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Arnold Palmer

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This article is about the golfer. The name can also refer to "Arnold Palmer Airport", a Pittsburgh secondary airport named in his honor by his hometown.
Arnold Palmer helped to popularize televised golf.
Arnold Palmer helped to popularize televised golf.

Arnold Daniel Palmer (born September 10, 1929) is an American golfer who has won numerous events on both the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955. He was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Palmer is not generally regarded as the greatest player in history, but he is arguably golf's most popular star and its most important trailblazer because he was the first star of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s.

Contents

Career outline

Palmer learned golf from his father, who was a golf professional at Latrobe Country Club. At age seven, Palmer broke 100. As a youngster, Palmer was only allowed on the Latrobe course (it was just nine holes then) in early morning or late afternoon, when the members weren't playing. He attended Wake Forest University from 1947 until 1954, taking time out for service in the United States Coast Guard. He left Wake Forest without earning a degree and briefly worked as a paint salesman but after winning the 1954 U.S. Amateur he turned professional and he won the Canadian Open the following year.

Palmer's charisma was a major factor in establishing golf as a compelling television event in the 1950s and 1960s, setting the stage for the popularity it enjoys today. His first major championship win at the 1958 Masters cemented his position as one of the leading stars in golf and by 1960 he had signed up as pioneering sports agent Mark McCormack's first client. In later interviews McCormack listed five attributes that made Palmer especially marketable: his good looks; his relatively modest background (his father was a greenkeeper before rising to be club professional and Latrobe was a humble club); the way he played golf, taking risks and wearing his emotions on his sleeve; his involvement in a string of exciting finishes in early televised tournaments; and his affability. The Wicked Game: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and the Story of Modern Golf, page 55. Howard Sounes, 2004. ISBN 0060513861

Palmer is also credited by many for securing the status of The Open Championship (British Open) among US players. Before Palmer, relatively few American professionals attempted to play The Open due to its travel requirements, foreign environment, and the style of its links courses (radically different from most American courses). Palmer's successive Open wins in the early 1960s convinced many American pros that a trip to Britain would be worth the effort. Of course, the advent of transatlantic air travel by jet at about that time also contributed greatly to making The Open a more attractive tournament for American pros.

He has won seven major championships:

Palmer's most prolific years were 1960-1963, when he won 29 PGA Tour events in four seasons. In 1960, he won the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of the year and Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award. He built up a wide fan base, often referred to as "Arnie's Army", and in 1967 he became the first man to reach one million dollars in career earnings on the PGA Tour. By the late 1960s Jack Nicklaus had acquired clear ascendancy in their rivalry, but Palmer won a PGA Tour event every year up to 1970, and in 1971 he enjoyed a revival, winning four events.

Palmer was eligible for the PGA Senior Tour (now the Champions Tour) from its first season in 1980, and he was one of the marquee names who helped it to become successful. He won ten events on the tour, including five senior majors.

Palmer won the first World Match Play Championship in England, an event which was originally organised by McCormack to showcase his stable of players. Their partnership was one of the most significant in the history of sports marketing. Long after he ceased to win tournaments, Palmer remained one of the highest earners in golf due to his appeal to sponsors and the public.

In 2004, he competed in The Masters for the last time, marking his 50th consecutive appearance in that event. After missing the cut at the 2005 U.S. Senior Open by twenty-one shots he announced that he would not enter any more senior majors.

Palmer has had a diverse golf related business career including owning "Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club and Lodge", which is the venue for the PGA Tour's Bay Hill Invitational, helping to found The Golf Channel, and negotiating the deal to build the first golf course in the People's Republic of China. Since 1971 he has owned Latrobe Country Club, where his father used to be the club professional.

Palmer has been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

PGA Tour wins

Major championships are shown in bold.

Other regular career wins

Senior PGA Tour wins

Senior majors are shown in bold.

Other senior wins

Results in major championships

Tournament 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
The Masters DNP DNP T10 21 T7 1 3
U.S. Open CUT CUT T21 7 CUT T23 T5
The Open Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP T40 T14

Tournament 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
The Masters 1 T2 1 T9 1 T2 T4 4 CUT 27
U.S. Open 1 T14 2 2 T5 CUT 2 2 59 T6
The Open Championship 2 1 1 T26 16 T8 T10 12 T6 DNP
PGA Championship T7 T5 T17 T40 T2 T33 T6 T14 T2 WD

Tournament 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
The Masters T36 T18 T33 T24 T11 T13 CUT T24 T37 CUT
U.S. Open T54 T24 3 T4 T5 T9 T50 T19 CUT T59
The Open Championship 12 DNP T6 T14 DNP T16 T55 7 T34 DNP
PGA Championship T2 T18 T16 CUT T28 T33 T15 T19 CUT CUT

Tournament 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
The Masters T24 CUT 47 T36 CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT
U.S. Open 63 CUT CUT T60 DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
The Open Championship CUT T23 T27 T56 CUT DNP DNP CUT DNP CUT
PGA Championship T72 76 CUT T67 CUT T65 CUT T65 CUT T63

Tournament 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
The Masters CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
The Open Championship CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP
PGA Championship CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP

Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
The Masters CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
The Open Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP

DNP = did not play
WD = withdrew
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Miscellanea

Palmer was one of the founders of The Golf Channel.

The Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando, Florida is a world-class medical facility named after Palmer.

Palmer once put his name to a video game, Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf, released for the Sega Genesis console in 1989.

In 1999, Palmer, Clint Eastwood and Peter Ueberroth led a group that bought Pebble Beach for $820 million.

One of Palmer's favorite drinks allegedly is a combination of half iced tea and half lemonade, a drink which is often referred to as an "Arnold Palmer" in his honor. It is now available under the name "The Original Arnold Palmer Tee" (sic)

Palmer also has a favorite sandwich he called a Saturday, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with one side refrigerated and the side with peanut butter toasted. The toasted bread is usually wheat bread while the refrigerated piece of bread is typically potato bread. [link]

Palmer underwent successful prostate cancer surgery in 1997.

Palmer is a 33° freemason.

He is an aircraft pilot and bought the first Cessna Citation X. He set a speed record with that aircraft on a 5000km closed course.

Former spokesperson for Florida orange juice during use of the famous "It's not just for breakfast anymore" slogan.

See also

References

External links

 

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