Some say that TV made Arnold Palmer, others, like me, say that Arnold Palmer made TV, at least sports and specifically golf TV, what it is today. Without TV, Palmer would have been just as famous, perhaps not just as soon.
His win in the 1958 Masters revived the tournament, or at least this tournament was given a wake-up shot of caffeine with the birth of Arnie's Army (in those days, all unsold Masters tickets, which were in the thousands then, were given to soldiers of Fort Gordon so that TV could capture big galleries and not empty golf course... it worked for the Masters, and it worked for Arnie, as all soldiers who had found out that Arnie had been in the Coast Guard, rooted him to victory and became the infants of Artnie's Army). He also revived the "British Open" (The Open Championship). Prior to 1960, not many players from the U.S. traveled to play the oldest championship in the world. His first visit was in 1960, at the Old Course of St. Andrews, and his presence made the gate intake bigger, he lost by one shot, but he won in 1961 and 1962.
Palmer, a young man who came from a family with great values for work and family, not a rich family by any means, and a family that had taught him that a good name was worth more than anything, and something his showed his whole life, but it was the way he carried his name and the way his reputation grew that made him king:
Arnie was handsome, athletic, had great personality, was very emotional, enthusiastic, had a reputation for keeping his word, was generous, could play the game at the highest level, with great gusto and hit the ball as hard as he could every swing, and was as aggressive as anyone else. Arnie seemed to have never left a putt short, he was friendly (someone once said, "Arnold Palmer never met a stranger"), and on top of that, he had a great smile, a "Cary Cooper smile",which was great for TV. He came at a lucky time for him, for golf and for the Masters.
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| Arnold started the "Big-3" show, featuring Jack Nicklaus & Gary Player, traveling around the world spreading the fun of the game with his style of play. I had the pleasure of taking this picture (and the faded insert) in his last Masters Par-3 appearance in 2014. The Big-3's "Last Journey" |
His style of play captured the masses: GO FOR BROKE... PLAY TO WIN. No one went for broke more than Palmer did, no one, of his generation went for broke more than Arnold Palmer ever did... if he played poker, I guarantee you, he would go "all in" more often that anyone else. Why wait to win later if you can win now?
Two years after his first win at the Masters, and just a few months after he had won his second Masters, he was playing in the U.S. Open in Denver, CO at Cherry Hills C.C. With 18 holes to go, he was seven shots behind Mike Souchack, During the first three days, he had tried to reach the green on the short Par-4 opening hole, which was surrounded by heavy rough. Arnold was not a "lay-it-up" guy, this hole had cost him two bogeys by now. He just "knew" that if he could land it at the end of that rough or just past it, the ball could trickle to the green for an easy two-putt birdie, forget laying up and wedging to a few feet for a birdie and an easy par. The hole was 353 yards long, and even though it was downhill, there were over 60 yards of rough to grab your ball -as he had already experience, and it is not like you were playing with metal woods, graphite shafts, and Titleist ProV1's.
So what would most sane people do after failing three straight times to drive this hole? Not Palmer, he was a "go for broke" guy, and for broke we went, a fourth time, with confidence and not allowing past results deter him from his thinking: it could be done, and "done" he did: in this final round, he reached the green, two putted for birdie as he knew he could, drew confidence from his daring shot, and went on to shoot a 65 to beat an upcoming Jack Nicklaus by one and Ben Hogan's last reasonable try at a fifth U.S. Open by three. Then, during the telecast (in those days there was only one camera per hole in the last four or five hole), his "charge" was well documented until the tournament was over. Everyone in the there knew what he did on #1, and then, the world knew what he did on #1.
As well, people who watched TV golf, knew that Palmer was "never out" and he cold come back and win the last few holes, all he had to do was smile, hitch his trousers and "go to work his magic". He won many tournaments coming from behind, just like he lost many that he should have won. He was the Tin Cup's Roy McAvoy (Kevin Costner), but with the trophies on his mantel, over 80 of them throughout his career: people wanted Arnold Palmer to win. Period. He won with a smile, and he lost with a smile, sometimes, and especially when you just played better, he just said, "great job". You would then see him in his next tournament or "Big Three" outing with Nicklaus and Player, and forget that he lost last week.
Other than on TV, I only saw The King twice up close, 47 years apart, the first time was in 1967, when I was 16 and attending, at my mother's insistence, the World Cup; and the second time during the 2014 Masters which I attended with several members of Elk City Golf & C.C. Both times I had a chance to get close enough to perhaps extend my hand and shake his, both times I didn't: in 1967, because I was shy and did not want to stand in line for an autograph (at the time I would have rather have had Pele's autograph, as I did not know much about Palmer), the second time, just before the Par-3 Tournament on Wednesday at the Masters, I almost did, but "chickened" out, partly because there were too many people doing just that and I didn't want to be like them, and partly because I felt he deserved a little break, whatever little break from the public my five seconds could give him, and yes, also out of respect.
By this day in 2014, I knew that he didn't know me, but I also knew he did know me, because I was like millions who had grown respect for him. At the same time, I didn't know him, but I knew a lot about him.
One incident during that World Cup is engraved in my mind, one that showed that Arnold Palmer knew that "Golf is Just a Game", a game that he played well enough to become very rich, but a game none the less. On #14, a long Par-3 hole, I had managed to crawl next to the green (no ropes) and was just a few feet from his ball. When he was ready to putt, a young girl distracted him with a sudden cry, he stopped, walked to her and her family and told her not to worry, "this is only a game, do you play?", the girl slightly shook her head, like in a circle, not sure whether to say yes or no, Arnie just smiled, came back to his ball, made a birdie from about 15 feet, retrieved the ball and gave it t the girl. He would go on to win the World Cup with Jack Nicklaus (three other times) and the individual title as well.
Other than that one, I don't remember specific shots except for some tee shots, where he had a lot of fun when he happen to outdrive Nicklaus. I did not know if they were winning or losing, I only remember that he seemed to have so much fun playing and that he was not as serious as I thought golfers should be. It was because of him (and yes, also Jack) that I got a little more serious about golf, but mainly because he and Jack had made it look so much fun (even Jack, known for being so serious, seemed to be having a lot of fun - maybe because he was around Palmer).
Now, forty seven years later, on the first tee at the annual Par-3 Tournament at the Masters, I just watched in awe as he and the rest of his "Big-3" members, just enjoyed being around the gallery that adored them, and felt that though I did not know him, never met him , I knew enough about him to be at peace with history in the sense I would never shake his hand unless I found him at a supermarket (right) or at a restaurant.
As I grew from teenager to a young adult and took the game more seriously, and became skillfully enough to think I could make a living playing the game, I adopted his style of play, but unlike him, I lacked the skill: I was a trapper without the skins on my wall, and I settled to be around the game by trying to help people have more fun with the game. In fact, the only time I beat Jack Nicklaus was when I would play two balls on the course for practice, and secretly, I had reversed from rooting for Jack to rooting for Arnie, and I, Arnie, never lost to Jack in those matches, even if I needed a mulligan or two along the way.
Without realizing that this Sunday in 1967 had influenced my life so much, I truly became an advocate for playing the game, even if seriously, as if golf is only a game, always. Many years later, when people could use email (I still don't know how it works, but use it constantly), I secured every popular email address of hotmail, msn, gmail & yahoo of "golfisjustagame@". I also own the domain site http://golfisjustagame.com, which I use to direct golfers at this blog, and now I know, it was all because of him.
Thank you Arnie.
P.S. My daughter Anya beat me to the punch with a timely -and very good- article about Arnold Palmer (click here to read her take). Here is another viewpoint on what made him The King.
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