Golf: the “king” who changed his sport
“They called Arnold Palmer ‘The King’,” said James Corrigan in The Daily Telegraph, but in many respects that nickname was “wholly inappropriate”. The son of a greenkeeper-cum-club professional, Palmer “was never handed anything because of his bloodline”. But through charm, grit and canny business sense, he became one of the richest and most popular golfers in history. He won seven majors and 62 PGA tournaments. The first golfer to earn $1m in career prize money, he pioneered the now-ubiquitous practice of building a lucrative personal “brand”. Perhaps most importantly, he played with a verve and devil-maycare attitude that helped popularise the sport in the nascent TV era. “Trouble is bad to get into but fun to get out of,” he explained. “I suppose there’s a place to play it safe, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s not on the golf course.”
Palmer, who died on Sunday aged 87, “first began swinging cutdown golf clubs when he was four years old”, at his family’s home in Pennsylvania, said BBC Sport online. Under his father’s simple instructions – “hit it hard, boy” – he developed an unorthodox yet effective swing. After attending university on a scholarship, he won the US Amateur tournament in 1954, and turned professional a few days later. “The next decade was one of heroic achievement,” said David Davies in The Guardian. Cheered on by his fans, Arnie’s Army, he won the Masters four times, the Open twice – nearly single-handedly reviving the “almost moribund” British tournament – and the US Open once. His record was all the more impressive given he was often competing against two other all-time greats: fellow American Jack Nicklaus, and South Africa’s Gary Player. Yet success in the fourth major, the PGA Championship, always eluded Palmer; three times he tied for second. “I should have won it,” he said. “I wanted it too bad.”
With TV beaming golf “into Middle America’s living room”, Palmer became a “crossover star”, said Chris Dufresne in the Los Angeles Times. He endorsed anything and everything – sporting equipment, cars, cigarettes, soft drinks, even tractors and dry cleaners – and was soon earning more than $500,000 a year from brands. He became good friends with then president Dwight D. Eisenhower, and saw his favourite drink, a mix of ice tea and lemonade, became known worldwide as an “Arnold Palmer”. He only fully retired in 2006, aged 76. His only disappointment? His nickname, which he hated. “There is no king of golf,” he said. “Golf is the most democratic game on Earth. It punishes and exalts us all with splendid equal opportunity.”