Sweet Home Virginia
The Greenbrier features prominently among Arnold Palmer’s first and last professional successes, bookending an association that lasted more than 60 years
Arnold Palmer’s bond to The Greenbrier dates back to his rookie year on tour
In the 1950s the PGA clung to an arcane rule that touring pros could not pick-up official prize money until they had served a six-month apprenticeship on tour. So when The Greenbrier’s Professional Emeritus Sam Snead personally invited Arnold Palmer to his pro-am in May 1955—an unofficial tournament at which tour rookie Palmer was allowed to earn winnings—penniless Palmer didn’t hesitate.
Newly married Arnold and Winnie Palmer had spent the early season traveling between tournaments in Palmer’s beaten up two-door Ford, pulling along a trailer home.
At The Greenbrier, Palmer and amateur partner Spencer Olin tied for first in the pro-am, while Palmer finished third in the pro division. Palmer collected prize money of $1,500 before Olin gave him a $5,000 share from the amateurs’ Calcutta pool. It was the biggest check of Palmer’s fledgling career to that point and as a result, the old Ford was succeeded by a Chrysler New Yorker, a car much better suited to cruising coast to coast.
Palmer’s friendship with Snead would last the rest of their lives and Palmer would often return to The Greenbrier. He was ideally placed, then, to team up with old friends Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino to co-design The Greenbrier’s latest golf gem, a revived and extended Oakhurst Links. The 18-hole championship course is planned for the site where the original nine-hole Oakhurst Links thought to have been established back in 1884, which would make it America’s very first golf course.
The Oakhurst Links revival marks the one and only time these four legends of the modern game collaborated on course design. Construction is yet to begin but Jim Justice, Governor of West Virginia and owner of The Greenbrier, hopes that pooling the talent of four of golf ’s all-time greats will help to establish Oakhurst Links as a major venue of the future.
“Why not have the U.S. open in West Virginia,” demands Justice. “How could the USGA turn their back on these four icons and their golf course? We can do things in West Virginia.”