TPC Signature: Issue 10 by North & Warren

Thank you from

founding contributor

Arnold Palmer

Photo: Harry Frye

Reade Tilley e d i to r

publication

Matthew Squire publisher

Robin Barwick

Matthew Halnan

m a n a g i n g e d i to r

a r t d i r e c to r

group art director

special thanks & contributors



Loh Chyi Jen Brandon Johnson Larry Klein Thad Layton Dennis McIlnay Dan Mechem Russ Meyer Marino Parascenzo Joseph Rinaldi Ginny Sanderlin Dave Shedloski Annika Sorenstam Illiyyin Ahmad Taha Ben Teke Paul Trow Don Vultaggio Tom Watson

James Drake Sports Illustrated/Getty Images The Masters 1965

Leon Harris junior designer

Kieron Deen Halnan founding contributor

Arnold Palmer special contributors

Cori Britt, Doc Giffin contributing photographers

Patrick Drickey, Dan Murphy / stonehousegolf.com, Getty Images, USGA Museum, Harry Frye, Meghan Glennon, Evan Schiller, Britt Runion vp , operations

cov e r i m ag e

arnold palmer

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 Printed in the USA

1929-2016

For over 30 years, we were privileged to call him both a partner and a friend. His legacy will live on forever in our hearts. Thanks for everything, Arnie. ÂŽ Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. ÂŠ 2016 Hertz System, Inc.

THE ORIGINAL.

tpc foreword

Arnold

e lost a great friend and giant in our sport with the passing of Arnold Palmer. There is no way to adequately express the immense sense of loss that we all felt with this news. He obviously meant so much not only to the PGA TOUR, but to the entirety of golf by lifting it to newfound visibility and popularity. It is not an exaggeration to say there would be no modern day PGA TOUR without Arnold Palmer. There would be no PGA TOUR Champions without Arnold Palmer. There would be no Golf Channel without Arnold Palmer. No one has had a greater impact on those who play our great sport or who are touched by it. It has been said many times over in so many ways, but beyond his immense talent, Arnold transcended our sport with an extraordinarily appealing personality and genuineness that connected with millions, truly making him a champion of the people. The fact that his popularity never waned more than a quarter century after his last competitive victory speaks volumes to the man, the icon and the legendary figure he was.

More than his words, Arnoldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions spoke to his unequivocal love of golf and belief that no individual can be or should be bigger than the game. Arnold totally gave of himself to support golf and its growth. He has served as a role model for generations of PGA TOUR members in ways large and small. The game, and all of us involved with it are so much richer for having had the fortune to have Arnold willingly serve as its global champion and ambassador. Beyond being an invaluable friend of the TOUR who generously gave of his time, opinion and support, Arnold was a wonderful personal friend and was someone who was always there for me with advice, support and guidance. We will all miss him so.

Timothy W. Finchem PGA TOUR Commissioner

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Editor’s Letter

Fundamentals There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth —Leo Tolstoy

fter more than a decade of having the honor to work with and for Arnold Palmer, I am left with some piece of me hollowed out since he has gone, but I am simultaneously thrilled and astounded to consider the multitude and the enormity of his achievements, which at first seem to defy comprehension. In truth, if there’s anything remarkable about his story it’s that it is so accessible: a good, sharp kid from a solid family worked his ass off to develop his natural talents, treated people right, didn’t outwardly judge others and took the time to let people know that he appreciated them. Isn’t that the blueprint so many of us are given in youth? And yet how many follow through. Since I met Mr. Palmer he, along with my grandfather, has set the standard for integrity and conduct to which I hold people, presidents and casual acquaintances alike. It should come as no surprise that many come up short, and that often includes myself. Still, even with him now gone, his example remains: work hard, respect others, let people know that you appreciate them, and more. It strikes me as funny that such an example would be aspirational, for those guidelines are so straightforward and seemingly achievable.

But then life is like golf, and as Arnie himself said, “Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.” Like a Zen koan, understanding the space within that distinction is the first step to mastering the game, with the key being to find your own way around the course. For this, Palmer left us with perhaps his greatest bit of advice, advice that I try to remember every day: “Swing your swing. Not some idea of a swing. Not a swing you saw on TV. Not that swing you wish you had. No, swing your swing. Capable of greatness. Prized only by you. Perfect in it’s imperfection. Swing your swing. I know, I did.” See you on course,

Reade Tilley

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Publisher’s Foreword

A flying start

d Seay, who ran Arnold Palmer Design Company when we launched TPC Signature’s sister publication, Kingdom, in 2002, said to me: “If Arnold likes the first issue he will be with you forever. If you mess up, you’ll never do anything with us again.” Once the first issue landed, Arnold wanted to meet. I arrived at Bay Hill and was told I was traveling with Arnold and the design team on his plane to a course opening. Arnold and I had shaken hands but nothing more. I was in the back with his design colleagues and he was up front, left seat. It was the first time I had ever been on a private jet and I was pretty nervous, not about the flight but about the meeting. A lot was at stake. We were coming into land and I noticed everyone in the cabin had their eyes fixed on me. “Why are you all looking at me?” But before I got an answer there was an almighty roar from the engines as Arnold pulled straight up away from the ground. For a couple seconds we must have been virtually vertical. I don’t remember yelling but it must have been close. It turned out this was one of Arnold’s favorite pranks when he had a rookie onboard. He turned around in the cockpit with a wink and a smile. I was green as I disembarked, and unfortunately a moment later was when Arnold and I had our picture taken with the first issue of Kingdom. If you look [above] you might detect a dose of shell shock…

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Then Arnold told me how pleased he was with the magazine, he wanted to see it grow and it was exactly what he wanted to support his business. He told me to call him at any time if there was ever anything he could do to help. Ed was right. Arnold did stick with us, and Arnold stuck to his word, too. He was always there when we needed him. We tried not to ask for too much, but whatever the request he never hinted it was over the mark. I have been incredibly fortunate—and TMC USA as a company has been—to have worked with Arnold Palmer and to have counted him as a friend. It is highly unlikely that we would be publishing TPC Signature today were it not for our work with Arnold. As you read this special issue of TPC Signature you will appreciate the strength and breadth of Arnold’s legacy. It will stand the test of time and I can’t tell you how proud I am that Kingdom—and TPC Signature—is a small part of that legacy.

Matthew Squire

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Contents

Issue 10 Winter 2016

A Remarkable Life

The Best Gets Better

Double Dose

Many knew him as The King, we knew him as “the boss”; our account of Arnold Palmer

Exciting changes take the fan experience at TPC Sawgrass to the next level

TPC Kuala Lumpur beckons with two courses and a world of adventure

20 36 44 46 69 72 81 92

Honors Board Arnold Palmer’s career by dates & numbers “Irreplaceable” When the legend’s friends and family gathered to celebrate a life well played The King & Queen One legend remembers another A Three-way Tie No grouping has matched the powerful trio of Palmer, Nicklaus and Player All-Action Hero Tom Watson breaks down his hero’s golf swing Four Green Jackets Arnie’s incomparable relationship with Augusta Life in Pics: On Course Winning shots Destiny in Detroit Before he turned pro, a shining victory

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Contents

Issue 10 Winter 2016

106

121

“Too far back to win”

Airman

TPC Signature Holes

Seven shots back, 18 to play, Palmer defied the odds and the doubters at Cherry Hills in Colorado

Above the fairways, Palmer’s “good hands” earned him the respect of luminary pilots across the sky

Sublime selections and valued vistas from the greatest network in the game

112 131 134 140 149 160 164 168 172 178

Atlantic Crossing When Palmer rediscovered the Old Country I’ll say this... 18 gems from a most quotable legend Leading by Example No lone wolf, Arnie could lift any team In Business The perfect pitchman and a tireless worker Life in Pics: Off Course Select scenes from a life beyond golf Marching On Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundation continues its founder’s great work A King’s Feast Recipes inspired by Arnie’s favorites No Pretense Palmer liked his drinks straightforward and high-quality Apples & Arnold A privileged slice of history from a Latrobe neighbor Last Page The story of the umbrella

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A FRIEND AND AN INSPIRATION, ON AND OFF THE COURSE. Arnold Palmer and Jack Stephens, 2001

The friendship between Arnold Palmer and my father, Jack Stephens, endured for decades. The two men bonded over their love of golf and shared the same outlook on life. I had the privilege of knowing Arnold and recognized right away that he exemplified everything my father stood for and admired: hard work, fierce but fair competition, and respect for others. It is my hope that Arnold’s legacy will inspire generations of golfers to come. Arnold Palmer Cup - 2019 - The Alotian Club Four Color Version - Preferred

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Arnold Palmer

Honors Board major victories

1958

1960

The Masters,

U.S. Open

Augusta National, GA 70-73-68-73 = 284

Augusta National, GA 67-73-72-70 = 282

Cherry Hills, CO 72-71-72-65 = 280

1961

1962

1964

British Open

The Masters,

British Open

The Masters,

Royal Birkdale, England 70-73-69-72 = 284

Augusta National, GA 70-66-69-75 = 280

Troon, Scotland 71-69-67-69 = 276

Augusta National, GA 69-68-69-70 = 276

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Summary of Major Championship Record

142

Starts

Wins

Second-place Finishes

Top-three Finishes

Top-five Finishes

Top-10 Finishes

Longest Streak of Top-10s in Majors

Other PGA Tour wins (55) 1955 1956 1957

1958 1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

Canadian Open Insurance City Open Eastern Open Houston Open Azalea Open Rubber City Open San Diego Open St Petersburg Open Pepsi Championship Thunderbird Invitational Oklahoma City Open West Palm Beach Open Palm Springs Desert Golf Classic Texas Open Baton Rouge Open Pensacola Open Insurance City Open Mobile Sertoma Open San Diego Open Phoenix Open Baton Rouge Open Texas Open Western Open Palm Springs Golf Classic Phoenix Open Texas Open Tournament of Champions Colonial National American Golf Classic Los Angeles Open Phoenix Open Pensacola Open Thunderbird Classic Cleveland Open Western Open Whitemarsh Open Oklahoma City Open

1965 1966

1967

1968 1969 1970 1971

1973

Tournament of Champions Los Angeles Open Tournament of Champions Houston Champions International Los Angeles Open Tucson Open American Golf Classic Thunderbird Classic Bob Hope Desert Classic Kemper Open Heritage Classic Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic National Four-Ball Championship (with Jack Nicklaus) Bob Hope Desert Classic Florida Citrus Invitational Westchester Classic National Four-Ball Championship (with Jack Nicklaus) Bob Hope Desert Classic

1971 1975

1980

World Cup (with Jack Nicklaus) World Cup (individual) Lancome Trophy, France Spanish Open Penfold PGA Championship, England Canadian PGA Championship

Senior PGA Tour wins (10) 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984

1985 1988

PGA Seniors’ Championships U.S. Senior Open Marlboro Classic Denver Post Champions of Golf Boca Grove Classic PGA Seniors’ Championship Senior Tournament Players Championship Quadel Senior Classic Senior Tournament Players Championship Crestar Classic

Other Tournament Wins (18)

Other Senior Wins (5)

1955

1984 1986 1990 1992 1993

1960 1962 1963 1964

1966

1967

Panama Open Colombian Open Canada Cup (with Sam Snead) Canada Cup (with Sam Snead) Australian Wills Masters Canada Cup (with Jack Nicklaus) Piccadilly World Match Play Championship, England Canada Cup (with Jack Nicklaus) Australian Open Canada Cup (with Jack Nicklaus) PGA Team Championship (with Jack Nicklaus) Piccadilly World Match Play Championship, England

Doug Sanders Celebrity Pro–Am Union Mutual Classic Senior Skins Game Senior Skins Game Senior Skins Game

Vardon Trophy Wins (4) 1961, 1962, 1964, 1967

U.S. Ryder Cup Honors (7) 1961, 1963 (playing captain), 1965, 1967, 1971, 1973, 1975 (non-playing captain)

As Amateur 1954

U.S. Amateur Championship

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A Remarkable Life Even if heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d never picked up a golf club, Arnold Palmer was destined to be known, such were the multiplicity and variety of his achievements. In the end, it is no exaggeration to call him a legend

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

WINTER 2016

More than an understatement, it is woefully inaccurate to characterize Arnold Palmer simply as a man who hit drives and holed putts better than most. He was a giant of the game, certainly, but he also was a luminary businessman, record-setting pilot and so much more, a genuine visionary whose impeccable character, immense talents and unerring work ethic saw him rise to become an American icon and one of the best global examples of the country’s promise and capabilities in the decades following World War II. Palmer wasn’t born with blue blood in his veins, but no one earned the right to be called “The King” more than him, and indeed he was just that to all who knew him or who saw him play.

Beyond golf, Palmer was in many respects the father of modern sports in general, especially with regard to the way sports are presented to the public and the high levels of remuneration enjoyed by today’s professional athletes. The fact that “Arnie,” as he was known, won seven major championships and 88 other tournaments during a professional playing career that spanned more than half a century would have been sufficient to guarantee him a spot at the top table in golf’s Valhalla. But such feats only scratch the surface of Palmer’s life and legacy, which truly are the stuff of legend. Palmer was the product of humble origins, raised in the immediate aftermath of the Great Depression with unshakable core values, a committed work ethic and an innate respect for human decency. Primarily, though, he had a genius for communication that transcended sporting arenas. His charisma and personality, as well as his fearless style of play, boosted golf’s popularity at a time when U.S. households were starting to invest in TV sets, automobiles and other consumer durables.

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The big three in a practice round at the Firestone Country Club, Ohio [Top]. Arnold Palmer And President Dwight D Eisenhower [Above]. Thumbs up to the gallery, 2002 Masters [left]

Arnie’s Army will always remember Palmer for the swagger with which his style of play brightened up their lives and confounded the odds

His relationship with Mark McCormack, his astute agent-manager and a visionary in his own right, set the template for players across all sports to define their worth to their employers and to capitalize on their commercial value to sponsors and advertisers. And Palmer’s alignment with Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as “The Big Three,” so brilliantly marketed by McCormack throughout the 1960s, heralded a golden age of golf. Palmer chewed the fat with Presidents, shared gags with comedians and rubbed shoulders with film stars, yet never once did he lose the common touch. To this very day, the upturned thumb is as much a part of his unique image as that diagonal, kaleidoscopic umbrella. Part of his appeal, undeniably, was that he was hardly craven when it came to dealing with golf ’s often intransigent authorities. But always a fair and honorable man, he never lost sight of his obligation to uphold the integrity of the game and to enhance the opportunities available to his fellow professionals. At the height of his playing powers he started to design golf courses—ambitious, creative projects that ranged from luxury country club adornments to cutting-edge championship layouts to good, honest recreational fields of play for the public. And here, too, he was groundbreaking, in 1984 building the first course in the People’s Republic of China with his design partner Ed Seay. Away from golf, Palmer became one of the first major sports stars to obtain a pilot’s license, and in 1976 he set a class record for the fastest flight around the world. His charitable initiatives have raised billions of dollars, particularly for the many medical projects that were dear to his heart, and he was also the driving force behind the founding of Golf Channel, in 1995. In addition to being garlanded with myriad lifetime sporting honors, including the “Athlete of the Decade” award for the 1960s from the Associated Press and the Hickok Belt from Sports Illustrated, given to the 1960 Sportsman of the Year, Palmer received both the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. He was also one of the inaugural 13 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame when it was founded in 1974. In recent years, much to his own amusement, his name has become known to a younger, non-golfing generation as synonymous with the refreshing and popular drink consisting of iced tea and lemonade, and in places as far away as Japan he’s known more for a line of fashionable American clothing. But Arnie’s Army and his adoring fairway fans will always remember Palmer for the swagger with which his style of play brightened up their lives and confounded the odds even as (echoing the words of Walter Hagen from a bygone era) the man himself never forgot to smell the roses along the way.

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After the countless hours we’ve spent together, we thank you for your immeasurable friendship and your unwavering support of business aviation.

may you always have

blue skies and

Forged in Western Pennsylvania Arnold Daniel Palmer was born on September 10, 1929, the eldest of four children born to Milfred “Deacon” Palmer and his wife Doris in the industrial town of Latrobe, at the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains in Western Pennsylvania, some 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. Along with his sisters Lois Jean (“Cheech”) and Sandy, and his brother Jerry, Arnold was given a classic workingclass upbringing by a close-knit family whose members either worked on the land or at the local steel works. He attended Latrobe High School a year behind Fred Rogers, who went on to create the pioneering children’s TV series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. When not at school, the young Palmer spent much of his spare time helping his father, the superintendent of Latrobe Country Club and later its professional, with all manner of duties, ranging from course maintenance work and caddying to shagging balls and minding the pro shop. By the age of 17 Palmer already had won the West Pennsylvania junior and men’s amateur championships and it was clear he had an exceptional golfing talent which, honed by hard work, could take him far. He earned a golf scholarship to Wake Forest University in North Carolina where he won three Southern Conference Championships. But his life took an unexpected turn in 1950 when his best friend and teammate, Bud Worsham, was killed in a car accident—a tragedy that led to Palmer quitting college during his senior year and joining the U.S. Coast Guard. His Coast Guard career began at Cape May, New Jersey, where he built a nine-hole course between the base’s runways, and finished three years later in Cleveland, Ohio.

