Arnold Palmer epitomized that rare athlete who achieves a level of popularity that transcend his play to becomes a national folk zep .
His ascent to such heights was the result of a singular compounding of element . When Palmer won the 1960 U.S. Open , with an exhilarating last - round 65 , the national internet video of golf was just beginning to take detention .
The conclusion of his great round was seen by millions , who also saw in the author of that remarkable refinement a refreshfully animate jock react with an obvious , visor - tossing excitement that golf fan had not see before .
What ’s more , the path Palmer played the game had an adorable quality with which the pile of average golfers could identify .
He swung hard and tight and had a less than Greco-Roman , coil follow - through . He attain the ball with great authority and for aloofness , and he did not dally with the impassive caution of linksman past .
Had Palmer not also been a success , all his charismatic charm would have been little more than an interesting sidebar to golf game . But he was a winner , a big achiever . By 1960 , Palmer had already won 13 tournaments on the PGA Tour , include the first of the four Masters he would capture .
The 1960 Open victory at Cherry Hills C.C. inDenverhad the hooey of which legend are made . The final round was play on Saturday afternoon . During lunch , Palmer take companion , " I may shoot 65 . What would that do ? "
" Nothing , " say golf author Bob Drum . " You ’re too far back . "
" The underworld I am , " Palmer snapped . " A 65 would give me 280 , and 280 wins Opens . " Three multiplication Palmer had tried to push the 1st green , and three time he had go wrong .
That afternoon , Palmer went for it again . He pip a smoke tee shot , his ball reverberate through a belt of grating look the putting green , and it rolled onto the putting surface 20 feet from the hole . It was a 346 - yard biff . He birdie that hole , and five more on the front side , to turn in 30 , and a zep was born for the age .
Earlier in that same monumental season , Palmer had gain his second Masters . When he go in the British Open , the cosmos of golf game was excited by the possibility of the first New - Clarence Day Grand Slam – triumph in the four major patronage ( the PGA would be the fourth leg ) .
Palmer come up one scene unsure of the achiever at St. Andrews , Kel Nagle , but in merely move to the British Open he revived interest in the grand , sometime event , an interest that had flagged in premature years because the predominant American stars on a regular basis short-circuit it .
With the game ’s chronicle in mind , Palmer scrupulously sought to take the British Open back to its lawful berth in golf game . He did that , by dint of his play and his personal appeal , and the game should be eternally grateful to Palmer for this one of his many contributions to it .
Arnold Daniel Palmer was born in 1929 in Latrobe , Pennsylvania . His father , known as " Deke , " was the greenkeeper at Latrobe C.C. and later became its head professional .
A good linksman himself – although lame in one leg from cause polio as a youth – the sr. Palmer was a hard - driving man who demanded the secure from his only son , whom he taught to play when Arnold was three days older . The lesson was simple : Eschew " definitive " frame if it did n’t come naturally . Take the nightclub back easy and then hit the ball as heavily as you’re able to .
There were time in his career when Palmer considered change his cut to make it more fluid and refined , but he would needs go back to his roots and rock and sock it even when it seemed to be him triumph .
For example , Palmer ’s bold stylus of caper was counted as the reason he lost the 1966 U.S. Open , at the Olympic Club inSan Francisco . Palmer had a seven - shot leading over Billy Casper with only nine holes to act .
Rather than play carefully and suckle his huge lede , he continued to discharge off , because that was his way and also because his mind was on breaking the U.S. Open platter grudge of 276 . He needed to par the last six holes to do that , but he rather croak 6 - over to stop in a tie with Casper .
He fall behind in the playoff , again after progress up a solid lead early but giving it up with his slash - and - burn style of golf game . But Palmer ’s golf game golf stroke and how he used it reverberate his truthful daredevil character , which is why he was so admired by golf sports fan , win or miss .
Palmer play some amateur golf game prior to turn pro , and he showed promise . He enter Wake Forest University on a golf scholarship arranged by his best friend , Buddy Worsham , younger brother of the 1947 U.S. Open champion .
Arnie gain ground the Southern Intercollegiate form of address in 1950 , twice went to the semifinal of the prestigious North and South Amateur , and gain ground the illustrious All - American Amateur at Chicago ’s Tam O’Shanter C.C. by nine shots over the redoubtable Frank Stranahan .
But Palmer ’s ascent in golf was slowed by the tragic demise of his friend Worsham , who was killed in acaraccident . Arnold Palmer drop out of school day , link up theCoast Guard , and when exhaust take a job as a blusher salesman . He did keep up his golf game , though , and – once past the pain of Worsham ’s dying – got back in gear .
In 1954 , Palmer won the U.S. Amateur championship at the Country Club of Detroit . He would always say that this was the toughest victory of his career , owe to the match - sport data formatting .
Later that yr , Palmer turned professional with the intention of playing the tourney circuit . He never did carry a club caper , but he did come to own the golf golf-club where he grew up as well as the Bay Hill Golf Club in Orlando , where he annually hosts the PGA Tour ’s Nestle Invitational . Arnold Palmer leave the game fourth in the PGA Tour ’s record book with 62 wins .
His four Masters come up every other year from 1958 - 64 , and all were win in magisterial fashion . In 1958 , Palmer eagle the 67th hole to give him the edge he needed . In 1960 , he birdied the last two holes to edge Ken Venturi by a cerebrovascular accident . In 1962 , he fired a sizzling 31 on the back nine of a playoff to gain by three . And in 1964 , he sport to a six - shot triumph .
Palmer ’s most productive stretch of winning golf game came from 1960 - 63 , when he won 29 tournament . He also won 19 outside outcome , including two British Opens ( 1961 and 1962 ) , and 10 Senior PGA Tour tournaments , admit the U.S. Senior Open ( 1981 ) .
He is tied with Jack Nicklaus for the most sequent years gain at least one tournament ( 17 ) , and he was the first linksman to reach the $ 1 million mark in life history prize money .
Palmer also holds the record for most Ryder Cup Match triumph with 22 . He act on six U.S. Ryder Cup team and was twice the maitre d’hotel . When Palmer start looseness on the Senior Tour in 1980 , he won his debut tourney , then took nine more senior PGA wins in the next nine geezerhood , including three in 1984 .
Diagnosed with prostate cancer in January of 1997 , he was playing in a tournament less than two months by and by , and played in his 43rd Masters a calendar month after that . He was present with the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998 . He officially hit the sack from tournament gambol on October 13 , 2006 .
Moreover , with his clipping waist , mesomorphic arms and upper body , and power - biz trend , Palmer changed the perception non - golf player somehow had of the game – that it was not athletic .
That , along with his ready smile , an unpretentious manner that projected promiscuous entree by the gallery ( he became known for never passing up an autograph request ) , and a preparation to talk openly with the press whenever asked , would make Arnold Palmer a house name – golf game households and otherwise .
