as of now the press will not have access to the event
— Sara Cook (@saraecook) January 7, 2021