Pembroke College, an affiliated women’s academic body to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Within days he had proposed to “Winnie” and at that point he realized he needed a proper income to support her once they were married. Reluctantly, he cast aside plans to play in the following year’s Walker Cup match over the Old Course at St Andrews and turned pro. A few weeks later, Arnie and Winnie were man and wife. A few months after that, Palmer made his Masters debut at Augusta National, the tournament and course, probably more than any others, that were to define him as a player. Arguably, his tie for tenth in 1955 was, echoing the words of Winston Churchill, “the end of the beginning” of his journey into the limelight. It did not take Palmer long to secure his maiden victory on Tour: the 1955 Canadian Open at Weston Golf & Country Club in Toronto. This breakthrough triggered a succession of wins over the next three seasons, the highlight of which came in April 1958 with the first of what turned out to be four Green Jackets in just six years. At the time, aged 28, he was the youngest winner of the Masters, but his youth didn’t prevent him from standing up for himself when he felt he had received an incorrect ruling on the short 12th hole during his final round. He had missed the green and his ball was plugged. Under local rules for the week, one of the wettest in the tournament’s history, he was entitled to a drop without penalty, but, controversially, the official accompanying his group didn’t see it that way. In the end, Palmer played the ball as it lay and carded a double-bogey five, then went back to the spot, took a drop and got down for a three. It took another couple of holes before tournament host Bobby Jones decreed that Palmer could record a three on his scorecard. He went on to lift his first major crown by a solitary shot from defending champion Doug Ford and Fred Hawkins and a legend was born. Spice was added by the fact a number of servicemen from a nearby military base had attached themselves to his gallery that week, marking the first recorded gathering of what the following year became known as “Arnie’s Army.” By this time, Arnie and Winnie had a two-year-old daughter, Peggy, and a second, Amy, on the way. In addition, Palmer, tired of the all-night driving between tournaments that life as a touring pro entailed, had started to take flying lessons at Latrobe Airport from experienced pilot and ultimately lifelong friend Babe Krinock. After a comparatively modest 1959, Palmer hit the runway with considerable momentum in 1960—perhaps his annus mirabilis. Having chalked up four victories before

At the time, aged 28, he was the youngest winner of the Masters

A Leap to prominence After his discharge in 1954, Palmer worked lenient hours as a paint company representative while spending most of his time restoring his game to its former sharpness at Canterbury Country Club in Beachwood, Ohio. The hard work paid off momentously in the fall when he took his longoverdue leap from “potential” to “prominence” by winning the U.S. Amateur Championship at the Country Club of Detroit, beating celebrity entertainer and lifelong friend Don Cherry in the quarter-finals and suave investment banker Bob Sweeny by one hole in a close-fought 36-hole final. A short while later, Palmer was invited to play in a tournament organized by bandleader Fred Waring at Shawnee Country Club in Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania. During that week he made the acquaintance of 19-year-old Winifred Walzer, an interior design student at

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even arriving at Augusta, he teed up as the red-hot favorite in the Masters, and did not disappoint. But he left it late and needed to birdie the final two holes to secure a one-shot success over Ken Venturi, who, ironically, had been his aggrieved playing partner on that final day two years previously. Around this time, Palmer sealed his relationship with Mark McCormack who then proceeded to operate as his commercial agent on the basis of a handshake right up until McCormack’s death in 2003. No contract was ever drawn up between the two men, but the deal led to the creation of McCormack’s International Management Group (IMG), which swiftly became the market leader in the field of commercial sports rights and which represented Palmer for the rest of his life. But McCormack did not have the resources or the wherewithal to juggle the King’s day-to-day minutiae (between golf, commercial, charitable or social commitments), so former Pittsburgh Press journalist Donald “Doc” Giffin joined Palmer during the mid-1960s and helped to organize his diary and office for more than half a century.

Three weeks later, Palmer travelled to St Andrews on the east coast of Scotland for the centenary edition of the [British] Open. It was his debut appearance in golf’s oldest championship, but while flying across the Atlantic in the company of Drum he resolved that it certainly wouldn’t be his last. While assessing Bobby Jones’ Grand Slam of 1930 (the Opens and amateur championships of both Britain and the United States) during the journey, Palmer suggested to Drum that the [British] Open should be part of a modern Grand Slam, along with the Masters, U.S. Open and PGA Championship. At first Drum was skeptical but by the time they arrived at the Home of Golf the idea had taken root and a new era for the game had dawned. Appalling weather wreaked havoc across the Old Course that week and Palmer finished one shot adrift in his quest for a third successive major (behind Australian Kel Nagle). But he was far from deterred by links golf despite its stark contrast with the game he had grown up playing, and over the following two summers he demonstrated exactly why his low, boring ball flight was so well suited to the windy conditions that invariably prevailed on Britain’s

Swinging into the 60s Next stop on Palmer’s increasingly rapid journey towards sporting immortality was the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills Country Club near Denver, Colorado. After 54 holes, though, he trailed by seven shots in a tie for 15th place and was apparently out of contention. But a conversation before the final round with a journalist friend, Bob Drum, who bluntly told him he had no chance, riled Palmer into playing one of the greatest rounds in the game’s history. His closing 65 lifted him from two over par to four under and a two-shot victory over 20-year-old amateur Jack Nicklaus.

Next stop on Palmer’s increasingly rapid journey towards sporting immortality was the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills

Arnold, Peggy, Amy and Winnie Palmer in 1962

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“The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.” arnold palmer (’51, ll.d. ’70) mr. palmer, thank you for being our champion.

premier seaside courses. So close with his first attempt, he went one better in both 1961 and 1962, lifting the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale in northwest England and then at Troon on the west coast of Scotland. Thanks to Palmer’s three-year Transatlantic spree, the [British] Open was restored to its former glory and nearly all the top American players have made a point of inking the year’s third Major into their schedules ever since. Between 1960 and 1963, Palmer chalked up a total of 33 victories, but he still rued three Majors that eluded him during this period. The first was the 1961 Masters when, needing a par-four from the middle of the fairway on the 72nd hole to win, he allowed himself to be distracted by a friend in the gallery congratulating him, contrived to take six and lost by one to Gary Player. To some extent he gained revenge for that lapse 12 months later when he beat Player and Dow Finsterwald in an 18-hole playoff to claim his third Green Jacket. His other two regrets were the U.S. Opens of 1962 and 1963. In 1962 at Oakmont Country Club in suburban Pittsburgh, his own backyard, he lost an 18-hole playoff to Nicklaus. It was the Golden Bear’s first victory as a professional and the key difference between the protagonists was that Palmer three-putted 13 times across the 90 holes played while Nicklaus did so only once. The following year at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, Palmer again found himself in a playoff— against Jacky Cupit and eventual winner Julius Boros—but a triple-bogey seven at the 11th hole dashed his hopes. Normal service was resumed at the 1964 Masters, but after he had romped home by six shots the last thing to cross anyone’s mind was that this, Palmer’s seventh major win, might be his last. After Player claimed his third major title in the 1962 PGA Championship at Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, McCormack bracketed him with Palmer and Nicklaus, branded them as “The Big Three” and schemed a series of made-for-TV matches that NBC screened to record audiences throughout the rest of the decade. From those matches, commercially speaking, golf has never looked back. Palmer continued to gather Tour titles for most of the next decade and became the first player to pass $1m in total prize money in 1968. But he blew his best chance to claim an eighth Major success in the 1966 U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco. Seven shots clear with just nine holes remaining, Palmer tumbled catastrophically into a tie with playing partner Billy Casper and another 18-hole playoff. This turnaround resulted from a combination of injudicious shots by Palmer and some inspired putting and shrewd percentage decisions by Casper. With his morale shattered, it was one-way traffic in the play-off as Casper closed out victory by four shots.

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Palmer finished second in the U.S. Open for a fourth time in 1967 at Baltusrol in Springfield, New Jersey, four shots adrift of Nicklaus, but on that occasion his gallant efforts were eclipsed by his adversary’s clinical closing 65. Palmer’s 61st and final PGA Tour victory was his fifth win in the Bob Hope Desert Classic in California’s Coachella Valley in 1973. Including his two [British] Open wins (not then recognized by the PGA Tour) and six Canada Cup team triumphs for the U.S. (two with Sam Snead and four with Nicklaus), Palmer garnered a further 19 titles around the world, culminating in the 1980 Canadian PGA Championship at Royal Mayfair in Edmonton, Alberta. Around this time he became involved in the creation of the Senior PGA Tour (now thriving as the PGA Tour Champions) and won five senior Majors between 1980 and 1985, including the 1981 U.S. Senior Open at Oakland Hills, along with 10 other senior tournaments. Palmer’s pivotal influence over the growth and ultimate success of the Senior PGA Tour mirrored in many respects his contributions a decade and a half earlier when the PGA Tour, the umbrella body that controlled the leading professionals’ tournament schedule across North America, split from the PGA of America. At the time, Palmer had an ambivalent relationship with the PGA of America. Initially, he was perturbed that its protectionist rules prevented him from earning prize money during the first six months of his career on Tour and, until he had served a five-year apprenticeship, from playing in either the PGA Championship—the one major he never won though he tied second in it three times—or the Ryder Cup. These restraints of trade along with now longbanished rules that prevented non-whites and handicapped players like his father (who had contracted polio as a child) from becoming PGA members especially stuck in his craw—

Palmer offers congratulations to Jack Nicklaus at the 1962 U.S. Open [above]; Palmer playing on the Senior PGA Tour at Silverado CC in 1990 [below]

although it’s worth noting that the PGA of America later named an award after Palmer’s father and posthumously awarded the inaugural edition to Deacon in 2014, with Palmer accepting on his father’s behalf. Also, some of Palmer’s finest hours in golf came with the PGA of America, most notably during the six Ryder Cup matches in which he played (1961-63-65-67-71-73) and the two in which he captained the U.S. team (1963, when he was the last playing captain on either side, and 1975). As a player, Palmer compiled one of the United States’ best individual records in the biennial contest: 23 points from 32 outings. In addition to his other glittering prizes, Palmer won the Vardon Trophy for the PGA Tour’s lowest scoring average four times: in 1961, 1962, 1964, and 1967. In total, he played in 50 Masters Tournaments (1955-2004), 32 U.S. Opens (1953-94), 23 [British] Opens (1960-95) and 37 PGA Championships (1958-94). After missing the cut at the 2005 U.S. Senior Open Palmer brought the curtain down on his major career, and retired from tournament play completely in October 2006 when he withdrew from the Champions Tour’s Administaff Small Business Classic at Augusta Pines in Texas, after four holes due to dissatisfaction with his own

Dating back to the 1960s, Palmer oversaw the design or redesign of well over 300 courses

play. He completed the round but did not keep score. From 2007 on, he served as honorary starter at the Masters and was joined by Nicklaus three years later and by Player (for an historic reuniting of the Big Three) in 2012. In 734 PGA Tour career starts over 53 years, Palmer won $1,861,857—a paltry figure in comparison with today’s purses (which Palmer is largely credited with increasing)— but his off-course earnings ensured he consistently remained at the head of the sport’s annual income chart. In 2015 he was reported to have a net worth of $675m. Thanks to licensing deals, endorsements, commercial partnerships and investments built up over more than half a century, Palmer, the consummate pitchman, enjoyed unprecedented business success for a sports performer. This also enabled him to make a couple of significant if sentimental purchases: Latrobe Country Club, where he grew up, in 1971 and, five years later, Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida, after a decade-long dalliance having first made its acquaintance during an exhibition match in 1966. In 1979 Palmer took over the hosting of the Florida Citrus Open on the PGA TOUR and moved it to Bay Hill, which has been its home, albeit with a number of different tournament titles, ever since. Today, the event is known as the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard and it is a firm favorite with many of the game’s leading players, not least Tiger Woods who has won it eight times. One particular highlight from the Invitational came in 2004 when Palmer, then aged 74, lashed his second shot onto the water-guarded 18th green from more than 200 yards out using his driver. His celebrations with his caddie and grandson, Sam Saunders, son of Amy and now a PGA TOUR player in his own right, will live long in the memory. In 1995, he teamed up with TV and media entrepreneur Joseph E. Gibbs to launch Golf Channel, the success of which as a forum for instruction, debate, entertainment and tournament coverage has, more than two decades later, exceeded all its distinguished founders’ initial expectations. Another innovation was the Palmer Cup match between elite male college golfers representing the U.S. and Europe (Great Britain & Ireland until 2003). The first match was played at Bay Hill in 1997, alternating between the U.S. and the British Isles annually ever since. Despite its relatively recent introduction the Palmer Cup has become as much of a priority for American players as the far older (by more than seven decades) Walker Cup. Dating back to the 1960s, Palmer oversaw the design or redesign of well over 300 golf courses, most of them in tandem with co-architect Ed Seay, who passed away in 2007, aged 69. Apart from remodels of Pebble Beach Golf Links, Bay Hill, Laurel Valley and Cherry Hills (all venues dear to Palmer’s heart), they created a diverse array of great courses both at home and abroad. In the U.S. they fashioned four

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TPC courses (Piper Glen, Boston, River’s Bend and Twin Cities) and a host of other treasures while their overseas accomplishments were equally impressive. These included The K Club just outside Dublin in Ireland, which hosted the 2006 Ryder Cup, DLF Golf & Country Club in New Delhi, India, and the very first layout in the People’s Republic of China: Chung Shan Hot Springs in Zhongshan. Even though Palmer was hit hard by the death from ovarian cancer of his beloved Winnie, aged 65, after 45 years of marriage in November 1999, Palmer’s sorrow propelled him to step up his already extensive charitable activities. He had founded the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando in 1989, and shortly after her death he opened the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies as part of the Arnold Palmer Medical Center in the same city. His own personal brush with prostate cancer in 1997 also led to the creation of the Arnold Palmer Prostate Center at the Eisenhower Lucy Curci Cancer Center in Rancho Mirage, California, an especially poignant commitment because of his close friendship with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Arnold Palmer Pavilion cancer center opened in 2002 in Latrobe, where Winnie is also remembered through the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve at Saint Vincent College. Shortly after her passing, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, a personal friend of the Palmers, honored Winnie’s determination to prevent Latrobe from becoming over-commercialized by authorizing a $500,000 grant so that the 26-acre tract of land could become a preserved educational and recreational area. In Latrobe, the city’s airport fittingly bears Palmer’s name as it’s where he learned to fly. What had been called the Longview Flying Field in 1924, became J.D. Hill Airport in 1928, the Latrobe Airport in 1935, and Westmoreland County Airport in 1978, in 1999— surely permanently—the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport. Palmer grew up less than a mile from the runway where he watched the world’s first official airmail pickup in 1939, and now a statue of him holding a golf club stands out front. Palmer’s need to overcome his early fear of flying had led him to pursue a pilot’s license. Some 55 years later, he had logged nearly 20,000 hours of flight time in various aircraft, including his record round-the-world business-jet journey in the company of two Learjet pilots (James E. Bir and Lewis L. Purkey) and aviation writer Robert Serling. They took off from Denver, Colorado on May 17, 1976, and stopped briefly to refuel in Wales; Paris; Iran; Sri Lanka; Indonesia; Philippines; Wake Island in the western Pacific; and Honolulu. Palmer and his crew found that the most effective antidote for flight fatigue was humor, so they traded gags throughout. They arrived back in Denver on

May 19 having completed their assignment in 57 hours, 25 minutes and 42 seconds. After landing, Palmer said: “We didn’t wave the Stars and Stripes, we flew them.” An honorary Blue Angel and Thunderbird, Palmer flew a wide variety of aircraft over the years, including the DC-9, the F15 and the F16, and he briefly took helicopter lessons. After a lifetime in the air, Palmer piloted a plane for the last time on January 31, 2011 when he flew from Palm Springs, where he had a winter home, to Orlando with his longtime official pilot and personal friend Pete Luster. They flew in Palmer’s Cessna Citation X, a plane Arnie helped to design. His pilot’s medical certificate expired the day of the flight and the aviator, then 81, chose not to renew it. The previous year, Palmer received the Federal Aviation Administration’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award alongside Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, and his lifelong friend Russ Meyer, who was CEO of Cessna from 1975-2000 and is now chairman emeritus. On the consumer products side, Arnold Palmer is frequently associated by younger generations to a drink consisting of iced tea and lemonade—a concoction that he enjoyed over his lifetime. The name association dates to U.S. Open week at Cherry Hills in 1960. At the time, Palmer was in the habit of drinking iced tea with lemonade as his non-alcoholic preference and ordered one from the clubhouse bar following one of his rounds. A woman sitting nearby overheard him and ordered “that Palmer drink,” thus bestowing its name. An ESPN 30 for 30 Shorts documentary in 2012 about the history of the drink, also known as a “Half & Half” in many parts of the U.S., featured Palmer attributing the name to a similar incident at a golf club in Palm Springs when a woman copied his order at the bar. In his personal life, Palmer re-married in 2005, exchanging vows with Kathleen “Kit” Gawthrop. His daughter Amy Palmer Saunders chairs the Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundation, is married to Roy Saunders and is mother to PGA Tour player Sam Saunders. Palmer is also survived by daughter Peggy Palmer Wears, six grandchildren (including Sam), nine great-grandchildren, his brother Jerry Palmer and sisters Sandra Sarady and Lois Jean Tilley. In a world where fame seems to be increasingly transient, there is a permanence about Palmer and his accomplishments, and that certainly will endure. If his death marks the end of an era, his fans can take heart in the fact that his legacy will live on in his foundation and in the game he loved so dearly, and to which he gave so much. Share your memories of Palmer, read those of others, learn of the great efforts his legacy supports and learn how you can help at arniesarmy.org

In Latrobe, the city’s airport fittingly bears Palmer’s name

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A Tribute to

“The King” from Insperity Arnold Palmer 1929 – 2016 He was one of the greatest stars of sport, whose achievements on the course and charisma off it elevated an entire game. A man known as “The King”, he inspired an army of fans. Achieving the heights of success both in golf and as an entrepreneur, this great champion was also a champion of small business. He lived a life of giving back, to the game, fans, communities, and country he loved. We mourn the loss but celebrate the remarkable life of a legend, Arnold Palmer. He leaves behind a legacy of philanthropy and an extraordinary standard of citizenship that will continue to serve as an inspiration for years to come. For the last twelve years Insperity had the honor and privilege to have Arnold Palmer as our company spokesperson. He connected to our mission to help businesses succeed so communities prosper with a deep desire to fuel the entrepreneurial spirit as an advocate for business owners and the free enterprise system. We were blessed by our association and relationship with Mr. Palmer.

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Irreplaceable Since the loss of Arnold Palmer on September 25, the outpouring of heartfelt tear-stained tributes has provided a vivid reflection of the powerful sentiments felt for Palmer around the world. Here is a selection of some of the things that have been said and done, leading with some of the emotional, inspirational words spoken at the Celebration service held in Palmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania

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Charlie Mechem

Tim Finchem

Former LPGA Tour Commissioner and long-time business colleague and friend of Arnold Palmer We were watching the Masters telecast. Holes 13 and 15 present very interesting challenges—both par-5s with water hazards. More than once, players laid up on these holes, unwilling to risk going into the hazards and becoming toast. I asked Arnold, “Did you ever consider laying up on 13 or 15?” He sat there for a minute and then said, “Do you know how many times I came second at Augusta?” I said, “No, I don’t.” He said, “Neither do I.” That sort of said it all.

A Life Well Played

Celebration, St. Vincent Basilica, Latrobe, October 4, 2016

Commissioner of the PGA Tour The younger players today understand what Arnold Palmer did for them. We were having lunch at Bay Hill last spring and player after player after player came up to pay their respects to Mr. Palmer. Rory McIlroy came over and Arnold said, “Rory, I am delighted you’re here. If there is anything we can do for you, or if there is anything I can do for you personally this week, you have my number, just call me.” Rory said, “Mr. Palmer, that won’t be necessary. What you have already done for me is all that I will ever need.” Arnold had this incredible ability to make you feel good, not about him, but about yourself. When he saw how people would react to him, Arnold lit up like a Christmas tree. He took energy from that and then turned it right around and gave it back. He and I were walking around the Old Course at St Andrews during the British Amateur. I had been taking pictures of him with various people I had never met for about three hours. He just could not get enough of it. We went to watch the final group. These two fellas were on a green and one of them had about a 12-foot putt. Arnold and I were leaning on this fence and he turned to me and said, “Do you think this fella is feeling the pressure because you’re watching him?”

