Arnold Palmer

Lore & Background

Palmer's social impact on golf was unrivaled among fellow professionals; his modest origins and plain-spoken popularity helped change the perception of golf from an elite, upper-class pastime of private clubs to a more populist sport accessible to middle and working classes via public courses. Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player were "The Big Three" in golf during the 1960s; they are credited with popularizing and commercializing the sport around the world. In a career spanning more than six decades, Palmer won 62 PGA Tour titles from 1955 to 1973. He is fifth on the Tour's all-time victory list, trailing only Sam Snead, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Ben Hogan. He won seven major titles in a six-plus-year domination from the 1958 Masters to the 1964 Masters. He also won the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, and in 1974 was one of the 13 original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

In Their Own Story

Augusta, 1961. The air hangs thick with azalea-scented humidity, and the gallery along the 15th hole has grown so dense that the crowd spills onto the tee box. Palmer lines up his drive, red cap pulled low, the white of his pants a stark slash against the green. He addresses the ball with that quiet, almost lazy concentration that every fan in the crowd has learned to read as the prelude to violence. He swings. The ball draws left, a full yard past the pin, and the roar that follows is less a cheer than a physical force, a wall of sound that bounces off the trees and rattles the flagstick in its cup. Somewhere in the crowd, a woman in a sun hat grabs her husband's arm and says, in a voice that carries over the noise, "That's the King for you." The cameras are rolling. The world is about to learn what a golf ball can do when a man hits it like he's angry at the whole green.

Reader's Guide

Palmer was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and learned golf from his father, who had suffered from polio at a young age and was head professional and greenskeeper at Latrobe Country Club. He attended Wake Forest College on a golf scholarship, left upon the death of close friend Bud Worsham, and enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, serving from 1951 to 1954. He won the 1954 U.S. Amateur and turned professional in November 1954. His first PGA Tour win came in his 1955 rookie season at the Canadian Open. He won seven major championships: Masters Tournament (1958, 1960, 1962, 1964), U.S. Open (1960), and The Open Championship (1961, 1962). His most prolific years were 1960–1963, when he won 29 PGA Tour events. He won the Vardon Trophy four times (1961, 1962, 1964, 1967) and played on six Ryder Cup teams. He won ten events on the PGA Tour Champions, including five senior majors. He served as an honorary starter for the Masters from 2007 until his death.

Did You Know?

• Palmer served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1951 to 1954, not in the Navy during World War II.
• He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974 as one of the 13 original inductees.
• For each of his Masters wins, his caddie was Nathaniel "Iron Man" Avery.
• Palmer's father, not Palmer himself, suffered from polio as a child.
• Palmer won the 1961 and 1962 Open Championships, but never won the PGA Championship.