Arnold Palmer: Things You Didn't Know About The Golf Legend

By | September 7, 2020

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(U.S. Coast Guard/Wikimedia Commons)

Everyone knows the name Arnold Palmer, be it as a cool drink or one of the greatest golfers who ever lived, but the man was more than his legend. Palmer was also a world traveler and pilot who palled around with the likes of no less than Mister Rogers. Whether you're a golf fan or not, this rags-to-riches story of a boy from the outskirts of Pittsburgh claiming his destiny as one of the world's top athletes without ever succumbing to the madness of celebrity will definitely inspire you to go out and live your life to the fullest.

The Early Years

Every legend has to start somewhere, and for Arnold Palmer, it was in the steel town of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, about an hour away from Pittsburgh, on September 10, 1929. His father was a golf pro and groundskeeper at the Latrobe Country Club, and Palmer's natural ability was apparent from a young age, so he was often seen tagging along with his father from the tender age of three. H went on to win the Western Pennsylvania Junior three times and the Western Pennsylvania Amateur five times, earning himself a golf scholarship at Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Following a stint in the Coast Guard, Palmer won the 1955 Canadian open, the Masters in '58, and by 1960, had developed a following known as "Arnie's Army," a vociferous group of fans who responded to Palmer's lax style and everyman sensibilities. He won 29 PGA Tour events between 1960 and 1963, he was Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year in 1960, and in 1967, he became the first man to reach $1 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour. When asked how he managed to go out and win so consistently, Palmer's answer was refreshingly zen:

You can make mistakes when you're being conservative, so why not go for the hole? I always feel like I'm going to win. So I don't feel I'm gambling on a lot of shots that make other people feel I am.

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(U.S. Coast Guard/Wikimedia Commons)

Always Grand, Never A Grand Slam Winner

For all his success, Palmer never became a Grand Slam winner (that is, bagging the Masters Tournament, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and the British Open). He desperately wanted to earn this unofficial championship, not for his career's sake but because it would have made his father happy. Palmer later lamented:

I should have won it a couple times. I wanted it too bad. Everyone was calling it to my attention.