Rickie Fowler “Before the Ryder Cup, as a team we thought it would be great that if we could win, we could bring the Ryder Cup to him, to Arnie’s memorial. Then on that Friday morning we swept the foursomes for the first time since Arnie was captain in 1975, so it all came together. The family asked us to bring the trophy to the ceremony and it seemed fitting.”

U.S. Ryder Cup team golfers Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson deliver the Ryder Cup to the Celebration service

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Sam Saunders

Palmer’s grandson and PGA TOUR golfer

Russ Meyer

Chairman Emeritus and former Chief Executive, Cessna

We knew him as “Dumpy.” The name came from my sister For a guy who was so confident and successful, Arnie Emily, in an attempt to call him “Grumpy” as a little girl. To occasionally needed a little reassurance. After an important this day I have “Dumpy” in my phone and I’ll never change it. speech or business meeting he would occasionally ask me, He would always take my phone call, always. He would “Did I do okay?” Invariably I would pat him on the shoulder always answer his phone with, “Where are you?” and say, “You did okay.” This one time I replied, “I’m at home. Where are you?” If Arnie were here and asked me—“Did I do “I’m with the President.” okay?”—I’d say, “Think about this: you raised a wonderful “The President of what?” family that mirrors the strength of your character and the He said to me as if it was so obvious, “The United quality of your values. You have enriched and inspired the States. I’m in the Oval Office right now with the President.” lives of millions of people all over the world, not just by how “So why are you answering your phone?” you played but by who you are. Your exceptional generosity He said, “I wanted to talk to you.” to so many charities, especially for healthcare for babies That is what he did. He always wanted to talk to me. He and children, will have a positive impact and bring joy to always wanted to be there for us and he always, always was. thousands of families for generations. That legacy, in my The next phone call I want to tell you about is a little view, is even more important than all those majors. So I bit tougher. It is the last call I ever made to him. I will be would have to say, my good pal, you did okay.” grateful for the rest of my life that I called him at 4:10 on the Sunday that he passed away. He answered the phone on the first ring, in the hospital, preparing for surgery the next morning. High flying “Where are you?” Palmer’s longtime I said, “I’m at home. I’m thinking about you today, we Chief Pilot Pete all are.” Luster flies Palmer’s He told me to take care of my children, my family, our Citation X after the entire family, and I intend to do that and to make him proud. Celebration service I told him I loved him, he told me he loved me, and that was the last thing we said to each other, and I will cherish that for the rest of my life.

“He always wanted to be there for us and he always, always was”

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Jim Nantz Broadcaster

Lee Trevino “Arnold Palmer didn’t pass away, we just won’t see him physically. He’ll be here forever. I know that 300 years from now, people will still be talking about Arnold Palmer.”

Before Arnie’s last Masters round in competition, he had shaken so many hands on the way that he got to the putting green just in time to hit a couple of putts. I was standing there and as soon as we locked eyes he said, “Have you made your decision?” I was at a significant career crossroads. Was I going to go over and do news in the morning? I told him, “I have. I am staying with sports. It was my dream to one day broadcast the Masters and there’s no way I’m going to walk away from that.” He said, “Was it a tough decision?” I said, “It was.” At that time my father was deep in the throes of Alzheimer’s, a battle that he would lose soon after, and Arnie was aware of all that. I told him, “It was the first time in my life that I could not seek my father’s counsel.” Here he was, Arnold, about to tee off for the last time, and he leaned over and he pointed right here [pointing to heart] with great force. He said, “You don’t understand; your father helped you make that decision. You were listening to him. He was right here the whole time.” We’re going to miss him, the captain of our game, but you are going to find him in a lot of places. He is going to spring to mind. It’s going to hurt that he is not going to be there to pick up that phone, it’s going to hurt when he is not going to be there on the first tee when our springtime tradition rolls around, but I hope you will always remember, he’s right here [pointing to heart].

Umbrella weather PGA TOUR Champions golfers raise Palmer umbrellas on October 7: [l to r] Rocco Mediate, Peter Jacobsen, Joe Durant, John Cook, Loren Roberts, Tom Lehman

Alma mater Wake Forest teams in golf, football and basketball have all paid tribute to Palmer with uniform badges. The Demon Deacons football team wore the Palmer umbrella on helmets on October 8, for a 29-8 win over Syracuse.

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Jack Nicklaus

Vince Gill

Winner of 18 majors, Palmer’s greatest rival in golf

Country singer and one of Palmer’s favorite musical artists

The game gave so much to Arnold but he gave back so much more. Arnold Palmer was the everyday man’s hero. He embodied the hard-working strength of America, with his shirt often hanging out and a hitch of his pants, he played a game we could all appreciate. He made the recovery shot a form of art. At times he played like no one else before or after him, and at other times he played like anyone who had ever gripped a club. That endeared him to all.

Once when I played golf with Arnold, neither one of us had said a word about our scores but we both went to the 18th four under par. I hit my ball to 15 feet, Arnold hit his to 12 feet. I missed my putt, Arnold made his and he looked at me and said, “Gotcha.” It was the greatest defeat of my life.

On the green grass of home Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown had “The King” boots made for the Steelers game against the Kansas City Chiefs on October 2. Brown put the boots to good use, scoring two touchdowns in a Steelers win, 43-14.

“Arnie’s Rainbow”

Photo: Ande Greco

Saint Vincent College on the morning of September 29, 2016, the day of Palmer’s funeral. Mechem: “Arnold, as you get settled in Heaven, I want you to take God to the range—by the way, thank him for the rainbow— but be sure he has the proper grip on the club. Tell him that once you set his grip he is never to change it. Arnold, you have had a grip on us like no other for these many years and believe me, we are never ever going to change it, so rest easy old pal. There is an old saying that there are no irreplaceable people. Whoever said that didn’t know Arnold Palmer.

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In 2017 at Royal Golf Club we will be honored to open the world’s only golf course designed by collaboration between golf’s King and Queen, Arnold Palmer and Annika Sorenstam. “Thank you Arnold, for your friendship, vision and endeavor.” —Hollis Cavner C.E.O, HC Golf Course Development

Our dear friend Arnold Palmer, golf’s greatest ambassador, will always be loved and missed at Minnesota’s Royal Golf Club.

Opening Summer 2017 www.royalgolfclubmn.com

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ARNOLD PALMER 1929-2016

The King & Queen

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When Arnold Palmer died this September, aged 87, his passing left more than a few of us with heavy hearts. Among his many friends and acquaintances, Annika Sorenstam had a special relationship with â&#x20AC;&#x153;The King,â&#x20AC;? getting to know him over the years as a mentor, a business consultant and ultimately as a friend. This March, the two began work on The King and Queen, a golf course in Minnesota for which each luminary golfer contributed nine holes. It was one of the last projects Palmer would undertake, and his passing left Sorenstam thoughtful, grateful for all of the moments they shared but also mourning the space his death has left in the world of golf, and in her life specifically. Here, she shares a few thoughts on Palmer and the role he played in her life

Sorenstam and Palmer at the 2015 Kingdom Cup at Bay Hill

“After joining the tour, at different events early on, I would run into them—‘them,’ not necessarily him on his own, but with other golfers, the senior tour, sitting at a cocktail function or being presented on the 18th green. He would always be very sweet. It wasn’t until later when I was a part of the Callaway team—he was part of the Callaway team—and when I moved to Orlando, that I began to know him. When I first met him I was obviously very nervous, feeling like I didn’t want to be in his way or take up his time. But he didn’t make me feel that way. On the contrary, it didn’t seem like he had anything else to do that day, which is how he made people feel. He just listened, would give you that little smile, and everything seemed possible and positive. It wasn’t superficial, it was just like you were talking. A lot of it was ‘how are things going.’ I would ask him how are you doing, he would share how he was feeling, then it started with golf tips, a mentoring position. Not ‘how to hold the golf club,’ but more where do you see golf going, where it’s going, how it’s growing, what’s important from a bigger perspective. Always, when I had a question I could always call him. That was early on. Later I looked up to him from the side, what has he done: formed a philanthropy aspect, the hospital, giving back, sharing his time and his values on things. And what are the things he presents that help his brand? You should learn from successful people, what they say is what they do—he certainly did what he said. He was the first in so many ways, and it wasn’t just for him—he changed the industry. Management and player management, it was for him early on but wow, look where it is now. And the hospital, all of the people involved; golf course design… He was one of the first. Building a drink… You see that, ok, he’s a golfer, but he’s so much more than a golfer. Scandinavians are very reserved. And I would say that Americans are a lot more open; it’s easy to get in, but then

it stops. With Swedes it takes a long time but then you’re friends for life. There’s a part of American culture that’s a little exaggerated at times; he wasn’t like that, he wasn’t over the top. He was just like the way he spoke. He didn’t use super fancy words, he did not try to impress you. I feel like what I liked about him, I felt like he cared, and when I saw him he would light up from the other side of the room as he saw you. That was an emotional connection—it was like that with many people. ‘Hey, I’m happy to see you.’ I look at him a lot of times as a father figure, a grandpa maybe. He was that much older and he was somebody who’d achieved so much. With course design, he has this philosophy that he shared amongst his team. We didn’t fit the two of us together and, ‘here’s a pencil let’s draw a fairway!’ It was more his philosophy, and what we shared is a desire to grow the game through families, to include a variety of tees, risk/reward situations… Neither of us has a desire to create this really difficult challenging golf course that nobody would enjoy playing. On the contrary, we want to create something that’s playable, and so we have to find that middle ground. He was a more aggressive player than I was, I was a little more conservative probably. But when we spoke it was more the bigger picture of things. He said it at 37,000 feet and we worked down from there. After his death, like I said, it’s empty. I mean, I didn’t talk to him every day at all, but just knowing he’s not there next time I’m going to build a course or knowing next time I go to Bay Hill I won’t see him there for lunch, I won’t be able to call him over when I need help with a putt… It’s the emptiness. We will celebrate his legacy and all he has done, but that emptiness… Not that I’m scared of death, it’s just that it’s empty with him gone, there’s something missing. We’ll go to the Bay Hill tournaments and we won’t see him there in the cart giving that thumbs-up, it will just be empty.”

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A three-way tie As generations of professional golfers have come and gone, the sport has searched for a ensemble to succeed the trio of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player... The search has been in vain. Robin Barwick looks back on golf’s original Big Three

Palmer, Player and Nicklaus at Firestone Country Club in 1964

rnold Palmer always had a canny eye on the future, an instinct for what lay ahead that triggered a multitude of successful endeavors. It goes way back. Soon after Palmer’s first Masters win in 1958 he shook hands on a partnership with business manager Mark McCormack that lasted the rest of their lives. McCormack, himself a visionary, was working with a number of leading players but Palmer persuaded McCormack to represent only him, even though the golfer knew he could not expect their exclusive arrangement to last indefinitely. As it happened the exclusivity did not last long— probably less time than Palmer had expected—because no sooner had he reached the top of the game than Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus emerged as his closest, fiercest rivals. But there was also a strong affinity between the three men, and Palmer cleared the way for both Player and Nicklaus to work with McCormack at the turn of the 1960s. Never an isolationist, Palmer could sense the greater good in helping his rivals prosper, but not even he could have predicted what would unfold over subsequent decades as the exploits of a trio who would become known as “The Big Three” would become golf’s greatest epic, one that would shape the modern game. Really, this was what the swingin’ sixties were all about. Player was first to challenge Palmer among the pro ranks. The little-known 22-year-old South African oddly won the 1958 Kentucky Derby Open with a funny, flat

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golf swing and certain lack of length off the tee. “Just an anomaly,” people said. Then, two months after Palmer had won his first Masters, Player raised eyebrows among the American elite again when he finished runner-up to Tommy Bolt in the U.S. Open at Southern Hills. A year later he lifted the Claret Jug at the [British] Open for the first time, and when Palmer contrived to lose the 1961 Masters with a shabby, haphazard double bogey at the very last hole, the diminutive Player gratefully slipped his arms into the Green Jacket. He found it to be a great fit. “No player I can think of made more of his gifts than Gary,” Palmer would later write in his book A Golfer’s Life. “I think there was something to Billy Maxwell’s remark that among The Big Three, Gary was perhaps the greatest competitor— simply because if he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have been among The Big Three. Relatively short off the tee, he made himself one of the premier sand players and clutch putters of all time. “Beneath the trademark black clothes and moviematinee-idol good looks, the fad diets and ridiculously intense exercise regimens… he is also one helluva nice guy.” By contrast, the arrival of Nicklaus was forewarned. He was a Walker Cup golfer and Ohio State star who won the U.S. Amateur title twice, in 1959 and 1961, and in-between in 1960 made his intentions clear by finishing runner-up to Palmer at the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. It was the highest finish by an amateur in the U.S. Open in 30 years, since Bobby Jones had won the title for the fourth and final time in 1930. Nicklaus turned professional in 1961 and won for the first time as a professional in spectacular fashion, defeating Palmer in an 18-hole playoff in the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont near Pittsburgh, where local hero Palmer was supposed to win and where the partisan support was vociferous. “I’ll tell you something,” came Palmer’s portentous and oft-repeated words afterwards, “now that the big guy is out of the cage everybody better run for cover.” The parallels between Nicklaus and Jones continued, as the “Golden Bear” was the youngest U.S. Open champ— at 22—since Jones in 1923, and he was also the first player since Jones in 1930 to hold the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open titles simultaneously.

“I’ll tell you something, now that the big guy is out of the cage everybody better run for cover”

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Player, Palmer and Nicklaus at the 1965 They weren’t yet known as “The Big Three,” but that spring and Masters—the summer of 1962 was when this trinity was formed, and when— only time the for one year and one year only—they won all four of the year’s Big Three majors between them. Each one of the four was a collector’s were the top item, and with live television coverage of golf evolving fast the three in a major

THE SUMMER OF ’62

sport’s viewing numbers were growing exponentially. In 1962 Palmer, aged 32 at the time, was in his captivating prime and he set the tone at Augusta National in April, winning his third Green Jacket. He kept Arnie’s Army in suspense though, eventually defeating Player and Dow Finsterwald in the first three-man playoff in Masters history—and banishing the ghost of Palmer’s 1961 Masters collapse in the process. Nicklaus defeated Palmer in the U.S. Open in June; Palmer then successfully defended his [British] Open title at Royal Troon in July, playing some of the finest golf of his career to win by six before Player won the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania the very next week, with a late charge from Nicklaus seeing him finish in a tie for third. “On a philosophical note,” Palmer later said, “I must say I think Jack and I were very good for each other and very good for the game of golf in general. Our rivalry—especially once you add Gary Player to the mix—happened at a time when golf was just beginning to take deep root in the broader American sports psyche, and the intensity of our competition, as well as the distinct differences in our personalities, created tremendous natural drama and a fan interest in the professional game that had never been seen before.” As usual with Palmer, he could not have put it any better.

You forever transformed the game. You were the King. And you were one of us. You made golf something special; Something spectacular. On behalf of PGA Professionals everywhere ... Thank you, Arnie.

IN MEMORY OF ARNOLD PALMER

1929 - 2016

“We had a lot of fun being the center of all that attention, but most of all we wanted to beat each other to a pulp”

“I needed Jack to remind me what my Pap had warned me from the beginning,” he said, “there was always going to be some talented young guy out there who could beat you 10 ways to Sunday, so you’d better never let your guard down. I think Jack needed me to serve as the high standard he was aiming for. If he could beat me, which he ultimately did, he could beat anybody and become the greatest player in the game.” If it hadn’t stuck already, the moniker of “The Big Three” was tattooed on that American sports psyche by a stroke of McCormack genius, when he negotiated an eight-part TV series called Big Three Golf, which was broadcast nationwide in the U.S. by NBC in 1964. There were other high-ratings TV matches and golfing series, but Big Three Golf was the perfect fit. The three golfers played each other at a series of spectacular courses including Los Angeles Country Club, Firestone, St Andrews and Carnoustie in Scotland, and onto Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico, and the ratings soared.

FINISHING AT THE BEGINNING Born in 1929, Palmer was the elder statesman and crowd favorite of The Big Three—six years Player’s senior and a decade older than Nicklaus—and his success in the majors would expire first, on becoming the first golfer to win the Masters four times, in 1964. The tenacious Player would soon after become only the third golfer to complete the career Grand Slam of winning all four major titles—after Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan—by winning the 1965 U.S. Open, while Nicklaus rapidly followed suit, completing the Grand Slam in the space of just five years with victory in the 1966 [British] Open at Muirfield. Palmer won a total of seven major titles between 1958 and 1964, Player matched Hogan’s career haul of nine majors—Player’s nine secured between 1959 and 1978—

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while Nicklaus collected a total of 18 from 1962 to the 1986 Masters (aged 46), completing the Grand Slam three full times in the process. Today, with Tiger Woods next in line with 14 career majors—and possibly stuck there—the Golden Bear’s record gleams seductively on a high shelf of its own, still unreachable. When Nicklaus won the 1965 Masters by nine shots— with Palmer and Player in a tie for second place—it prompted Masters co-founder Jones to declare: “Jack plays a game with which I’m not familiar.” Incidentally, this was also the only occasion on which this trio occupied the top three positions on a major’s final leaderboard. “We had a lot of fun being the center of all that attention,” reflected Palmer, “but most of all we wanted to beat each other to a pulp. That’s the nature of healthy sportsmanship and the spirit of tournament golf. That’s just the way it should be, too.” Augusta National, which celebrates its past champions with such pride, ultimately initiated a poignant annual reunion of The Big Three by inviting them to serve as honorary starters of the Masters. Having competed in the Masters 50 years consecutively, from 1955 to 2004, it was at Augusta where Palmer really reached stardom and so it could not have been more appropriate when he became the first of the three to strike the honorary tee shot, in 2007. Nicklaus, who played in the Masters 45 times from 1959 to 2005 and won the Green Jacket a record six times, joined Palmer for the tournament’s Thursday breakfast ball from 2010. Then the irrepressible Player, three times the Masters champ from 52 appearances between 1957 and 2009, completed the honorary three-ball for the first time in 2012. It is little wonder the first tee on the Thursday morning of the Masters has attracted packed crowds. As ever, the Big Three proved to be the best draw in the game.

