Arnold Palmer

1929–2016 · 87 years Tier II

The greenskeeper's son who made television watch golf

Portrait of Arnold Palmer — U.S. Coast Guard — 1953-04-20 — Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Deacon Palmer had polio as a boy and ran the Latrobe Country Club afterward as both greenskeeper and head professional, in a Pennsylvania steel town. His son learned the game trailing him around the course while he mowed and repaired it. Wake Forest gave the boy a golf scholarship, and he left it after his friend Bud Worsham was killed, joined the Coast Guard for three years, and built a nine-hole course at the training center in Cape May. He came back, won the 1954 U.S. Amateur in Detroit, quit the job he had selling paint, met Winnie Walzer at a tournament in Shawnee-on-Delaware, and turned professional that November.

He won the Canadian Open as a rookie in 1955 for 2,400 dollars and the Masters in 1958 for 11,250, and by 1960 he was the sports agent Mark McCormack's first client, which rewrote how athletes get paid. Between 1960 and 1963 he won 29 tournaments. Seven of his 62 PGA Tour victories were majors — four Masters, the 1960 U.S. Open, and consecutive Open Championships in 1961 and 1962. American professionals had largely stopped bothering with the British Open until he went to Scotland in 1960 and lost it by a stroke, and afterward they went. In 1967 he became the first player to earn a million dollars on tour. He bought Bay Hill, started a course design firm in 1972, negotiated the first golf course in the People's Republic of China, and helped found the Golf Channel.

He never won the PGA Championship — three second places, in 1964, 1968 and 1970, and no career grand slam. And in June 1966 at the Olympic Club he led Billy Casper by seven strokes with nine holes to play, chasing Ben Hogan's scoring record rather than the trophy, and lost the 18-hole playoff the next day, 73 to 69. His last major came at the 1964 Masters, when he was 34, and he lived 52 more years on it, earning far more from the name than the golf. All four Masters wins came at a club whose chairman said that while he lived all the golfers would be white and all the caddies Black. Augusta required Palmer to use a club caddie — Nathaniel Avery carried his bag each time — and admitted no Black member until 1990.

He died on September 25, 2016 in Pittsburgh, waiting for heart surgery, at 87. He was cremated and the ashes were scattered at Latrobe Country Club, on the course his father had kept. The estate came to 875 million dollars and was divided among his two daughters, his second wife, his charity, and eight employees who received 25,000 dollars each. Congress voted him its Gold Medal in 2009 and handed it over in 2012. The airport a mile from the house he grew up in carries his name. So does a canned mixture of iced tea and lemonade, sold since 2001, which is how most Americans under 40 have heard of him at all.

Lifespan

15401700180019002030

Arnold Palmer's life against the full span of the corpus.

Notable works

My Game and Yours book
The first of a dozen books under his name 1965
Go for Broke! My Philosophy of Winning Golf book
Written with William Barry Furlong 1973
Palmer Course Design company
Later the Arnold Palmer Design Company, with partner Ed Seay 1972
Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children building
One of two Orlando hospitals built through his foundation 1989
The Golf Channel company
He was a founder of the first network devoted to one sport 1995
A Golfer's Life book
His memoir, written with James Dodson 1999

Life in brief

with age at each point

1951 aged ~22 Leaves Wake Forest after a friend's death and enlists in the Coast Guard He built a nine-hole course at the training center in Cape May.
1954 aged ~25 Wins the U.S. Amateur in Detroit He called it the turning point of his life and quit his job selling paint.
November 17, 1954 aged 25 Announces that he is turning professional
1958 aged ~29 Wins his first Masters, for 11,250 dollars
July 1960 aged 30 Plays the Open Championship at St Andrews and loses by one to Kel Nagle His going restored the Open for American professionals. He won it the next two years.
June 1966 aged 36 Loses a seven-shot lead over the last nine holes of the U.S. Open Billy Casper caught him at the Olympic Club and won the playoff 69 to 73.
1967 aged ~38 First golfer to pass a million dollars in career tour earnings
April 2004 aged 74 Plays his 50th and last Masters as a competitor He returned as honorary starter from 2007 until his death.
September 25, 2016 aged 87 Dies in Pittsburgh at 87