Arnold Palmer, a.k.a the “King” has left behind a legacy that will never ever be matched by any golfer no matter how great he or she may become by virtue of their achievements.The game he leaves behind, after he died at the age of 87 in the end of September, is now a multi-billion dollar industry and he is in large parts responsible for it.
With his dominance in golf and distinctive style, he helped in turning around the game from an elitist sport to being accessible to the masses.
He won more than 90 golf tournaments, including the Masters four times, the U.S. Open in 1960, and the British Open in 1961 and 1962.
Palmer was the first golfer to earn $1 million playing the sport.
“I would like to be remembered for bringing golf to a worldwide audience,” he told CNN in 2012. “Players today have no boundaries.”
He along with Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as part of the “big three” took the game around the world in the early 1960's. They capitalised on the ever-growing reach of television resulting in a huge following of golf events on television.
What ensued was massive sponsorship and prize money. Therefore, Arnold Palmer was truly the catalyst that helped turn the sport from just another sport with tournaments into the sport with a variety of competitive and rewarding tours that we see today.
Superb human and true to his roots
Arnold first played Golf at the age of 4 when his father had his first golf club cut out for him. He never looked back and went on to win 92 championships of national as well as international stature.
“He was a western Pennsylvania native and coastguard veteran inspired millions of people on and off the golf course.
He leaves behind memories of a gentle human being:“Arnold was the most charismatic, down-to-earth person I've ever been around, and I've spent a lot of time around famous people,” James Dodson, Palmer's biographer, told CNN. “ There's no public and private difference between Arnold Palmer. He was generous and kind and funny and loved to needle you.”
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Palmer's legacy mirrors one of his most famous quotes about golf: They're both things that are “deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.”
“The key to Arnold's appeal was that he was a yeoman -- he was one of us. He was a guy from blue-collar Latrobe, Pennsylvania, who's daddy was the greenskeeper,” Dodson said. “They were as true-blue as the sky over Latrobe, Pennsylvania.”
Palmer always wore his emotions on his sleeves. Dodson says Arnold loved who he was but not in an egotitstical way and never took anything for granted.
The above mentioned qualities meant he became an approachable superstar and when TV began becoming popular in american homes, his voice and fame as an athlete hit an all time high.
Life as a professional Golfer
When Palmer turned pro, the appeal of the game was largely restricted to an elite few and Golf had a small following.
"Golf was coming on, it wasn't anywhere near the magnitude that it is today. Of course I was a very enthusiastic young man looking for a way of life that I felt was coming on," Palmer said in an interview with CNN's Shane O'Donoghue.
He used the aforementioned fame and his passion for the game to curate a new exciting image of what it meant to be a star athlete.
"Arnold was the first millionaire on the tour. He was the first to buy an airplane and fly it. He was the man who basically invented the concept of sports representation in the media and made a fortune doing it," Dodson said.
Following his stellar campaign that consisted of victories at the US Open and the Masters, Golf has enjoyed half a century of ground-breaking growth.
"Every tour player needs to kiss the ground he walked on because he made them all wealthy beyond their wildest dreams."
Arnie's Army
Arnie's stint of three years in the Coast Guard as a military person meant he became all the more captivating to his fans, known as “Arnie's Army”.However, his following in the military was partly to do with the Masters. The event did not see the turnout of large galleries like we see today back in those days.
As a promotional offer, Augusta National's co-founder Clifford Roberts intoduced a scheme wherein soldiers could attend the event for free and he started using soldiers from nearby camps as volunteers at the Masters.
The soldiers cheered him on during his triumph at Augusta in 1960 and followed him to the US Open where he also got the job done."When I was a boy learning to play golf in my hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, I never could have imagined that one day I'd have an 'Army' of fans or that people would call me 'The King' of the sport I love," Palmer said.
Dodson says Palmer leaves the game as its most famous player in its 400-plus year history.
"I think his loss will be felt forever," Dodson says. "His legacy will be one of kindness and love of the game and love of his fans. And I don't think anybody will ever come close to that.
At his memorial service, his grandson, Sam Saunders who has played his way on to the PGA Tour his grandfather nurtured, fondly recalled that Arnold always took his calls – no matter who he was with or what he was doing. More often than not, his grandfather greeted Saunders by saying, “where are you?”
Tim Finchem, the recently retired PGA Tour commissioner had his own story to tell.
“Well, I saw him play – but that’s the same thing as meeting him,” Finchem said, and Palmer’s many fans would agree.Finchem grew to see first-hand the “deep, deep love and affection” Palmer had for what it meant to be a professional golfer. He witnessed the incredible growth of the game that Palmer unleashed.
“(He had) the incredible ability to make you feel good – not just about him but about yourself,” Finchem said. “He took energy from that and then turned around and gave it right back.”
The same could be said of Jack Nicklaus, who was 14 the first time he saw Palmer hit balls. The two became fierce rivals on the course but developed an abiding friendship once the scorecards were signed.
“If I ever had a problem, I knew Arnold had my back, and I had his,” Nicklaus said. “I am a proud member of Arnie’s Army.”
Nicklaus grew emotional as he talked about the emptiness he feels now that Palmer is gone.
“You don’t lose a friend of almost 60 years and not feel an enormous loss,” Nicklaus said. “But my wife always says that memories are the cushions of life.“Remember when Arnold Palmer touched your life, and touched your heart. Please don’t forget why.”
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But the memories will live on. Everyone in the cathedral had them – guys like Jay Haas, Curtis Strange, Billy Andrade, Lee Trevino, Doug Sanders, Hale Irwin, William McGirt, Billy Hurley, Billy Horschel, Mark Carnevale and Scott McCarron, among others, as well as Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam.
So the golfer, the philanthropist but most of all, the man of the people will never truly leave our hearts.
“When an army loses its commander it becomes even stronger,” Meacham said. “And I think that will happen with Arnie’s Army.”
His blue collar go for broke attitude appealed to fans who were new to the game, and despite everything, he never lost sight of what he was in the game for. There was nothing that excited him more than winning a golf tournament and he paid importance to the prize money as he played the sport for a living at a time when the cheque was not so substantial.
Palmer added that during his playing days a golfer really had to earn a cheque as the tour had a different scene altogether. He said that golfers were very competitive and went neck to neck for victories as they knew that they had no sources of income apart from their prize winnings.
His advice to young players was, to work hard and stick to this opportunity of a lifetime through ups and downs. He always demonstrated a continued passion for the game and a hope for the game to continue to thrive.