Player, Palmer and Nicklaus, honorary starters at the 2014 Masters

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The Best 12th hole

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Gets Better Recent changes at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass continue to reveal its brilliant designâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;while improving the experience for fans and players alike. Welcome back to the all-new purest test in the game

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It is one of golf ’s finest arenas, demanding everything of those who step to meet its challenge even as it rewards them with immaculately manicured beauty and the most iconic hole in the game. For professionals, it is a sacred mountain that must be summited; for most amateurs, it is enough to have survived the attempt. For the millions of golf fans who visit, it is the best place to witness the best golfers—but then it was built for the fans, and it continues to exist for them. Always daunting, often exhilarating, occasionally heartbreaking, THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass is nothing less than golf’s truest test. So many histories begin with the phrase, “no one could have imagined what it would become…” But in the case of TPC Sawgrass, greatness was always the plan. Home to THE PLAYERS Championship and adjacent to PGA TOUR headquarters, Pete Dye’s masterpiece in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, continues to improve, and recent changes have only enhanced and reinforced its legendary status. With a grand new entrance drive, rebuilt and re-grassed greens and vastly improved practice grounds, and with significant improvements to several holes and to the grounds in general, the world-class experience at TPC Sawgrass has gotten that much better, especially for fans and pros at the upcoming PLAYERS Championship.

The original premise of the tournament and the course was always to have the ultimate golf fan experience

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“The original premise of the tournament and the course was always to have the ultimate golf fan experience,” says Matt Rapp, executive director of THE PLAYERS. “This course was built to host large amounts of people and to have them be able to watch the very best golfers in the world being tested in every facet of their game, using every club in the bag. As the purest test in golf, THE PLAYERS was always meant to determine who among the very best players in the world was controlling their ball the best, and to have everybody able to watch it happen.” To make the Stadium Course a true fan experience, not just a test for golfers, Dye and his team used significant mounding throughout the course, creating berms and rises on which fans could stand to watch the action. This year, course managers decided that some of those mounds could use a bit of re-shaping, and so grades were smoothed to allow for better access (and for more fans to watch the action), mounds were moved or enhanced for better sight lines, and new viewing areas were created to expand fan enjoyment. “When they created the original mounding, they might have made them a little too large,” says Rapp. “It was fairly steep and stair-stepped, and it made it difficult to get up. You don’t need a severe slant, all you need is a gradual slant so you can see over the person in front of you. We’ve been working on the mounding for the last 10 years or so to soften it and to make it more pedestrian-friendly. We’ve made huge advances with that for the 2017 event; the walkability of this course is dramatically better.” What that means for fans and pros alike is better traffic management on course. Specifically, Rapp says, there were “pinch points” throughout the course in places like between the sixth green and seventh tee, coming down 14 and between 12 and 14. “For marquee groups with large followings, several thousand people trying to follow them, it was difficult to get around,” Rapp explains. “Now, fans can follow that [marquee] group, easily walk up a slope and have a good vantage point. And once the shot is hit fans can quickly move on and see [the pros] hit their next shot.” If there were areas that suffered from too much action, Rapp says that, in contrast, “there were some neglected areas. Between 12 and 11, 12 and 14, 12 and 13… And some of these areas have gone from unused space to incredibly nice spots. You can put concessions, tables in the shade… Before, they just didn’t have a lot of usefulness. Now they’re great little spots.” Smoothed mounds, “pinch point” traffic relief and enhanced usability of spaces are the kinds of improvements that are enjoyed but not necessarily noticed directly, and while their impact will be felt, there are other changes at TPC Sawgrass more likely to be talked about by fans. Chief among them is sure to be the new entrance, which will be

A work in progress

the first—and one of the most significant—changes that fans will enjoy. With the entrance road redirected and with substantial shifts to the area surrounding the entryway, the clubhouse now will feature prominently from the moment fans and players head toward TPC Sawgrass. “The clubhouse in some respects seemed separated, especially from the first tee and from the practice green leading to first tee,” Rapp explains. “All of that has been transformed… Now, very shortly after turning on to Championship Way, you’ll feel like you’ve entered a golf course, almost like you’re driving down a fairway. You get a clear view of the clubhouse, you’re not looking at a lot of parking lots like it was before. Before, your first real look at the clubhouse was through a parking lot. Now you can see the clubhouse almost from the get-go, and it’s just a beautiful structure. The 17th hole and the clubhouse are the two signature items we have out here.”

Rapp says the team spoke with experts who referenced Disney and undeniable evidence that entry and exit have a huge influence on guest experience: “how long people stay, how much they enjoy their time, whether they come back, whether or not they recommend the experience to friends— all of that is impacted, believe it or not, by entry and exit.” Once guests do arrive, another change that will immediately be apparent is the vastly enhanced practice area, which will also serve an upgraded academy facility. “We totally re-did the practice grounds with the goal of making it more of a world-class experience,” says Steve Wenzloff, a vice president in construction and design services at TPC Sawgrass. “We added more visual appeal and more realistic visual elements, realistic meaning more golf-hole type elements, more like a fairway presenting itself. There are bunkers out on the range, bulkheads out there to create more visual appeal, palm trees for more visual

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The changes will enhance the course’s beauty and the fan experience

reference. They’re out there to help create some definition among a space that’s 500 to 600 feet wide. It’s easy for your eyes to get lost in a sea of green, and so we’ve broken it up with white elements of sand, brown elements of bulkheading, and trees…” “The back of the practice grounds used to be a place for the pros to escape without being seen,” Rapp says, “that area wasn’t so viewable. But it’s all changed. Now, fans will feel like they’re even more part of the tournament.” More beautiful, it’s also more inviting and more usable, Wenzloff says, adding that his focus as a golf course designer is more about usability. Dye himself says that many of the changes are aimed at making THE PLAYERS Championship even more exciting—if that’s possible. “When they reached out to me,” Dye said, “we discussed ways to improve the drama on the back nine and in particular the 12th hole. The 12th hole has always been a short par 4, and we took a look at how we could increase the excitement level out there between the par 5, 11th and the par 3, 13th holes, by making it drivable. I worked with the TOUR on the new look, adding water left of the green and redesigning the fairway strategy. A new tee was built with spectator mounding surrounding it, and we shifted the fairway bunker to the left side for a carry-over should a player choose to try to drive the green. The design grew to add more mounding around the green complex for spectators and hospitality which is a nice addition to the other fan enhancements in the area… I’ve always thought holes 11, 12 and 13 were overlooked in their importance to the tournament, especially on Sunday as a player makes the turn and gets himself into position to make a run at the title. I think the new challenges of No. 12 will add drama earlier in the round and enhance the excitement level for players and fans.”

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Other performance changes that were made include rebuilding and re-grassing the greens at TPC Sawgrass. The new Tiff-Eagle Bermuda grass should prove the best possible putting surface for the pros (and for all players), and Wenzloff says the work addresses some of the seasonal timing issues with which the maintenance team has contended in the past. “Looking at creating the best turf conditions for the tournament, we’re coming out of the winter where we’ve had play on those greens,” he says. “In a few previous years we’ve had conditions that we weren’t as happy with, and we looked at ways to combat that. One of those ways was to create additional hole locations, and some greens were expanded slightly to create those. One, it gives us more opportunities for the tournament, to evaluate whether there are new hole locations that could be used during tournaments or whether it’s more conducive to guest play. And it also gives the operations team more opportunities to handle where foot traffic occurs.” For example, he says, given the cart path location on the ninth green, “most of our traffic ingress and egress came off the back right of the green. We didn’t have a lot of flexibility there. But in addition to expanding the green and being able to change the hole location more, we filled-in a bunker off the back and converted it to fairway. “This creates a wider distribution of foot traffic because a small area is now a wider area, but the additional fairway also creates more playing opportunities for recovery shots. If somebody comes through the green and goes back there, there are numerous ways it could influence things, so it helps both factors: the competitive aspect and resort play.” While Wenzloff is a self-described “inside the ropes” guy and Rapp says he works outside the ropes, the two agree

on the change with perhaps the biggest appeal in terms of both usability and visual appeal: a new lake on No’s 6 and 7. “We looked at the area between the sixth and seventh holes,” Wenzloff says. “It was a big landform that didn’t have a lot of aesthetic value to it, and we ended up turning it into a lake. There used to be two small canals, and you’d run up to the land formation, but the two canals have been merged. The water is still where it was; it hasn’t moved any closer to the golf holes, but visually it’s stunning.” Rapp agrees: “Pete Dye said that 6 is the most beautiful hole on the golf course, and now you can actually see it and appreciate it. We haven’t changed the actual hole one lick, but you didn’t see the water from the tee box because of the foliage, now it’s incredibly visible. I think it’s going to be distracting, certainly to a resort player because now it’s a lake that’s two-thirds as big as the lake between 9 and 18—this is no small amount of water. The pros never hit it into the water there and it shouldn’t have a big impact, but visually it’s beautiful.” The fill that was taken from the landform between holes 6 and 7 was strategically used in other areas on site, including the new entry road appearance. For Wenzloff’s part, he says the changes are right in line with TPC Sawgrass’ original intention and ongoing mission to be the best venue for fans and for players alike. To achieve it, Wenzloff’s team consulted original designer Pete Dye, as well as past PLAYERS champions and local TOUR players. “We don’t take what Dye did for granted. It’s definitely a special design,” he says. “We all take care of it, and speaking for myself in particular I look at myself as a steward of that. But we also look at the future growth of the tournament and put the two objectives together; everything we do is to take care of the course and to improve the experience for fans and for players.” Rapp agrees and adds that the changes that were made recently have been in consideration for some time. Cleaning out his offices—which was moved as part of the new entrance construction—he says his team came to realize just how well-considered the changes are: “In going through the old files, it’s incredible how in similar ways these changes have been contemplated for 10 to 15 years,” he says. “All of the stuff we’re doing now has been stuff we’ve been through for nearly 20 years, studying the course and traffic flows. “You think about it, THE PLAYERS Championship was the very first tournament to have electronic scoreboards, LED boards, and live video, all for the fans. It was very first tournament to have the stadium ‘seating,’ if you will. This place was built as a Mecca for golf fans, and everything that we’re doing out there now just adds more polish to that diamond. It’s really spectacular, and visitors are going to be blown away.”

Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa When visiting one of the greatest courses in the game, it only makes sense to stay in suitably top-tier accommodations. Not only is Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa immediately adjacent to TPC Sawgrass, with its iconic golf courses (to which resort guests have privileged access), but it’s a fully comprehensive modern resort on its own, offering world-class amenities, great dining and beach access via its nearby Cabana Beach Club. A full-service spa, four pools, a bike trail and more take care of physical activity beyond golf, while a wide selection of dining and bar options and a stunning, inviting layout ensure guests can relax and share stories of their days without having to venture off property. Whether you’re on a business trip, a personal vacation or a full-fledged family getaway, Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa is the place to stay for fans of the game. marriott.com

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Growing the legacy of our mentor and friend, Arnold Palmer.

Driving legendar y golf cour se design. ArnoldPalmerDesign.com

Double Dose

Sometimes in golf the best things come in pairs. That is certainly the case at TPC Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia

Second hole of the West Course at TPC Kuala Lumpur

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There is a distinct pattern emerging from the two pristine championship golf courses at the tropical paradise of TPC Kuala Lumpur. Justin Thomas won the 2016 CIMB Classic there in October on the 2016-2017 PGA TOUR season, successfully defending the title he won there last year. That’s two career wins for Thomas, both at TPC Kuala Lumpur. Shanshan Feng, the shooting star of Chinese golf, has also won twice at TPC Kuala Lumpur but not consecutively (that would be too much), taking the honors in the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia in 2014 and 2016. Great things do come in pairs at TPC Kuala Lumpur. Located just 8 kilometers outside the Malaysian capital city, TPC Kuala Lumpur served as the host site of the CIMB Classic and Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia in consecutive weeks in October, with the men playing on the West Course and the world’s finest women competing on the equallyimpressive East Course. Justin Thomas plays up to the final green during the And as if that was not enough pairing up at TPC Kuala CIMB Classic at TPC Kuala Lumpur in October Lumpur, American Ryan Moore in fact set the trend as he was the first to win back-to-back PGA TOUR titles here, in the CIMB Classic of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons. a different meaning to us,” Thomas, 23, told us at the 2016 And adding to this strange coincidence, Moore twice left CIMB Classic. “On the PGA TOUR we associate ourselves compatriot Gary Woodland close but with no cigar, finishing with TPC golf courses. It’s a cool deal to come back and runner-up to Moore in those events. know this is a TPC now.” Enough of the twos. You will be relieved to learn that “We are delighted to have our newest licensed TPC TPC Kuala Lumpur—which joined the select TPC Network located at the heart of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia,” said in August this year—does not boast a two-tier driving range Jay Monahan, Deputy Commissioner of the PGA TOUR. among its extensive sports and leisure facilities; no, no, this “TPC Kuala Lumpur is an excellent facility with world-class range has three tiers. No voodoo “twodoo” after all. amenities and has distinguished itself as an outstanding “I think any time you can add TPC to something, it has host site for the CIMB Classic. We are also excited that TPC Kuala Lumpur potentially can serve as a catalyst for more TPCs to emerge in Asia with the rapidly growing number of Asian golfers.” Being a part of the prestigious TPC Network serves as an indication of quality. All TPC properties collaborate closely with the PGA TOUR’s agronomists to ensure that the condition of the golf courses are at a world-class level not just when the tour bus rolls in, but all year around. That is a critical factor in Kuala Lumpur, where the tropical climate offers warm sunshine and ideal summer weather 12 months of the year. The rains typically arrive in the evening, but nothing a comprehensive 150-kilometer system of underground drainage can’t handle.

Being part of the TPC Network is an indication of quality, and TPC Kuala Lumpur certainly has that

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“We enjoy rain and shine all year around,” confirms TPC Kuala Lumpur spokesperson Loh Chyi Jen. “It is usually hot and sunny. We have a lovely tropical climate and temperatures typically reach 32-34 degrees Celsius (89-92 degrees Fahrenheit) in the middle of the day.” “It’s very similar to Florida heat,” agreed Thomas. “It gets really hot in Louisville where I’m from, too, in the summers. Out on the course it’s really just a case of taking on liquids and trying to maintain energy.” So there is no off-season for TPC Kuala Lumpur’s extensive and dedicated golf course maintenance crew. “The greens have a good firmness to them and overall the course is in great shape,” said Thomas of the West Course. “This is not a course you have to overthink. It’s all in front of you. Just hit here, hit there, make the putt and try to beat everybody else! It’s a great golf course.” Thomas entered the final round of October’s CIMB Classic trailing India’s Anirban Lahiri by four strokes. Lahiri has pedigree here—he won the European Tour’s Malaysian Open on the West Course in 2015; but Thomas accelerated to a stunning finish, shooting 64, 8-under par, with eight birdies and without a single dropped shot, to ultimately win by three from Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. We can expect to see the names Justin Thomas, Anirban Lahiri and Hideki Matsuyama at the top of PGA TOUR leaderboards frequently in the future.

“It’s great to win again here,” added Thomas, who finished 12th in the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup ranking in 2016, at the close of just his second full season on the PGA TOUR. “This is a place where I am very comfortable and that is because of just everything that goes on here. The fans are great, the golf course suits my eye and everything about the tournament is done very well. It’s very exciting to come back, and Malaysia is by far my favorite place outside of the US. It’s definitely worth the travel. Kuala Lumpur is great with all the things that we can do and all of us can really enjoy it.” Patrick Reed, who starred for the American Ryder Cup team this year, was among the extensive American contingent to make the trip to Kuala Lumpur this year, describing the West Course as “awesome.”

Thomas accelerated to a stunning finish, shooting 64, 8-under par, to win by three The 4th hole on the East Course

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“Our golf courses meet the very high tournament standards of the PGA TOUR,” says Jen. “A lot of people ask us how we keep the golf courses so immaculate, and the answer is that we have a big maintenance team and they are highly motivated. We have world-class people here who work extremely hard to prepare for worldclass tournaments. “The CIMB Classic is the largest golf tournament in Malaysia. We have grown our tournaments so they are like festivals, with a lot of great, international foods on offer and other entertainment, so a lot of people like to come to watch the golf but also a lot more.” The golf courses originally opened in 1991, before being redesigned. The West Course, as we know it today, re-opened in October 2008 and the East Course re-opened two years later. Both courses have enjoyed widespread acclaim since, resulting in the unique situation in October when the West Course hosted the CIMB Classic one week, with the slightly shorter, par-71 East Course staging the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia the very next week. “It was a fantastic two weeks with the two tournaments,” adds Jen. “It was very, very busy and this was the first time TPC Kuala Lumpur has hosted tournaments in back-to-back weeks, but we have hosted many tournaments on the European Tour, PGA TOUR and LPGA since 2013 so we knew what to expect. It worked out really well and more people came for the tournaments this year than ever before.” Like Thomas, China’s Feng enjoys a genuine sense of comfort at TPC Kuala Lumpur, as her record over the past four seasons illustrates emphatically. “My record here is really good, especially over the past four years,” said Feng, who beat Norway’s Suzann Pettersen by three at the end of October. “I have come second, first, second, first. The East Course has some very tough greens

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Shanshan Feng lifts the Sime Darby LPGA trophy at TPC Kuala Lumpur [above]. The 5th hole on the West Course [below]

so approach shots have to be very accurate, and I think that’s good for my game. And somehow I always read the greens here very well. They are fast but also very true and I seem to make a lot of putts here—more than normal.” And who doesn’t enjoy holing more putts than usual? “Every time I come back here it makes me feel like I’m at home,” adds Feng, whose form this year hit an upward curve since claiming a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics. “I’m really relaxed and I love everything at TPC Kuala Lumpur; the food, the people. So I’m really looking forward to coming back.”

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All-Action Hero Tom Watson was born 20 years after Arnold Palmer. He grew up watching Palmer win majors and hoped that one day he would be able to emulate the man Watson describes as his hero. Palmer collected seven major titles and ultimately Watson went one better, winning eight and becoming the greatest player of his own generation. One of golf’s most dedicated students, here Watson offers Kingdom his exclusive analysis on Palmer’s iconic golf swing

I first played golf with Arnold Palmer in an exhibition in 1965 in Kansas City when I was 15 years old. To have the opportunity to see Arnold up close and personal back then was wonderful. Arnold had a powerful, fast swing. I have a fast swing as well—neither of us had the rhythm of a golfer like Sam Snead. It was a fast, back-and-forth rhythm. This photographic sequence from 1962 [on the following pages], taken at an angle behind his left shoulder, offers a unique picture of Arnie’s swing, and it really shows the strength in his lower body and how it worked. He clears his left side violently to allow his arms to shoot straight out into impact. You don’t see this with golfers as much today. Today, golfers are taught to keep their arms closer to the body on the follow-through—almost as if they are cutting across the ball—and I don’t concur with it. Arnold had a strong upper body but these pictures really show how his lower body moved very quickly. From there the coiled up power is unleashed with the arms and hands. If you can swing your arms fast you can hit the golf ball a long way, and Arnie could swing his arms fast. When I first met Arnold back in 1965 he was already my hero. He remained my hero all the way through his life and he is still my hero today. Tom Watson [left] and Arnold Palmer at the 1995 [British] Open at St Andrews

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Look at Arnie’s head position through this whole sequence. You can see it dip a little in frame 3 but from that point Arnold kept his head “in the box” into impact and through. His head stays down. That was key to Arnold Palmer’s swing. If your head remains in the same position it makes it very possible to hit the ball very solidly in the middle of the clubface all the time.

