Palmer & the Majors

“Influenced by my father,” Arnold Palmer once said, “I didn’t think you could become a world-renowned player unless you participated internationally. I felt the British Open was one championship I had to play.”

It was July 1960 and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club was preparing to stage the 100th Open Championship at St Andrews, starring a 30-year-old Arnold Palmer—who had won the Masters that April and followed up two months later with a thrilling, come-from-behind victory in the U.S. Open. As well as being on his way to becoming golf’s first global ambassador, Palmer also was pondering how the game’s four “majors” could be redefined. Golf’s only previous Grand Slam had been Bobby Jones’ annexing of the Open and Amateur championships of both the British Isles and the United States in 1930. But three decades later, the two amateur titles were seen mainly as stepping stones towards the paid ranks, the “Impregnable Quadrilateral”—as it was originally styled—had faded into sepia-tinted irrelevance by the time Palmer visited the British Isles for the first time.

Yet this same journey also precipitated the birth of the modern Grand Slam, pinpointed as it is to Palmer’s conversation during the transatlantic flight for the centenary Open with Bob Drum, a friend and journalist from the Pittsburgh Press. Palmer recalled it was “during our extended cocktail hour” that he and Drum talked about Jones’ feat and how it could never be repeated. Then Palmer showed his hand: “What would be wrong with a professional Grand Slam involving the Masters, both Opens and the PGA Championship?” he asked. Initially Drum was quizzical, but the idea soon struck a chord with the veteran reporter, his fellow journalists and, before long, the wider world. The rest, as they say, is Major History. In this issue we explore this year’s Majors and feature Arnie’s Father, Deacon.

Majors section starts page 43