Golf great Palmer a hero to everyman
Palmer revered for playing style, charm, charity
Arnold Palmer, hitting a ceremonial tee shot at the Masters in 2015, was revered for his playing style, charisma and charitable ventures.
Before accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, Arnold Palmer shared a few laughs with then-president George W. Bush and gave the commander in chief a few golf tips in the East Room of the White House.
Eight years later, when honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, Palmer, who again offered golf tips to some of the country’s most important politicians, jokingly thanked the House and the Senate for agreeing on something.
After receiving the highest civilian awards given in the USA, Palmer went outside each day, at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and the U.S. Capitol, and signed autographs.
That was Palmer, a man who connected with the masses, who related to kids, the hourly wage employee, the CEO — and presidents.
Palmer, who died Sunday in Pittsburgh at 87, was the accessible common man who would become “The King” and lead an army. Along the way he became one of his sport’s best players and a successful businessman, philanthropist, trailblazing advertising spokesman, talented golf course designer and experienced aviator.
While his approach on the course was not a model of aesthetics — the whirlybird followthrough, the pigeon-toed putting stance — it worked for him. With thick forearms and a thin waist, Palmer had an aggressive, riskreward approach to golf that made for compelling theater. He hit the ball with authority and for distance and ushered in an aggressive, hitch-up-your-trousers, go-for-broke power game rarely seen in the often-stoic sport.
Palmer, part of the alluring “Big Three,” with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, won 62 titles on the PGA Tour, his last coming in the 1973 Bob Hope Desert Classic. Among those victories were four at the Masters, two at the British Open and one at the U.S. Open. He finished second in the U.S. Open four times, was runner-up three times in the PGA Championship, the only major that eluded him, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Palmer became one of the best-known sports figures and, at 5-10, 175 pounds, a telegenic golfer who burst out of black-andwhite television sets in the late 1950s and into the 1960s and took the game to the masses.
“Arnold meant everything to golf,” Tiger Woods said. “I mean, without his charisma, without his personality in conjunction with TV — it was just the perfect symbiotic growth. ... Everyone got hooked to the game of golf via TV because of Arnold.”
FRIEND TO PRESIDENTS
Palmer won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour four times, played on six Ryder Cup teams and was captain twice.
He earned virtually every national award in golf and was Athlete of the Decade for the 1960s in a national Associated Press poll. Palmer, who helped found the Golf Channel decades later, also helped usher in the PGA Tour Champions, where he won 10 times, including five majors.
He was a magnetic star who attracted legions of fans who had never played golf as the television boon exploded across the land.
Those fans included U.S. presidents.
Dwight Eisenhower, who loved golf, was one of Palmer’s best friends. Richard Nixon asked Palmer about the Vietnam War. Palmer played golf with both Presidents Bush.
There is a drink named in Palmer’s honor, as well as an airport, a golf tournament, hospitals, streets, charity initiatives and 19th-hole grill rooms.
And from start to finish, Palmer signed as many autographs, posed for as many pictures, chatted with as many fans in the galleries as any other golfer.
“There are two things that made golf appealing to the average man — Arnold Palmer and the invention of the mulligan,” actor/ comedian and good friend Bob Hope once said.
Palmer was a folk hero with a driver in his hand and a handshake after the round.
“Arnold Palmer was the everyday man’s hero,” Nicklaus said. “From the modest upbringing, Arnold embodied the hardworking strength of America.”
ORIGINS OF ‘ARNIE’S ARMY’
Palmer was the oldest of four children born to Deacon and Doris Palmer. He received his first set of golf clubs from his father, who worked at Latrobe (Pa.) Country Club from 1921 until his death in 1976.
Palmer learned the grip and the swing from his father, as well as manners, integrity and respect.
Palmer worked nearly every job at the club before heading to Wake Forest, where he became one of the top collegiate players. But when his close friend, Bud Worsham, was killed in a car accident, Palmer quit school and enlisted for a three-year hitch in the U.S. Coast Guard.
While stationed in Cleveland, his passion for golf was rekindled. While working as a paint salesman, Palmer quickly got his game back in order and won the 1954 U.S. Amateur Championship. On Nov. 18, 1954, at 25, he turned pro.
His greatest stretch of golf began in 1960 and lasted four years, with Palmer winning six major championships and 29 titles on the PGA Tour. In 1960, at the Masters in Augusta, Ga., a local newspaper coined the phrase “Arnie’s Army,” when soldiers from nearby Camp Gordon followed Palmer. Soon, nonuniformed fans enlisted.
Palmer’s defining moment, one that embedded the word “charge” into the minds of his adoring fans, came in the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. Palmer had won the Masters two months earlier, with birdies on the final two holes to edge Ken Venturi by one shot. But Palmer began the final round of the Open seven strokes and 14 players behind and was told by Bob Drum of The Pittsburgh Press that he was too far behind to win.
Angered by the remark, Palmer drove the first green 346 yards away and made the first of four consecutive birdies. He shot a final-round 65 to complete the comeback victory.
A month later, Palmer went to St. Andrews for the British Open, and his presence helped salvage the game’s oldest championship.
In all, Palmer won eight times in 1960, the year he signed with pioneering sports agent Mark McCormack and became a marketing giant for products ranging from golf equipment to jackets and slacks to automobile oil and rental cars. Palmer became the first professional golfer to earn $1 million for his career. Even into his 80s he was pulling in an estimated $20 million a year.
“Arnold was the epitome of a superstar,” fellow Hall of Famer Raymond Floyd said. “He set the standard for how superstars in every sport ought to be, in the way he has always signed autographs, in the way he has always made time for everyone.”
Palmer’s appeal was so large, so wide that he even gave origin to a beverage. One of his favorite drinks was a mixture of iced tea and lemonade. The Arnold Palmer is available in grocery stores.
“A guy came up to the bar, and he ordered an Arnold Palmer, and the barman knew what that drink was,” three-time major champion Padraig Harrington recalled about a visit to an Indian restaurant in Orlando in 2009. “Now that’s getting to another level. Think about it, you don’t go up there and order a Tiger Woods at the bar.”
Palmer also helped raised hundreds of millions for charities.
In 1989, the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children opened in Orlando. Nearly 200,000 children have been born there.
Arnie’s Army Battles Prostate Cancer, launched in 2002, has raised more than $3 million for prostate cancer research.
Palmer also left his stamp on developing some 225 courses throughout the world.
“The game has given so much to Arnold Palmer,” Nicklaus said, “but he has given back so much more.”