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Arnie’s upper body is in a very taught, coiled position by frame 5. His lower body is about to counter-rotate and he is starting to make that very athletic move with his hips. The left hip starts to rotate while the upper body stays coiled just for a moment longer.

11.

10.

Arnie turns his hips so violently that the club comes down on line. That is the power move in golf, right there. Then the arms and hands unleash from that coiled position into impact. Here you can see Arnie’s full extension through the ball. That is how I was taught and I still think it is the right way to swing. Right here Palmer is unleashing his full force into the back of the ball.

12.

10.

11.

12.

Arnold’s head is just beginning to come up in frame 11, at which point the club is past parallel in the follow through. That was Arnie’s signature right there. You don’t see it as much today as golfers tend to move their head up with the follow through in the modern swing. Then frame 12 shows Arnie’s iconic finish. In fact, he had to finish with his hands high to prevent the hook.

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Four Green Jackets A

Arnold Palmer claimed seven major victories between 1958 and 1964. Both his first and last came at the Masters, but they were very different successes. One was a dogfight, the other almost a cakewalk. Looking back, these parallel triumphs at Augusta National sum up Palmer to a tee—one part hewn out of doggedness in adversity, the other gilded with serenity

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Arnold Palmer enjoyed a near-lifelong love affair with Augusta National. Its golfing and floral attractions remained dear to him from the moment he first cast eyes on Bobby Jones’ pride and joy. In total, Palmer donned four Green Jackets between 1958 and 1964, and he probably would have pulled on a few more along the way if fate had really played into his hands. But in repose, he was happy to consider his four victories among the azaleas and dogwood of deepest Georgia, especially as each of those titles resulted not just from consummate skill but from the raw grit inherited from his father Deacon. Palmer made his Masters debut in 1955, the year after he won the U.S. Amateur title. That feat earned him the invitation to Augusta and he finished in a respectable tie for 10th. At the time, this was a mere footnote after Cary Middlecoff had triumphed by seven shots from Ben Hogan, with Sam Snead third. Palmer’s recollection of the moment he and his wife Winnie first drove down Magnolia Lane in their two-door, coral-pink Ford is eloquently recorded in his autobiography, A Golfer’s Life. “I’d never seen a place that looked so

Arnold Palmer soaks in the limelight after winning the Masters for the third time in 1962

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Thank you my friend Arnold put me at ease from the moment we first met and both our friendship and our business relationship flourished from that moment on. Over the years, Arnold and I spoke often about our upbringing, our families and the lessons we learned early on. Arnold will always be one of the greatest sports figure of all time. Having Arnold as a client and close friend was a wonderful part of my life. My family and I will miss him more than words can express.

Dick and Ann Marie Connolly and Family Concord, MA

“I’m sure there were plenty of people in the gallery who were certain they’d just watched Arnold Palmer disqualify himself from the Masters”

Doug Ford helps Palmer into his first Green Jacket , in 1958

beautiful, so well manicured, and so purely devoted to golf, wet-weather rules (lifting, cleaning and placing). as beautiful as an antebellum estate, as quiet as a church… Following an animated discussion with a rules official I felt a powerful thrill and an unexpected kinship with Palmer was refused a drop, so he played the plugged ball and the place.” shifted it 18 inches. After chipping near the cup, only to miss That kinship wasn’t particularly in evidence when he the subsequent short putt, he returned to where his ball had limped home in 21st place on his second appearance in 1956, been plugged and dropped over his shoulder—in defiance but 12 months later, when he tied for seventh, the omens of the instructions Palmer had been given. His ball rolled were inescapable. By then, Palmer had worked out where to down the slope a little, so he placed it near the pitch-mark, position his drives so he could hold the greens despite his chipped stone-dead and this time holed the putt for a three. low ball flight, and the following year he claimed his first The question now was, had Palmer scored three or five? If Masters, his first major. Golf was never the same again. three, he led by one; if five, he trailed Venturi by one. For the final round in 1958, Palmer, joint leader on 211, This question was still hanging when Palmer struck a was paired with Ken Venturi. Even though a dozen players 3-wood second shot to the back of the green on the par-5 13th were grouped between 211 and 215 at the start of play, by the and holed the 20-foot putt for an eagle three. Two holes later time Palmer and Venturi arrived on the 12th tee it seemed he received word from Jones that his three at 12 would stand. likely the winner of their duel would claim the title. “I’m sure there were plenty of people in the gallery who were Palmer led Venturi by a solitary shot as they prepared certain they’d just watched Arnold Palmer disqualify himself to play this iconic short hole that to this day still measures from the Masters,” he said. “But I knew the rule and believed a mere 155 yards from the back tee. True to Sunday tradition I was within my rights to do what I had done.” at the Masters, the pin was positioned treacherously in Despite that reprieve and the blow it represented to the far right corner of the green, and also in keeping with Venturi, Palmer still required a birdie three up the 18th to custom, the wind was gusting and swirling. claim the Green Jacket. He duly delivered and won by a Both tee shots sailed over the shallow putting surface single shot from defending champion Doug Ford and Fred and into the bank behind. Venturi’s ball kicked down to the Hawkins, while Venturi ultimately tied fourth with Stan edge of the green, whence he two-putted. However, Palmer’s Leonard, a further stroke adrift. ball was embedded in the bank. It had rained heavily during “I was so tense and focused, I don’t even remember the the night and early morning and play that day was subject to walk up 18,” Palmer confessed.

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The “Army” mobilizes In 1959, Palmer was hot property and the red-hot favorite. After three rounds he was tied for the lead with Leonard. By the time he arrived at the self-same 12th tee, he had his nose in front, but fate at Augusta National proved a cruel equalizer and he walked off the green with a triple-bogey six after dumping his tee shot in the water. He still had a shout after birdying the 15th, but short putts missed on the closing two greens left him two shots behind Art Wall and one behind Middlecoff. “My disappointment was immense. I’d had the tournament in my grasp but had been unable to close,” he reflected ruefully. Palmer did not dwell on his defeat for long though, and in hindsight it perhaps proved to be one of the greatest weeks of his life—the week that his adoring throng of followers was rebranded as Arnie’s Army. “As he always did in those days, Clifford Roberts [Augusta National’s co-founder, with Jones] used GIs from nearby Camp Gordon [now Fort Gordon], the military installation where he [Roberts] spent two years as a young soldier, to work the scoreboards,” Palmer recalled. “Many people don’t realize that the Masters was not a sellout in those early years. Anybody with five dollars could walk up to the gates and buy a ticket for the day. Cliff wanted as large a gallery as he could get that year since the Masters was being televised for the second time, so he gave

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“The Augusta Chronicle ran the headline ‘Arnie’s Army’ for the first time. Boy, did it ever stick!” free passes to any soldier who showed up in uniform. “The soldiers did not necessarily know a lot about golf, but when they found out I was defending champion they joined my gallery. That prompted one of the GIs working a back-nine scoreboard to announce the arrival of ‘Arnie’s Army,’ which is what it looked like. I can’t remember another time, other than my stint in the Coast Guard, when so many uniformed soldiers surrounded me. A year later, when I won my second Masters title, I thanked the ‘army’ of supporters who came out to follow me. “Meanwhile, Johnny Hendricks, a reporter from The Augusta Chronicle, picked up on the phrase and ran the headline ‘Arnie’s Army’ for the first time. Boy, did it ever stick! Before I finished my playing career, I think every newspaper, magazine or television station that covered golf used the phrase at least once.”

Palmer putts during the 1960 Masters [above]; Arnie’s Army follows their man, also in 1960 [left], when Palmer would ultimately win his second Masters title

surface and took three more to get down. Thus Player was gifted his first Masters title and the King was deposed—into a tie for second with the amateur Charles Coe. Palmer was steaming, although his fury was directed entirely at himself. “What really tore me up inside was the knowledge that I’d lost because I’d failed to do what Pap had always told me to do: stay focused until the job is finished,” he said. After a year of recriminations, he exacted sweet revenge in 1962 by beating both Player and Finsterwald in the Masters’ first ever three-way playoff. But the playoff only became necessary because Palmer, who led Player by four and Finsterwald by two after 54 holes, suffered another final-round stumble. In fact, had he not chipped in for a two at 16—after being irked by a remark to air by on-course commentator Jimmy Demaret—and birdied 17 from 20 feet, Palmer would have been ruing yet another Augusta fumble. After a modest start to the 18-hole playoff, which saw him trailing at the turn, Palmer then reeled off a blistering back nine of 31—eight shots better than his fourth-round effort—to seal his third Masters triumph. “I admitted in the press-room afterward that I felt very fortunate to have won and really looked forward to a day when I might walk up the 18th hole with the tournament safely in hand, actually able to enjoy the experience of knowing I didn’t have to pull off another miracle shot to win,” Palmer said.

Sweet ’60

The famous fourth

Palmer’s second Masters victory, in 1960, coincided with the rise of television in suburban America, and he had become golf’s first “superstar.” After three rounds he led by one stroke from Hogan, Julius Boros, Dow Finsterwald, Venturi and Billy Casper. With two holes remaining, it looked as though Venturi, the only member of the chasing pack who had not already won a major, was about to break through. But Palmer thwarted him again with birdies at 17 and 18, holing out from 30 feet and 6 feet respectively, to claim his second Green Jacket. A third was dramatically ripped from Palmer’s shoulders 12 months later when, needing a four on 18 for victory, he contrived to take six and hand the title to Gary Player. After trailing the young South African by four after three rounds, he had worked his way into the lead and stood in the middle of the final fairway with a one-shot lead. But before playing his approach Palmer allowed himself to be distracted and prematurely congratulated by an old friend, George Low, in the gallery. “Nice going, boy, you won it,” Low said. With those words ringing in his ears and his concentration blurred, Palmer pushed his second shot into a greenside trap, splashed out over the putting

After a disappointing tie for ninth in 1963, the year Jack Nicklaus confirmed he was the real deal, Palmer’s wish came true in 1964. Certainly, he felt it was his greatest victory. After months without winning on tour, Palmer had heard talk that his career was in eclipse. His answer was to play majestic golf and he led, in effect, from the first tee shot to the last putt—for a birdie, of course. He won by six strokes, and at the time his 276 total was the second best score in the tournament’s history. He also became the first man to win the Masters four times. His plan of attack was perfectly executed, on a day-by-day basis. The experts predicted it would be a sluggers’ tournament with little roll on sodden fairways. The sluggers they had in mind were Palmer and Nicklaus, but by the end of the first round five men shared the lead on 69: Palmer, Player, Kel Nagle, Bob Goalby and Davis Love, Jr. On the Friday, Palmer’s 68 was near flawless, one of his finest rounds. Partnered by Chi Chi Rodriguez who hammed up to the galleries, he resolved not to be distracted under any circumstances and led by four at halfway from Player, whose 72 included six one-putt pars, and by seven

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from Nicklaus who was struggling on the greens. Saturday was the day of pursuit with everyone chasing Palmer. Eschewing his customary tendency to throw a few shots away early on to make things interesting, he ground out a “take every shot as it comes” third round of 69 that as good as slammed the door shut in the face of his rivals. He stood 10-under-par for the tournament after 54 holes and his nearest challenger, five strokes back, was young Australian Bruce Devlin. Twenty-four hours later, Palmer was able to stride up the 18th fairway and soak in the appreciation and affection from the Masters patrons that cascaded from all around. Then he sank the 25ft birdie putt on 18 and signed for a closing 70, having seen off dynamic late charges from playing partner Dave Marr, who seemingly holed every putt he looked at on the front nine, and Nicklaus. On the 18th tee, Palmer asked Marr, who at that point was third, trailing Nicklaus by one: “What can I do to help you?” “Shoot a 12!” Marr quipped, though in the end he needed no help from Palmer as he sank a downhill 30ft birdie putt on the 18th green to tie the Golden Bear for second place. “At the start of the tournament,” Palmer said afterwards, “I told all the reporters what score I thought would win, somewhere between 276 and 278, and I tried to set that as my point of aim. I played here as I would like to be able to play in every tournament. When I got here I felt as great as I have in years.” For once, during that memorable week, there was no spluttering down the stretch and the future seemed rosy again. Strangely, though, that was it for Palmer in terms of major wins. He claimed a further 19 PGA Tour titles, not to mention numerous international wins, but his majors

tally parked at seven and went no further. There were many subsequent near misses, including three top-four finishes in the next three Masters, but his race for the Green Jacket was run. In total, Palmer played exactly 50 times in the Masters and served as honorary starter from 2007 to 2016, in recent years with his fellow “Big Three” rivals, Player and Nicklaus. Palmer’s reign over golf ultimately stretched beyond 60 years and will long continue to bequeath its legacy wherever the game is played and loved. Augusta National is not only one such place, but where many of the most vivid chapters of Palmer’s epic story unfolded.

Palmer signs autographs at the 1964 Masters

First among equals At the 2015 Masters, past champions were given a plaque with a segment from Eisenhower’s Tree. An ice storm struck down the famous loblolly pine on Augusta’s 17th hole in 2014, and Palmer’s plaque was presented to him at the annual Champions Dinner. “They singled me out as the first to receive a piece of the tree. It was a very nice gesture,” Palmer told us after the 2015 Masters. “The guys started asking questions which prompted me to make a few remarks. Mostly I spoke about the President and what a great guy he was, how I valued our relationship and how I still do. Usually I do not let him get out of my mind very far because he was such a special person and I regard our friendship as one of the greatest in my life.”

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“Arnold talked about the responsibilities we have as Masters champions,” Mark O’Meara, Masters champion in 1998, later told Kingdom. “He talked about how important it is for young players to behave in the right way and to treat people with respect; the fans, the volunteers at tournaments and everybody around the game. It was wonderful and an incredibly emotional speech. Mr. Palmer had tears in his eyes. If anyone spends just a few moments with Arnold Palmer, they can see what a true gentleman he is. Without Arnold, this tournament and lot of other things we enjoy in golf today might not be the same. “You know, the younger champions walked out of that room saying it was the greatest Champions Dinner they had been to.”

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Remembering The King “I thought Arnold Palmer was exceptional. He was charismatic and humble at the same time, attentive, just an absolute gem of a human being, he was the most charismatic golfer in the world, that’s for sure.” – Sir. Michael Smurfit

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A life on Course From one of the greatest photo albums in sports, an inspiring selection of both well-known and lesser-known images of the one and only Arnold Palmer

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[Left] Palmer tees up from the gritted teeth of comedian Jack Benny during an exhibition in the late 1960s [Center] Palmer debates a ruling during the 1961 British Open at Royal Birkdale [Below] Palmer takes a momentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contemplation at the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont

[Main] Palmer was never slow to smile on the golf course [Top right] Teeing off during the 1986 [British] Open at Turnberry [Bottom right] Sizing up a putt at Oakmont in the 1962 U.S. Open

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[Top left] The crowd favorite in 1962 [Bottom left] Playing in the 2005 Senior PGA Championship at Laurel Valley CC in Ligonier, Pennsylvania [Main] Winning the PGA Championship after all... the British PGA Championship at Royal St. Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in 1975

[Left] Putting clinic with an unimpressed toucan [Middle] Not this time: missed putt during the 1971 [British] Open at Royal Birkdale [Right] A young professional surveys the products of his first endorsement agreement

A focused Palmer at the 1962 World Series of Golf

Arnold Palmer 1929-2016

We honor your life, legacy and pursuit of unmatched perfection.

xxxxx

Arnold Palmer proudly holds the U.S. Amateur Championship trophy

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Destiny in Detroit The 1954 U.S. Amateur Championship was the denouement of Arnold Palmer’s amateur career. In hindsight, it was an achievement that ushered in golf’s modern era. Kingdom looks back on an historic week in Detroit

“Where’s my father?” Arnold Palmer called out moments after he had won the 54th U.S. Amateur Championship at the Country Club of Detroit on Saturday, August 28, 1954. He had already given a big hug to his mother, Doris, who had tears streaming down her face. ‘Pap’ was there all right, lost in the throng. When his 24-year-old son spotted Deacon Palmer, who was never one for a big show of sentiment, the Latrobe superintendent nodded and said quietly: “You did pretty good, boy.” A story that begins with a happy ending. The following week, Palmer played in bandleader Fred Waring’s annual invitational in Shawnee–on–the–Delaware, Pennsylvania, and there he met Winifred Walzer. Within a short time, he was married to Winnie and had turned pro. And the following April he played in his first Masters. His life thereafter progressed, with a few bumps along the way, down a boulevard paved with success, fame, honor and glory. The week of the 1954 Amateur was truly a turning point, not just for Arnold Palmer, but for the whole game. Just think… if Palmer had stumbled

during one of his eight matches (seven of which were undeniably close), he might have carried on working for Ed Wehnse as a paint salesman in Cleveland. He might have never met Winnie since Wehnse only let him off work for Waring’s event as a reward for winning the Amateur. Who knows, there might even have been no charge at Cherry Hills, no Arnie’s Army, no “go for broke” legend and no transformation of his sport. More than six decades have passed since that historic week in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, a wealthy enclave of auto-industry titans parked between the Detroit border and Lake St. Clair. The course had been redesigned in 1951 by Robert Trent Jones, who lengthened H.L. Holt’s 1911 layout from 6,412 to 6,875 yards. But they have never played another major tournament there. Some of the club’s honchos tried to bring the Amateur back in the early 1970s but the membership vetoed it. They mostly lived nearby and they didn’t want crowds tramping across their Gatsby lawns. And no one wanted any tramping on their memories of the 1954 Amateur. Most gentlemen scratch amateurs in

those days had long, languid swings in the style of Horton Smith, Lawson Little and Bobby Jones. But the young paint salesman’s contact with a golf ball—more slapshot than golf shot—bore the hallmark of a hard-handed son of toil. A teenage caddie named Lew Echlin was assigned to tote Palmer’s bag during a practice round. The youngster waited on the first tee as his man emerged from the locker room, attired in immaculate dress pants and a white shirt. Then the player hit his first drive and the caddie thought to himself, “What?”. Palmer swished away at the ball throughout the round. Afterwards, the caddymaster gave Echlin the choice of either keeping the loop for the week or take an hourly rate for working on the scoreboard. Echlin, no doubt to his eternal regret, headed to the scoreboard. So Jimmy Gill, who was 16 at the time, found himself on Palmer’s bag. Years later, he recalled: “He was so strong, big shoulders and arms, and he was so confident. He was a gambler. He’d just go for it. If he missed a shot, he knew he would make it up later. He had something about him, that walk of his, the way he attacked the ball.”

