Golf Digest say Arnold Palmer personifies golf more than anyone else

I READ with great interest recently that Golf Digest (USA), which is celebrating its 70th year in publication, still rank Arnold Palmer as the man who personifies the game of golf the most during their seven decades.

“Arnold Palmer endures as the figure who personifies golf through the years of Golf Digest’s existence,” the magazine wrote. “Ben Hogan might have been the greatest ball-striker, Jack Nicklaus the greatest champion, Tiger Woods the greatest player, but for the spirit he embodies, our man of perpetuity is Arnold

Palmer.”

Since I first picked up a golf club as a small boy I have always been an Arnold Palmer fan as I love flamboyant players, and in later years I was fortunate enough to meet the man on two occasions.

Back in July 2001 I was afforded the opportunity by Tralee Golf Club to interview him during one of his visits, and to say that I was awestruck at actually meeting him, never mind interviewing him, would be an understatement.

However, the occasion had a tinge of sadness for me in that my late father, who had passed away the previous year, wasn’t around to witness it, as he was also a huge Palmer fan and would have loved to have met him.

I grew up on stories of how my father had travelled over by boat with some friends from Ballybunion to the 1961 Ryder Cup matches at Royal Lytham & St Annes just to see Arnold Palmer play, and he didn’t disappoint, taking three and a half points from a possible four.

Anyway, back to Tralee, and as the interview was for Radio Kerry, and to keep out any background noise, I was alone with him in a room at the clubhouse for possibly fifteen minutes, where I found him to be polite and very business-like, answering all my questions, without being over friendly.

However, seven years later, it was a totally different story. I was attending the annual PGA show in Florida with three friends, and we were invited to play golf at Palmer’s course at Bay Hill in Orlando by an overseas member of Ballybunion.

We played the course, which was an amazing experience, and afterwards we joined our host for a bite to eat and a drink in the famous downstairs Men’s Grill in the clubhouse.

“Would you guys like to meet Mr Palmer?” our friend asked and beckoned to the great man who had just walked in. He came over, shook each of us warmly by the hand, welcoming us to Bay Hill and he pulled up a chair for a lengthy chat, asking us about the course at Tralee and mentioning Ballybunion and how he had heard about the course but had never been.

He could not have been nicer, asking each of us about our game, posing for photographs and signing baseball hats for us. He must have spent a half hour in our company before telling us that he had to leave as he was due to play golf.

Our Bay Hill member friend explained that as it was a Wednesday, it was Seniors day at the club and they all gather in the grill, make a draw for partners and Arnold Palmer puts his name in and will play with any of them, no matter how bad they are at golf.

Here was a guy who had done it all and won it all in the game but spent every Wednesday playing with a bunch of old hackers and enjoying the banter.

He was a man of the people and, frankly, it’s no surprise that Golf Digest rate him as the greatest.