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ARNOLD PALMER 1926-2016

To a true legend both on and off the course: A man who conquered the game yet did so with class and appreciation for his Army. A man who embodied the philanthropic spirit of building a community and protecting the health of our youth and future generations. Thank you Mr. Palmer for your countless contributions and for setting the example of living a life well played. St. Johns Insurance Company offers homeowners insurance in the states of Florida and South Carolina.

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Palmer celebrates victory with his mother Doris and father Deacon

Six days, eight matches Palmer played his first match on Monday, August 23, against Frank Strafaci of Garden City, a seven–time winner of the New York metropolitan title. He won 1-up after taking the lead by hitting a 4-wood from a sand trap on the 460-yard par-4 17th and getting up and down from just short of the green. The next day he again needed the full 18 holes to defeat John W. Veghte, a Florida State golfer from Gloversville, New York. On Wednesday morning Palmer met Richard L. Whiting, captain of the 1946 Notre Dame college golf team, but couldn’t close out his opponent until the 17th. However, things were easier that afternoon against Walter C. Andzel of Hamburg, New York, and a 5&3 victory was posted, as fate would have it, before a thunderstorm drenched the course and caused play to be suspended. The next morning, Palmer took on Frank Stranahan, who had been winner by one hole in a thrilling fourth-round encounter with Harvie Ward, the man who succeeded Palmer as champion in both 1955 and 1956. The powerful Stranahan, then 32 and an enthusiastic bodybuilder, had beaten Palmer 4&3 in the 1950 Amateur and 11&10 in a 36–hole North and South semi–final. And just the week before, Stranahan had finished first and Palmer second at the

World Amateur Championship in Chicago. But the “Kid who would be King” was undeterred—typically as we would later know—and he won 3&1. Palmer was suddenly the favorite. His quarter–final opponent in the afternoon was Don Cherry, a professional singer from Wichita Falls, Texas, and winner of the 1953 Canadian Amateur. Cherry had a singing gig the night before at the Dakota Inn in Detroit and several participants in the Amateur went to see him perform, but not Palmer. The decisive hole was the 17th. Neither hit the green, but Palmer pitched close and made his putt. A half up 18 saw Cherry dispatched 1-down, but he held no grudges and went on to enjoy a lifelong friendship with Palmer. Indeed, Cherry would be one of his closest challengers

A plaque marks the spot to this day where Palmer executed his chip

during the famous charge down the stretch at the 1960 U.S. Open. Palmer’s opponent in a 36–hole semi– final was Edward Meister, Jr., a former Yale golf captain making his 13th U.S. Amateur appearance. This match was a see–saw affair in which neither player was at his best. Despite shooting 76, Palmer was 1-up after the morning round. With the match tied after 35 holes, Meister split the 18th fairway and flighted a 5–iron eight feet from the pin. Palmer found the rough with his drive and flew his second into a grassy lie behind the green. He was faced with a near impossible chip, up and onto a green that sloped severely away from him. His wedge shot landed gently at the top of the slope, crawled down the putting surface and stopped four feet above the hole. After Meister missed his birdie attempt, Palmer deliberated long and hard over his putt. “My recollection was that it was a straight-in putt, straight in the hole, and that’s what happened,” he said. A plaque marks the spot to this day where Palmer executed his chip. In sudden-death, Meister missed two further makeable putts for victory before Palmer smacked a 300–yard drive on the 510–yard par–5 3rd, followed by a low 3–iron that stopped 30 feet from the hole. He two–

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putted for birdie and his place in the final. Meanwhile, Robert Sweeny, a 43-year-old investment banker from Sands Point, New York, defeated Dr. Ted Lenczyk 5&4 in the other semi–final. Tall, elegant and blessed with a Rolls-Royce swing, Sweeny was born in California, but divided his time between Palm Beach, Long Island and Europe. He studied at Oxford University and won the British Amateur in 1937. During World War II, Sweeny and his brother Charlie helped organize the Eagle Squadron, a group of American pilots who fought for the Royal Air Force. A bomber pilot and squadron commander, Sweeny earned the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). After coming out of the RAF, he reached the final of the British Amateur again in 1946. Palmer once said: “We hailed from different galaxies.” Sweeny made a flying start, sinking putts of 35, 20 and 25 feet on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th greens. Palmer was reeling, but his spirits were lifted by his opponent as they walked off the 5th tee. Sweeny put his arm around Palmer and said, “Arnie, you know I can’t keep this up.” Palmer, who was out–driving the older man by as much as 30 yards, won 8, 9 and 10 to even the match, though Sweeny was 2-up at the halfway stage having shot a 70 to Palmer’s 72. Palmer got his nose in front for the first time on the 32nd, and promptly doubled his lead with a birdie on the par-4 15th. But he three-putted 17 from 50 feet and the match went to the final hole with Palmer up by one. First up on the 36th, Sweeny went into the thick grass on the right. It was the moment of truth for Palmer and he struck his drive 250 yards down the right side of the fairway. The players never made it to the green. After searching fruitlessly for his ball, Sweeny walked over to Palmer and said: “Congratulations, Arnold, you win.” There was some confusion at first, then a ripple of applause as the new champion waved to the gallery—a wave that soon became one of the most popular sights in the whole of sport. Then, symbolically as it turned out, a brass band on the clubhouse terrace struck up the unmistakable chords of Hail To The Chief.

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Palmer takes on Texan Don Cherry in the quarter-final [above] and celebrates with gracious runner-up Robert Sweeny [below]

Sweeny said, “Arnie, you know I can’t keep this up”

Arnold Palmer | 1929-2016 Arnold Palmer will always be a champion — in so many ways, the people’s champion. He inspired generations to love golf by exuding a trademark competitive spirit, displaying sportsmanship, caring for golfers and fans, and serving as a lifelong ambassador for the sport.

Arnold Palmer hurls his visor skyward after shooting 65 in the final round of the 1960 U.S. Open. The visor [right] is now a prized exhibit at the USGA museum in Far Hills, N.J. (Picture courtesy of USGA Museum)

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“Too far back” to win Arnold Palmer could do almost no wrong during the summer of 1960. Fresh from claiming his second Green Jacket at the Masters in April, he won the U.S. Open after starting his final round seven shots behind. Kingdom turns the clock back to golf’s ultimate feat of derring-do at Cherry Hills Country Club

Cherry Hills Country Club on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado was the scene, and Saturday, June 18, 1960 was its appointed date with destiny. Until then Arnold Palmer had endured a frustrating relationship with the U.S. Open. A string of missed opportunities. In seven previous tilts at the coveted old silver trophy he had missed the cut three times and recorded only two top-10 finishes—seventh at Oak Hill in 1956 and tied fifth at Winged Foot in 1959. “But almost from the beginning, 1960 had a different feel about it,” Palmer said. “My confidence level had never been so high, my desire to go out and play the golf course so intense.” “Cherry Hills, abutted by the Rocky Mountains, stretched 7,004 yards, but because of the added distance a ball would carry on a course that is 5,280 feet above sea level it was felt [Ben] Hogan’s 12-year tournament record might be in jeopardy.” As it happened Hogan’s landmark was safe, but as the dust settled on perhaps the most dramatic day the U.S. Open has ever witnessed his pride most definitely was not. The Cherry Hills course previously had challenged the world’s best players at both the 1938 U.S. Open and the 1941 PGA Championship, won respectively by Ralph Guldahl and Vic Ghezzi. Anticipation for the 1960 U.S. Open was electric, with Cherry Hills producing a program in which 210 advertisement pages were sold at $1,000 per page, while pre-tournament ticket sales rocketed to $65,000. At the midway point of the competition, 30-year-old Palmer, the tournament favorite and a magnet for galleries’ focus and affections after winning the Masters for a second time that April, trailed 36-hole leader Mike Souchak by eight shots. This was still the era when rounds three and four were crammed into the third and final day. While this tradition gave neither players nor spectators much time to keep abreast of and reflect on the second half of the championship, the potential for wild fluctuations in fortunes and excitement was immense. Souchak, who tied for third the previous year, still led by two shots after the morning round despite hitting his tee shot out of bounds at the 18th, having been unnerved by the clicking of an amateur photographer. Palmer, who added a lackluster 72 to his opening

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efforts of 72 and 71 to stand two over par after 54 holes, was still seven behind Souchak and a further 13 players were also ahead of him on the leaderboard. Then, in the locker room between rounds, one of golf ’s most famous conversations took place—between Palmer and longtime Pittsburgh sportswriter Bob Drum. Palmer, on 215, pointed out that “280 traditionally won the Open” and asked Drum what he thought a 65 might do for his chances. Drum responded: “For you, nothing—280 won’t do you one damn bit of good. You are too far back.” His answer angered Palmer, who was dead serious even though only one player had ever posted a 65 in the last round of the U.S. Open—Walter Burkemo, to tie fourth at Inverness in 1957. Palmer used the final 20 minutes before his starting time to unleash his anger and frustration on the range. All week, he had tried to drive the 318-yard, par-4 1st hole, only to double-bogey via the creek to the right of the fairway on day one and three-putt for bogey in the third round. His very first shot of the championship dropped into water after clattering into a tree, prompting a quaint exchange of views with Joe Dey, the USGA

A commemorative plaque by the first tee at Cherry Hills [above]; Palmer sizes up a putt during the final round in 1960 [below]

His very first shot of the championship dropped into water after clattering into a tree Courtesy USGA Museum

executive director at the time, about whether he should drop his ball at the point of entry or where it finished downstream beside the green. “As I watched the ball rolling down the stream Joe came over,” Palmer recalled. “I said to him, ‘I think I’ll let it roll down to the green and take a drop there.’ But he wasn’t taking it that way and said, ‘Now Arnold, you know better than that!’ Of course, I was trying to be light but he was too serious for that and I made six, on the first hole of the Open that I eventually won. It didn’t put me off trying to drive the green again.” Finally, at the last time of asking in the fourth round, he achieved the feat, Palmer’s mighty drive rolling onto the front of the green. “There was an explosive cheer from the gallery on the tee and around the green,” said Palmer. “Marching off the tee, I felt a powerful surge of adrenaline.” That adrenaline had an instantly counterproductive effect because he needed to hole, in his own words, “a lengthy comebacker for a birdie.” He sunk the testing putt and Palmer was up and running and he duly birdied five of the next six holes en route to an outward half of 30. Despite the fireworks, though, Palmer was still only tied on four under at the turn with Souchak, Hogan, Julius Boros, Jack Fleck, Dow Finsterwald, Jerry Barber and a distinguished amateur, the cabaret singer Don Cherry. At this stage they all trailed 20-year-old amateur Jack Nicklaus by a shot. After bogeying the long par-3 8th—the only hiccup of his round—Palmer spotted Drum in his gallery. “I asked him, ‘Well, well, what are you doing here, since I have no chance?’” he said. Palmer’s form cooled on the back nine but steady play got him home in 35 and enabled him to match his nominated clubhouse target of 280. Meanwhile, Souchak and Nicklaus each missed several putts down

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Leaderboard 60th U.S. Open, June 16-18, 1960 1 2 T3

T9 USGA President John Cook [right] presents Palmer with the U.S. Open trophy, and [below] the first hole at Cherry Hills today

the stretch, though the latter still claimed second place, two shots back. It was the best finish by an amateur since 1933 and a portent of some stunning achievements to come. Hogan, gunning for a record fifth Open at the age of 47, sealed his own fate at the par-5 17th when his third shot spun back into water (a birdie would have given him a one-shot lead over Palmer). He followed that bogey with a triple-bogey on 18 after finding water again and his challenge was drowned. Hogan, who died in 1997, once told CBS: “I find myself waking up at night thinking of that shot [at 17] right to this day. There isn’t a month goes by that it doesn’t cut my guts out.” For Palmer, though, the U.S. Open of 1960 was an endless source of bliss, one that far out-reached a first prize of $14,400. Ever the gentleman, he gave much of

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Arnold Palmer Jack Nicklaus (a) Julius Boros Dow Finsterwald Jack Fleck Dutch Harrison Ted Kroll Mike Souchak Jerry Barber Don Cherry (a) Ben Hogan

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71 71 68 69 70 70 69 67 71 71 67

72 69 69 70 72 70 75 73 70 71 69

65 71 73 73 71 69 67 75 74 72 73

280 282 283 283 283 283 283 283 284 284 284

At the time it was the best finish by a U.S. Open champion in the history of the championship the credit for his success to local caddie Bob Blair, who was a regular “looper” for Cherry Hill members but quite inexperienced at shepherding top tour pros round a U.S. Open. Ultimately, Palmer’s final round proved his friend Drum wrong. The 65 saw him overtake 14 golfers to the top of the leaderboard. At the time it was best finish by a U.S. Open champion in the history of the championship, bettering Gene Sarazen’s closing 66 in 1932 by a shot.

Photo: Patrick Drickey/stonehousegolf.com

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TIMELINE Palmer walks into a hangar at his hometown’s Latrobe Airport and asks Babe Krinock for flying lessons. He takes his first solo flight after only eight hours of training, and soon earns his pilot’s license. The legacy begins.

1956

Palmer buys his first plane, a 1961 Aero Commander 500.

1961

A second plane purchase, a 1963 560F Commander. The light twin-engine aircraft was designed in the 1940s by the Aero Design and Engineering Company, which eventually became the Aero Commander division of Rockwell. A Commander similar to Palmer’s holds the status of smallest Air Force One ever, shuttling Palmer’s friend President Dwight Eisenhower around between 1956 and 1960. That particular AF1 was the first to sport the now standard blue-and-white color design.

1963

Palmer buys his first jet, a Jet Commander. A May 1966 Flight magazine advertised the plane as “The only business jet in the world in which everybody rides first-class.”

1966

On the eve of the U.S. Open, The New York Sunday News profiles Palmer, offering: “When Arnold Palmer pilots his $750,000 plane into San Francisco this week, he will neither be showing off nor throwing his money away foolishly. Doesn’t every corporate giant have its own executive-type twin-engine jet? Arnold Palmer Inc. has become big business the likes of which professional sports have never seen.”

1966

For the first time in his life, Palmer’s plane is flown without him or his knowledge—pilot Darrell Brown flies it to Gettysburg to pick up President Dwight Eisenhower for a surprise visit. “I was oblivious to it all,” Palmer says, “until I answered the door and found General Eisenhower standing there with an overnight bag. ‘Say, you wouldn’t have room to put up an old man for the night, would you?’ One of the nicest weekends of my life followed. It was the thrill of a lifetime.”

1966

Palmer purchases a Lear 24. Capable of clipping along at a brisk 565 mph at 45,000 ft fully loaded, this luxury class business jet was one of the most popular of its day—and remained so. At least 200 were still in use as of 2001. A top flight all around, the 1976 version boasted an extended ceiling to 51,000 feet, the highest at the time for civilian aviation.

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1968

Arnold Palmer’s longtime friend and former Cessna CEO Russ Meyer summed it up: “[Arnie] didn’t just like to fly, he loved to fly. And the faster the speed and the higher the altitude, the better he liked it.”

legendary golfer and successful businessman, Palmer easily could have pursued a career as a pilot had he chosen to do so. His skills in the cockpit were as often lauded as they were displayed, perhaps most obviously in 1976 during a record-setting around-the-world flight at the controls of a Learjet 36 [see sidebar: Record Flight]. From the day in 1956 when he walked into the airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to ask about flying lessons, to January 31, 2011, the day he let his pilot’s license expire, Palmer built a reputation as a fearless—but safe—man in the air, earning the respect of fellow airmen even as he thrilled audiences on the ground with his golf. Here, then, is a look at Palmer’s life above the fairways, up in the clouds where he went so far, so fast, so well. “He was not just a pilot, he was an outstanding pilot,” said Meyer, a National Aviation Hall of Fame member, speaking at Palmer’s memorial service on October 4, 2016. “In aviation we describe the really special pilots as ‘having good hands,’ and I can assure you that Arnie’s hands were just as comfortable on the controls of an aircraft as the grip of a golf club.” Palmer learned to fly in 1956, walking into a hangar at the Latrobe Airport at the age of 28 and asking pilot Babe Krinock for flying lessons. Krinock charged $3 an hour for instruction in a Cessna 172 and, as he told Kingdom some years ago, he was surprised to learn that his latest student was a professional golfer. “I didn’t know there was such a thing,” he said. “And I never dreamed back then that they’d one day name the airport after him. He was a great student, absolutely fearless.” The airport was indeed named for Palmer, in 1999, and a statue of the golfer by noted sculptor Zenos Frudakis stands out front. Now with an extended runway that stretches 8,224 feet and which accommodates flights from Spirit Airlines, large private jets and others, it wasn’t always thus, and its more modest dimensions highlighted (and perhaps sharpened) Palmer’s skills.

Airman

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A last-minute withdrawal from the inaugural Heritage Classic on Hilton Head Island leaves promoters scrambling to fill a highprofile slot. They call Palmer who says he’ll play, but only if he can fly his plane to the still-under-construction airport. They agree. Five days later Palmer flies out with the first place trophy and a check for $20,000. The victory ends a 20-month winless streak.

Palmer spends the day at and above Scott Air Force Base in Illinois where he takes controls of the C-9 Nightingale, the C-141 Starlifter and is entertained by General Jack Catton and staff, who pepper him with questions about golf as he peppers back with questions about aviation.

Palmer sets a record (still standing) by circumnavigating the globe in a Lear 36 in 57 hours, 25 minutes and 42 seconds. “I did it for the thrill, and it became a motivation to get a new airplane, which was promised when I finished it,” Palmer told Kingdom some years ago. “That part of the deal, as it turns out, didn’t come through. Every five hours there was a new challenge. Whether it was a typhoon or making it to the next destination with enough fuel. The challenges never stopped.” During a stop in Sri Lanka he paused to go for a ride—on an elephant. “I did,” he said. “They met me at the plane with the elephant and I rode into town for the golf awards and then back… It was a busy 55 minutes in Sri Lanka.”

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1966

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1966

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, PA

1976

In the mid 1980s, Palmer went vertical with a Hughes MD500E helicopter. Lee Lauderback, Arnie’s chief pilot at the time, said the whirlybird was ideal for quick course-to-course transport because Palmer could land where he played. A civilian version of a military observation helicopter, the MD500E is capable of approximately 175mph and has a range of roughly 267 miles.

1980s

Palmer tells Directions, the Cessna Citation magazine, that he never would have been able to accomplish all he’s accomplished without the wings. “I started flying in 1956,” Palmer said. “An airplane helped me keep up with my golf schedule and my family life, and see that business obligations were taken care of. Now, my airplane is part of my existence and a great diversion.”

1988

Cessna receives official certification for its new Citation X, a mid-sized aircraft that immediately becomes the fastest production business jet. The company announces its plans to deliver its first one to Arnold Palmer.

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1996

“Long before they constructed that beautiful new runway at Arnold Palmer Airport,” Meyer said, “he operated his business jets in and out of a narrow 4,000foot strip that had no control tower, minimal snow removal, no precision landing system and a pretty good size tree on the final approach… So, depending on the weather it could be a little challenging sometimes, but not for Arnie. He used that short runway for years.” Palmer’s jet of choice since 1996 was the top-ofthe-line Cessna Citation X, the fastest civilian aircraft with a top speed of Mach .92, nearly the speed of sound. Before that he owned a range of aircraft, many of them Cessnas, but he flew far more than he owned. By the time he hung up his wings at the age of 81, he’d logged nearly 20,000 flight hours. By comparison, former USAF pilot Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger had roughly the same number of hours when he landed U.S. Airways 1549 in the “Miracle on the Hudson.” Sully was 58 when that happened, but he was an Air Force Academy graduate who’d spent his entire adult life as a professional pilot. An honorary Blue Angel and Thunderbird, Palmer flew a number of military fighter aircraft including the F15 and F16; he piloted a Boeing 747, tried numerous business planes and even flew helicopters for a while (though friends talked him out of pursuing those). “If it had wings and an engine, Arnie would give it a try,” said Meyer. If it was a passion for Palmer, it was also a means to an end, allowing the golfer to engage with his profession and to expand his business opportunities while living where he chose.

“Shortly after he earned his private pilot’s license back in the late 50s, he put his golf clubs in the back seat of a Cessna 172, flew solo to Akron to play an exhibition and was back home for dinner. That was it for Arnie,” said Meyer. “It was not only fun, but he recognized that flying his own aircraft would enable him to pursue both his golf and business careers and still live in Latrobe.” Flying also meant that Palmer didn’t have to endure the long nights on the road between tournaments. His status as a pilot was well known on tour—something which Palmer occasionally emphasized. “It was not unusual for Arnie to announce either his arrival or his departure with a low pass over the golf course,” Meyer said. “He might have taken a modest liberty with altitude and speed restrictions but he never did so at the compromise of safety.” In terms of helping other golfers get from place to place, Meyer said, “Any of his fellow professionals who had the courage to accept a ride to the next tournament with Arnie learned very quickly the wisdom of tightening the seatbelt before takeoff.” One such fellow professional was longtime rival and friend Jack Nicklaus, who recounted a particularly memorable flight with Palmer while speaking at the October memorial. “In some ways Arnold approached his golf much like his flying,” said Nicklaus. “He was passionate, loved to go fast, and he had a fearlessness about him. I remember a day in the 1960s, Arnold and I went out to Seagraves, Texas, a little town in West Texas, to play an exhibition. He’d picked up me up in his Aero Commander; it was one of those windswept days in West Texas. In the Aero Commander we were just bouncing all over the

Palmer at the controlos [above]; Russ Meyer [below], former chief executive of Cessna Aircraft, speaks at Palmer's memorial service in Latrobe

Record Flight In 1976, the same year the Concorde left Heathrow on the first-ever supersonic commercial flight, Arnold Palmer and three others set an around-the-world flight record in a Learjet 36. The record, for a specific class of business jet, still stands today. Along with the Concorde’s operational debut, this was the year that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first Apple computer, the Space Shuttle Enterprise was unveiled, and two separate Viking missions successfully landed on Mars. Bicentennial fever was in full swing, and Palmer’s plane—named “Freedom’s Way USA” with the number 200 Yankee (N200Y)— was set to take the celebration around the world. Palmer, with co-pilots James E. Bir and Lewis L. “Bill” Purkey and aviation writer Robert Serling (brother of Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling), left Denver, Colorado, on May 17, heading to Boston for the first stop of their trip. From there the plan was to stop in Paris, but headwinds forced the crew to redirect to Glamorgan, Wales, to grab more fuel. Paris came after Wales, then it was Tehran, Iran; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Jakarta, Indonesia; Manila, Philippines; Wake Island; and Honolulu, Hawaii, before returning to Denver. In Sri Lanka, “They met me at the plane with an elephant,” Palmer told the press later, “and I rode into town for the golf awards and then back.” Out of Manila the challenge was to beat Typhoon Olga, which moved in just as the crew left. In Hawaii, island girls offered flowered leis and the golf star demonstrated his swing on the tarmac before taking off for the last leg of the journey. When the foursome arrived back in Denver on May 19, it had taken them 57 hours, 25 minutes and 42 seconds to make the journey, a record that still stands today for that class of jet. In 2010 a Swiss crew tried to beat it, but fell short by more than half an hour.

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Palmer takes possession of the latest model of the Citation X, the 176, and compliments makers at Cessna for improving the performance of what was already the fastest business-class jet in the skies. “It has almost all of the gadgetry you could ever want, but it’s still a small enough airplane that you can get a real good feel for it—and it goes real fast! I fly the Citation X from Latrobe to Europe nonstop almost every year. Heck, if the bathroom’s far away, I’ll fly my Citation X.”

2002

Pilot Journal, a magazine for aficionados of elite planes and high adventure, writes, “Palmer, 74, is to professional golf what Charles Lindbergh is to flying: With his engaging personality and go-forbroke style of play, he took the game to new heights of popularity.”

2003

Palmer logs his 250th hour in the left seat of his Citation X jet, a position and number significant to pilots in that it allows the 76-year-old pilot to stay current with FAA regulations. He tells reporters: “If my airplane goes, I’m flying—either in the left seat or the right seat. And 250 is a lot of hours and a lot of miles when you’re flying as fast as we do.”

2005

On this day The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) announced that Arnold Palmer, the legendary golfer and esteemed businessman who serves as a voice for the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, will receive the 2010 NBAA Meritorious Service to Aviation Award. The Meritorious Service to Aviation Award is NBAA’s most distinguished honor, presented annually to an individual who, by virtue of a lifetime of personal dedication, has made significant, identifiable contributions that have materially advanced aviation interests. Palmer explained why he felt compelled to lend his voice to the No Plane No Gain program: “I know the value of business airplanes,” he said. “I know what they have done for me and my companies. I know how important they are to my hometown. And I know how important they are to this country.”

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sky. To me, I felt like a piece of paper in a tornado, and I’m holding on for dear life, scared to death. It was like a roller coaster coming off the tracks. I looked over at Arnold—he was laughing, and it was like he was sitting in the front of a roller coaster enjoying every moment. I did not enjoy that flight!” Had Palmer’s father not been a golf pro, had the young man from Latrobe not grown up on a golf course and had he never found the game, it is entirely likely that Arnold Palmer would have found a career in the air. Legendary for his “good hands” both on and off course, and with a love of the sky only a pilot can understand, Palmer’s flight potential extended all the way to the stars, as Meyer opined at the service: “probably a fighter pilot, maybe even an astronaut, and who knows: he might have been inducted in the aviation hall of fame rather than the golf hall of fame.” “Flying has been one of the great things in my life,” Palmer once said. “It’s taken me to the far corners of the world. I met thousands of people I otherwise wouldn’t have met. And I even got to play a little golf along the way.”

JULY 12

2010

N1AP – Arnold Palmer’s Citation X Palmer, 81, flies his Citation X from Palm Springs to Orlando in his last flight as pilot, with longtime friend and Chief Pilot Pete Luster by his side. Palmer’s license expired the same day and he elected not to have it renewed, capping his career with just shy of 20,000 hours in the cockpit.

2011

Pete Luster flies N1AP through the skies over Latrobe, ripping through the air as Palmer’s family and friends, who are assembled at Saint Vincent College for a memorial honoring the legendary golfer and pilot, gaze skyward. The plane makes a low pass at high speed over the crowd before turning sharply, climbing and disappearing into the clouds.

2016

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Atlantic Arnold Palmer studies the ball at St Andrews during the the 1960 Open Championship

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Crossing Arnold Palmer crossed continents and oceans to showcase his playing and course-design skills. A favorite stop: the British Isles, which Palmer loved for its fans and for its legacy with the game. Without question, the affection was mutual, as Paul Trow writes

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A new chapter in the history of golf was written in 1960 when the greatest player in the world at the time reached out to the roots of the game. Back then, the last thing on most tour pros’ minds was to fly thousands of miles across the Atlantic at the height of summer to play in foul weather and alien conditions for a winner’s check that wouldn’t even cover expenses. Traveling to St Andrews and taking on the Old Course in the [British] Open was more akin to a root-canal treatment than to a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the game. Fourteen years earlier, Sam Snead journeyed to the “Auld Grey Toun” with the UK gripped by post-war austerity and helped himself to the Claret Jug. Rather ungratefully, he Thus the “Impregnable Quadrilateral”—as it was then denounced the whole experience as like “camping out.” originally styled by writer O.B. Keeler—had faded into That was enough to put most of his compatriots off sepia-tinted irrelevance by the time Palmer visited the golf ’s oldest championship—a hostile mindset that could British Isles for the first time. have persisted today had it not been for Arnold Palmer. The moment the modern Grand Slam was born can In 1960, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club (R&A) was be pinpointed to his conversation during the flight across preparing to stage the centenary edition of The Open at St the Atlantic in late June 1960 with Bob Drum, a friend and Andrews when they received an entry from the 30-year-old journalist from the Pittsburgh Press. Palmer recalled it was American who had won the Masters that April and followed “during our extended cocktail hour” that he and Drum talked up two months later with a thrilling, come-from-behind about Jones’ feat and how it could never be repeated. Then victory in the U.S. Open. Palmer showed his hand: “What would be wrong with a “My desire to play in The Open in Britain went back professional Grand Slam involving the Masters, both Opens to my days as a schoolboy golfer when I read newspaper and the PGA Championship?” he asked. Initially Drum was accounts of top American players like Bobby Jones and quizzical, but the idea soon struck a chord with the veteran Walter Hagen winning there,” said Palmer. “Influenced reporter and, before long, the wider world. by my father, I didn’t think you could become a worldEn route to Scotland, there was a detour to Dublin, renowned player unless you participated internationally. I Ireland, so Palmer could pair up with Snead in the Canada felt the British Open was one championship I had to play.” Cup—now known as the World Cup of Golf—which is He was also pondering how the game’s four “majors” contested by two-man teams representing their countries could be redefined. Golf’s only previous Grand Slam had over 72 holes of stroke-play. been Bobby Jones’ annexing of the Open and Amateur In the years after carding a winning aggregate of 565 championships of both the British Isles and the United States with Snead, Palmer paid several further visits to Ireland, the in 1930. But three decades later, the two amateur titles were legacy of which are three of his finest course designs. seen mainly as stepping stones towards the paid ranks. Tralee Golf Club in County Kerry in the southwest was first in 1984. “I have never come across a piece of land so ideally suited to the building of a golf course,” Palmer said, adding modestly that while he was nominally the architect its real creator was Mother Nature. Two 18-hole layouts straddling the River Liffey inland from Dublin followed at the K Club. The first course, which opened in 1991, was originally named the North while the second, the South (now the Smurfit), was completed in 2003. They hosted the European Open between them from 1995 to 2007 while in 2006 the Ryder Cup was staged over the North, by then renamed the Palmer Ryder Cup Course.

‘My desire to play in The Open in Britain went back to my schoolboy days’

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Tralee, 7th hole

Quest for the Claret Jug Back to 1960: When Palmer arrived on the east coast of Scotland to tackle the third leg of his personal quadrilateral, he found himself on a sharp learning curve. “I was first a little awestruck,” he admitted. “It was totally different but I grew to enjoy it. St Andrews and the golf course intrigued me.” That sense of intrigue was mutual, and the local fans were instantly entranced by Palmer’s swashbuckling style and magnetic personality. Torrential rain teeming down on the last day (back then the final 36 holes were played on a Friday) meant the fourth round had to be postponed til the Saturday. Palmer, four behind the leader, Kel Nagle of Australia, after 54 holes, felt robbed of momentum. “I remember looking out of my hotel room onto the 18th green and the Valley of Sin had quickly filled with water,” he said. “That was an indication we might have a problem.” On this occasion, his trademark final-round charge for a closing 68 was not quite sufficient to dislodge Nagle and he came up one shot shy of a playoff. Five-time champion Peter Thomson saluted Palmer’s decision to play in the centenary Open. “His coming to

St Andrews was a blessing,” the Australian, now 87, said. “Arnold dragged the U.S. media with him and it led to a new wave of U.S. participation. It ultimately also led to the change of ball size [to 1.68 inches, the American norm, from 1.62 inches] and to the R&A giving their championship courses a par rating. Prior to 1961, the Open course just had a distance figure at each hole but nothing else!” Needless to say, gate receipts in 1960 almost doubled the previous year’s proceeds—yielding a profit of $10,000! Palmer may not have won, but he’d certainly made a monumental difference. Despite his disappointment at not winning, Palmer was smitten with the “Home of Golf” and would return often. In 1979 he became an honorary member of the R&A and bade a tearful farewell to The Open as a player 16 years later from the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole of the Old Course, having missed the cut by one. That day he wore his blue cashmere sweater bearing the R&A insignia and a couple of months later returned to the Old Course to play in the club’s autumn medal, shooting 74, two over par.

1962 Royal Troon, a victorious Palmer with his wife Winnie, holding the Claret Jug The gallery intently watches Palmer as he competes in a qualifying round of the 1960 British Open at St Andrews

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In 2010 Palmer received an honorary degree from St Andrews University; three years later, to mark the university’s 600th anniversary, two Arnold Palmer Scholarships were introduced for students with golfing promise. His final visit coincided with the 2015 Open when, the day before the start, he captained the winning team in the ceremonial Champions Challenge. His teammates—Bill Rogers, Paul Lawrie and Darren Clarke—did most of the work over the four holes (1, 2, 17 and 18), but the spectators’ loudest cheers came when Palmer, who only hit the ball once, off the 1st tee, joined his men for a group photo on the Swilcan Bridge. On his first visit to St Andrews 55 years before, Palmer was fortunate to find an experienced local caddie, Tip Anderson. “He was a lovable guy who enjoyed what he did, and was invaluable on the Old Course. If I’d putted a little better, I’d have won that first Open, but Tip was certainly the key to my playing well there. The only times I chose not to take his advice was when he wanted me to lay up and that wasn’t an inclination in my repertoire.” That, of course, was the reason why British crowds took so readily to the charismatic American: with a hitch of the pants and a flourishing follow-through he always went for the pin. Fans could identify with that. Suddenly, Arnie’s Army had troops in a foreign field, with Tip its sergeant at arms. Palmer also realized that his low, boring trajectory—a different ball flight to most of his contemporaries—was suited to links golf, so he had no hesitation in returning for a second tilt at the Claret Jug in 1961, at Royal Birkdale in northwest England. “I wanted this championship more than anything in my life,” he said, “but anything you want real bad is awfully hard to get.”

With gale-force winds and icy rain lashing the Lancashire coast from off the Irish Sea and the galleries clad in overcoats, Palmer found himself embroiled in another riveting contest. After 36 holes, he was one shot adrift of joint leaders Dai Rees and Harold Henning. With the last two rounds again scheduled for the Friday, the weather, already dreadful, took a turn for the worse. “What hadn’t blown away before was washed away,” Palmer quipped. The final 36 holes were postponed to the Saturday when, despite a continually strong wind and bitter chill, there was almost no rain and blankets were used as blotters to dry out the greens.

Paul Lawrie, Palmer, Darren Clarke and Bill Rogers on the Swilcan Bridge [left]. Tom Watson and Palmer receive Honorary Degrees from University of St Andrews in 2010 [above]

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Arnie, I don’t cross the bridge without thinking of you.

— HERB KOHLER

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En route to a one-stroke victory, Palmer pulled off what three-time former champion Henry Cotton, who was standing beside him at the time, described as “one of the greatest shots ever played.” At the 15th [now Birkdale’s 16th] his drive had rolled right of the fairway, down a sandy bank and into blackberry brambles and willow scrub. Anderson offered him a wedge, but Palmer pulled out 6-iron, swung viciously at the bush and hit a shot that did not waver in the wind before settling on the narrow, deeply-bunkered plateau green some 150 yards away. This feat of strength and skill brought gasps from the gallery, and is commemorated by a plaque. “I have never hit a ball so hard in my life,” Palmer said. “I didn’t make the putt, but it gave me the opportunity to win.” The 1962 Open, at Troon on the west coast of Scotland, was a total contrast played over rock-hard terrain. “It was as dry as I have ever seen at the Open,” Palmer said. “With Troon’s saddleback fairways, to keep it in the fairway you had to hit it right on line. That made it interesting and, of course, challenging.” Never really under threat as he coasted to a record four-round total of 276, his margin of victory over Nagle was six shots with fellow American Phil Rodgers and Wales’ Brian Huggett tied for third a further seven back. Despite the unruly crowd swarming across Troon on the final day—leading the R&A to introduce stricter crowd-control measures the following year by roping off fairways and fencing course boundaries—Palmer’s role as Pied Piper to leading American players meant the Open had returned to golf’s roster of “must play” championships. Self-effacingly, he insisted: “I didn’t need to go back [to America] and tell anyone anything. It said it for itself—it was acclaimed as one of my greatest victories. I can say I did the right thing by coming and playing in The Open.”

[Above] At the scene of an incredible shot at Birkdale; [Right] in action during the Piccadilly World Match Play Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey, 1965

PGA Champion Strangely, Palmer was never again a serious contender for the Claret Jug, his best finishes in 20 subsequent appearances being eighth and tied seventh at Muirfield (in 1966 and 1972) and seventh at Turnberry in 1977. Beyond the Open, Palmer made other British tournament appearances. The highlight of these, given the PGA Championship was the one major to elude him, was his defiance of yet more bad weather to win the [British] PGA Championship in 1975 at Royal St. George’s at Sandwich in southeast England. He returned to the Kent links for the same event the next two years, tying fifth and 14th respectively. Palmer played eight times in the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, outside London, winning the inaugural event in 1964, when he beat local man Neil Coles 2&1 in the final, and again in 1967 when he shaded

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Thomson 1-up. In his last outing, in 1983, the 54-year-old had Seve Ballesteros, then less than half his age, on toast in their first-round match only for the flamboyant Spaniard to make a chip from 50 yards over a bunker and into the hole at the 18th for an eagle three. After three holes of sudden death, Palmer was out. “I should be mad but I’ve done that to so many other people in the past I can’t really complain,” he reflected ruefully. His remaining playing sorties were highlighted by three one-sided Ryder Cup matches (at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1961, Royal Birkdale in 1965 and Muirfield in 1973), from which he garnered nine and a half points out of a possible 15. With 56 years of visiting Great Britain and Ireland, for as long as golf is played there, Palmer’s influence will live on.

TPC S I G N AT U R E HOLES TPC properties open a whole world of fantastic lifestyle possibilities for their members and guests, and chief among them is good golf. With courses and clubs that are among the best anywhere, there are sites to fit every personal taste and style of play. In this issue we look at four signature holes from the TPC landscape, all of which were designed by Arnold Palmer, a man as prolific in course design as he was in the heat of competition on tour

TPC SNOQUALMIE RIDGE TPC BOSTON

TPC RIVER HIGHLANDS

TPC TWIN CITIES

TPC JASNA POLANA TPC DEERE RUN TPC STONEBRAE TPC SUMMERLIN TPC HARDING PARK TPC VALENCIA

TPC COLORADO (Coming Soon)

TPC POTOMAC THE OLD WHITE TPC AT THE GREENBRIER

TPC RIVERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BEND

TPC LAS VEGAS TPC SCOTTSDALE

TPC MICHIGAN

TPC WAKEFIELD PLANTATION TPC PIPER GLEN

TPC SOUTHWIND

TPC MYRTLE BEACH

TPC CRAIG RANCH TPC SUGARLOAF TPC FOUR SEASONS TPC SAN ANTONIO

TPC SAWGRASS

TPC LOUISIANA

TPC TAMPA BAY TPC PRESTANCIA

TPC EAGLE TRACE

TPC TREVISO BAY

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TPC Boston Hole HOLE 16 At just 161 yards, the picturesque 16th hole at TPC Boston is both the shortest and easiest of the layout’s quartet of par-3s. Water guards the front and left rear of the green, where pin positions are sure to be close to the water’s edge. A stone wall now protects this two-tiered green, giving the hole some true New England character. An accurate tee shot will be paramount to save par, making for quite the dramatic conclusion as one of the finishing holes during the Dell Technologies Championship.

TPC Piper Glen HOLE 14 With little room for error, accuracy is at a premium when taking on Hole 14 at TPC Piper Glen. This signature, 389-yard par-4 challenges golfers with its narrow fairway dense with lush oak trees on both sides. Water also comes into play with a creek on the right side of the fairway, as well as a pond on the right front of the island green, which slopes down towards the hazard making a precise approach shot of great importance.

TPC Rivers Bend HOLE 9 Perhaps the most challenging hole on the course, this uphill dogleg right is daunting from the tee with a bunker on the right. Finding the fairway off the tee is just part of the battle as your approach shot is into the prevailing wind, over water to a shallow, undulating green. Don’t let the beauty of this par-4 fool you.

TPC Twin Cities HOLE 9 From tee to green, this 475-yard par-4 is one of the most difficult to gauge but one of the most satisfying holes to conquer as the most seasoned professionals experience annually during the 3M Championship. Golfers who successfully find the fairway with the tee shot must still navigate large mounding to the left of a sloping green, which is shaped around the lakeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge. This approach shot will challenge even the finest long iron players.

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I’ll say this…

It is hard to imagine there has ever been a golfer to whom people wanted to listen more than Arnold Palmer. Here are some examples of Palmer’s sage advice and thoughts

Fitness

I have seen thousands of fantastic golf swings over the years, but a good swing does not guarantee anything.

Total effort I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.

More than a swing

In my youth I worked on a golf course and I pushed mowers. They didn’t have motors and the tractors didn’t have power steering. I was the motor and I was the power. That was my fitness regimen.

Hit it in the hole Every time I’ve ever hit a shot, I tried to hit it in the hole. That includes a tee shot on a par-5. I think this might be one of the best thoughts you can have when playing golf.

Golf as a team sport The four-round, stroke-play format remains the ultimate individual test in golf, but there is certainly more room for team events at the professional level. Team golf brings added drama, which in turn attracts crowds and TV audiences, and that is what golf needs today as it competes against so many other sports and activities for people’s time and attention.

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6. 7.

Golf in the Olympics I was delighted to see golf make such a successful return to the Olympics. I would have jumped at the opportunity to compete for Olympic gold (and if the IOC opts for an over-80s section I’m in!)

A fond farewell

(1995 [British] Open) Memories were flooding my brain and emotions were washing over me like you can’t imagine. I was also thinking how it all seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

9. 11.

President Eisenhower President Eisenhower, as it turned out, swung a golf club with great conviction, if not tremendous dexterity.

12.

The global player I entered the 1960 [British] Open Championship primarily because I did not feel you could ever call yourself a great champion if you didn’t play internationally, and particularly in the Open Championship.

Paying attention When you golf, you need to pay attention to your own game. Other than being friendly and personable, you need to keep your mind on what you’re doing, not the other guys.

1 0. The golf ball I think the golf ball should be slowed down. I think we should stick to the stuff that’s always been there and not tinker too much with a game that’s always been so great at its most basic levels.

A great evening A great evening is a couple of drinks, dinner with friends or loved ones, a few more drinks and then early to bed. It’s the same as it was 40 years ago only with maybe a couple more drinks and a little later in the evening.

Staying positive

14.

Be careful not to allow a big loss to rattle your confidence and interfere with your focus. You just want to get on with it and not worry about it. You have to look at the positive side: there must be something good about the experience of losing and how you handle it. That’s very important.

13.

The Congressional Gold Medal It was the most prestigious honor I’ve ever received. Its recipients are among the most impressive people in American history. George Washington was first and I won’t be the last.

15.

Life at 85 (in 2015)

I’ll be old one of these days.

Palmer’s best tip

16.

This is one of the best scoring tips I can offer… Jack Nicklaus still abides by the advice: I had found over the years that my worst putt from the fringe is at least as good as my best chip.

17.

Common courtesy Golf, more than any game on Earth, depends on simple timeless principles of courtesy and respect. I don’t think it’s by accident that golf is the most polite and well-mannered game I know, a sport where every man or woman rises on the merits of his or her own skills and personal integrity.

18. Driven to success When people ask what’s driven me all these years, I always give the same answer: it’s you. 133

Tribute wall, Palmer's bag on the first tee, and Rory McIlroy's lapel showing the rainbow umbrella pin, which both teams wore in tribute to Palmer at this year's Ryder Cup opening ceremony

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Leading

Example

merica’s best dozen players were grief-stricken at the passing of Arnold Palmer this September, just days before the biennial match against Europe at Hazeltine National Golf Club—but they were also inspired. Palmer’s Ryder Cup bag stood beside the 1st tee on the Minnesota course throughout three days of competition as an iconic reminder of the traditions and sanctity of this historic contest. With an invisible but omnipresent 13th man pulling for them, the U.S. ran out comfortable winners, just as they had in 1975 at Laurel Valley in Pennsylvania when Mr. Palmer was last involved in person, as a non-playing captain. This time the score was 17-11; 41 years ago it was 21-11. It is easy to categorize Palmer’s career by his individual triumphs, yet so many of his cherished memories and momentous achievements came from a lifelong involvement in team golf, both as player and captain. And while he was not at Hazeltine, as the proud possessor of 23 points across 32 Ryder Cups Palmer would have been delighted by the passion shown in Chaska. Palmer was the consummate team player. High school, college, country—you name it, he was always prepared to roll up his sleeves for the greater good. But his commitment to the collective cause went much deeper. He was a pitch man for Team America, a regular in the Oval Office, a friend and mentor to President after President, often solicited for advice when perhaps he wasn’t best qualified to give it. Nonetheless, he was never afraid to say what he thought. All his life Palmer stuck up for the little guy; he stood

Arnold Palmer was always a strong, unifying force, an irrepressible team leader as a Ryder Cup player and captain throughout his career, and he remained a powerful influence at the 41st Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, which began in September, just five days after the King died shoulder to shoulder with his fellow blue-collar patriots, just as his father Deacon had. He was the man to have beside you in the trenches when the going got tough. If they’d had golf in the Olympics in Mr. Palmer’s day, who do you think would have been invited to carry the Stars and Stripes on behalf of the nation at the opening ceremony? As Palmer poignantly penned in his last Welcome letter for Kingdom, in the Fall issue, “If the IOC opts for an over-80s section I’m in!” For such a stellar performer on the world sporting stage, a man whose individual triumphs eclipsed those of nearly everyone in the history of the game, he was the ultimate flag-bearer and waver. It all began at high school where the rough-and-ready education Deacon instilled around the fringes at Latrobe Country Club was smoothed out. Naturally, young Arnold towered above all his contemporaries as a golfer, not just at his own high school but across the state of Pennsylvania; but he was always reduced to the ranks when he returned to his pro-shop shoe-cleaning, ball-shagging and caddying duties at Latrobe. Deacon was proud, and protective, but even he could not freeze time. When he turned 18, Palmer headed off to college and into adulthood. Wake Forest was his destination. They say your college days are the best time of your life, and while this may not have been entirely true for Palmer, his love affair with this Baptist establishment in rural North Carolina endured for nearly seven decades.

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Scholarship stream

Captain America

Back in the fall of 1947, Palmer had never ventured south of the Pennsylvania state line. Truth is, he wasn’t too bothered about furthering his education. For one thing his family couldn’t really afford to pay for him to attend college and for another he already knew he wanted to turn pro and win titles on the PGA TOUR. His great friend Bud Worsham, with whom he grew up playing junior tournaments, had other ideas, though, and persuaded Jim Weaver, the sports director of the college he was about to attend on a full golf scholarship, to offer the same deal to young Arnold. “In those days Wake’s golf team was something of a doormat in the old Southern Conference,” wrote Palmer in A Golfer’s Life. Fortunately, ambition burned bright in the bosoms of both Weaver and the golf coach, Johnny Johnston. Thanks to that duo's shrewd selection policy, Palmer, Worsham and a clutch of other gifted recruits like Jim Flick—who went on to become one of the game’s foremost teaching professionals—were given the chance to put the Deacons on the map as a golfing power. Two Southern Conference championships duly arrived in 1948 and 1949 while Palmer’s individual honors included medalist at the 1949 and 1950 National Intercollegiate (NCAA) championships and winning the 1950 Southern Intercollegiate title. Almost overnight, in classic Cinderella fashion, the doormat had been transformed into a rich red carpet. But it was important the litmus paper so dazzlingly ignited by these exceptional talents was not extinguished with equal abruptness once they graduated and departed to the wider world. The torch of their legacy had to be passed on so Wake Forest could consolidate its newfound status as a golf power. As Palmer’s college days drew to a close, tragedy struck when Worsham and Gene Scheer, another member of the golf team, were killed in an automobile accident. A few weeks later the distraught Palmer left Wake Forest without his degree and enlisted with the U.S. Coast Guard. Gradually, fonder memories of Wake Forest returned. “I’m very fond and proud of my relationship with my alma mater,” said Palmer, who eventually became a trustee. In his slipstream, Wake Forest built a formidable tradition of competitive success thanks to a procession of talent, including Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins, Scott Hoch and Jay Haas. After winning the 1954 U.S. Amateur Championship, Palmer was nailed on for a place in the following year’s American team for the Walker Cup against Great Britain & Ireland at St Andrews. Recently married to Winnie and needing to earn a living, however, he had little option but to turn professional and it was six years before he had his next taste of team golf.

As the reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion, Palmer was selected to represent the United States for the first time in 1960. It was the Canada Cup (now the World Cup), staged over the rugged links at Portmarnock Golf Club near Dublin in Ireland, and he found himself in tandem with the seasoned Sam Snead. Naturally they won the team trophy and went on to repeat the feat two years later in Argentina. In all, Palmer won the Canada Cup six times, with his last four victories coming alongside Jack Nicklaus in 1963 (in Paris), 1964 (in Hawaii), 1966 (in Tokyo) and 1967 (in Mexico). It was during this period that Palmer also became an accomplished performer on the Ryder Cup stage. Barred by arcane PGA rules from making his debut against Great Britain & Ireland in 1959, Palmer had to wait until October 1961 at Royal Lytham & St Annes in England to become a fully-fledged Ryder Cup American. He recalled standing at the opening ceremony “with my teammates near the first tee and feeling a lump rise in my throat and tears fill my eyes as the brass band played the Star-Spangled Banner followed by God Save the Queen.” After two victories in the foursomes with Billy Casper, he claimed a further one and a half points from his two singles

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“Standing with my teammates, I felt tears fill my eyes as the brass band played the Star-Spangled Banner” outings—the half coming from the first of many jousts with Peter Alliss, later acknowledged as the voice of British golf. Just two years later, at East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia, Palmer was elected captain by his teammates—the last time anyone served as a playing captain—and went on to win four of his six matches, though on this occasion one of his two losses was in singles against Alliss. In 1965, at Royal Birkdale in England, scene of his 1961 [British] Open triumph, Palmer teamed up in the fourballs and foursomes with his great friend Dave Marr, winning two and losing two, before enjoying a brace of singles successes. After three resounding U.S. wins, it was one-way traffic again two years later at the Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas. By the second afternoon the home side was out of sight and Palmer had already won both his matches alongside Gardner Dickinson. Lacking motivation, he embarrassingly found himself three down in a fourball alongside Julius Boros. At that point Jackie Burke, the professional at the host club, bluntly told Palmer he’d lose and promised to make him “a beautiful, hand-made clock”

[Clockwise from left] Palmer and Sam Snead win the 1960 Canada Cup; Wake Forest, Southern Conference champs, 1949; the American Ryder Cup team leaving Euston Station, London, 1961

[Top] The Canada Cup, Palmer and Sam Snead at the presentation, with team winners, 1960. [Above] The American Ryder Cup team leaving Euston Station, London, 1961

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[Left] Palmer and Nicklaus made a formidable Ryder Cup pair; [Above] The winning team at the 1973 Ryder Cup at Muirfield, Palmer's last as a player

Rivals on course, friends off it; such could have been the motto for the way Palmer approached both golf and life

if he were to win. Of course, the American pair rallied to a one-up victory and after completing the week with two emphatic singles wins Palmer duly collected his clock with “the 12 letters of my name where the numbers usually are.” After missing the tied match in 1969 at Royal Birkdale, Palmer returned for the U.S. two years later at Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis. His 100 percent record in the fourballs and foursomes, when he teamed up with Nicklaus and then Dickinson, was blemished by just a half point in his two singles. By the time he lost to Peter Oosterhuis on the final afternoon, though, the result was a foregone conclusion. Palmer celebrated his sixth successful Ryder Cup from six playing appearances in 1973 at Muirfield in Scotland, although it was a mixed bag for him personally—two wins and three defeats. The decision to stage the 1975 Ryder Cup at Laurel Valley, almost his back yard, meant Palmer would be involved in some shape or form. “I’d hoped to play my way onto the team, but it wasn’t meant to be,” he reflected ruefully. Instead, the PGA of America appointed him non-playing captain and he responded to their trust with a 21-11 victory. Recalls Hale Irwin, a member of that U.S. team who would go on to win three U.S. Open titles: “In a team meeting, Arnie said he didn’t want the other team to make a point. It was emphatically driven into us. ‘I don’t want them to make a point.’ That struck me as: wow, we’re going to win.”

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A convincing home victory famously included two singles defeats for Nicklaus by Scotland’s Brian Barnes. “It’s kind of funny now, but it was no laughing matter then,” was Palmer’s solemn verdict. That was far from Palmer’s last experience of captaincy. In the second Presidents Cup match in 1996 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, he presided over a narrow (one-point) U.S. victory against an International team led by his erstwhile Australian sparring partner Peter Thomson. The outcome remained in doubt to the end, until Fred Couples drained a 35-foot birdie putt on the 17th green to close out the final singles against Vijay Singh. Palmer’s commitment to the team cause had by then taken another twist and the following year saw the start of an eponymous series of annual, Ryder Cup-style matches between college golfers from the U.S. and GB&I (later extended to Europe). The first Palmer Cup was hosted by the great man at Bay Hill Club & Lodge and the record currently stands at 10-9-1 in favor of the Americans. Played over a championship course, many of its former participants are now household names, including Dustin Johnson. Palmer was delighted at the success of the Palmer Cup, but what especially pleased him was the camaraderie of the players: rivals on the course, friends off it. Such could have been the motto for how Palmer himself approached the game of golf, and indeed the game of life.

Can keeping your eye on the ball lead to a lasting legacy? Teaming so often results in a winning strategy. ey.com/betterworkingworld #BetterQuestions

In Business On course, on camera or at a boardroom table, Arnold Palmer was the very picture of success. No wonder so many brands enjoyed his company…

olumnist Erma Bombeck once wrote, “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’” If Arnold Palmer didn’t use everything he had, it’s only because he ran out of time. One of the best golfers in history and an accomplished pilot whose business interests stretched across a diverse array of global markets, it is tough to find his peer in recent memory. Rather, he seems more suited to the company of polymaths like Thomas Jefferson, the architect and horticulturalist who became President, and Benjamin Franklin, another Founding Father and diplomat who led scientific research on electricity, invented an efficient stove, wrote books, helped to create the University of Pennsylvania, worked as a postmaster and invented bifocals, among other accomplishments. Similarly, any one of Palmer’s parallel lives would have yielded a successful lifelong career; and within his business world alone there are numerous entities that would singularly stand as a substantial life’s work. Those include his role in building IMG (originally International Management Group), one of the world’s premiere sports and talent agencies; his work with the ubiquitous Arnold Palmer drinks brand and AriZona Beverages; Arnold Palmer Design Company, responsible for the design of more than 300 courses worldwide; his association with Callaway golf clubs and E-Z-GO Golf Carts; his work in founding Golf Channel; his global apparel brands; his work with Cessna; and of course his longtime role as pitchman for an array of top companies and brands, including Rolex, Hertz, Cadillac, MasterCard, Sears and so many others. Over 52 years as a

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professional golfer, Forbes estimates that Palmer won $3.6 million as a player. And yet off course, by the time he died, the magazine puts his lifetime earnings at $875 million—a figure indicative not just of Palmer’s business acumen and endless drive, but of his appeal as a person and a celebrity, which was undeniable, if not unparalleled. “It made selling the product a lot more exciting for us, the opportunity to have a legend behind the drink,” says Don Vultaggio, the man who founded AriZona Beverages and who built the company into one of the top drinks providers in the world. “At events he would spend hours rehashing stories, and you don’t realize the power of that until you’re in the presence of a guy like that. You hear his stories you spend the next six months of your life talking about him.” Since 2002, Vultaggio and AriZona have sold billions of cans and bottles of Arnold Palmer Half & Half drinks, the mix of iced tea and lemonade that was named for Palmer after the golfer became associated with enjoying it so much. “When we launched it, because of his recognition as a statesman on the golf side, we were first successful with buyers who were a lot of golfers, who recognized his career and all of his contributions to the game. But [the drink] quickly became popular with young people, teenagers. We didn’t expect that right out of the box, we thought it would be an older crowd.” Today AriZona produces numerous variations of the Arnold Palmer, with a Lite version, a Natural Energy version, peach and mango flavors and more. “Billions,” said Vultaggio. “We do half a billion [cans/bottles] a year with his face on it. At one point I was talking to Arnold about it, and we’re doing the different cans and he was having a lot

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