Arnold Palmer, the golf great whose charisma and common touch drew a legion of fans known as “Arnie’s Army” and propelled the game into the mainstream, died Sunday at the age of 87.
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The combination of iced tea and lemonade is known as an “Arnold Palmer”.
Palmer’s health deteriorated the past couple of years.
“Today marks the passing of an era”.
“I’ll miss you friend. rip the King”, tweeted US standout Rickie Fowler while US Open champion Dustin Johnson added, “mr palmer was truly one of golf’s greatest icons. And it helped that he arrived about the same time as television moved into most households, a flawless fit that sent golf to unprecedented popularity.
He would hitch up his trousers, drop a cigarette and attack the flags.
By the age of four, under his father’s supervision, Palmer was already swinging a cut-down club. He had just come from the practice range at Latrobe, where trying to hit balls left him frustrated.
Palmer was part of golf’s “Big Three”, with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. He ended his PGA career with seven major titles and 62 PGA tournament wins – the fifth-most of all time. The only major to elude him was the PGA Championship, where he was runner-up three times.
Palmer was one of the most dominant and popular athletes in the 1960s, and he was named the Associated Press’ “Athlete of the Decade”.
Palmer said goodbye to the US Open – which he won in 1960 at Oakmont – in 1994, and from the British Open – where he was a two-time victor – at St Andrews in 1995. My answer for a while has been “I’ve had breakfast with Muhammad Ali, beers with Arnold Palmer and flown with the Blue Angels”.
He maintained a residence in Latrobe throughout his life, not far from the airport that now sports his name and the golf course where he learned to play as a young boy.
Something Palmer managed to do in consecutive years in 1961 and 1962, his triumphs giving the tournament credibility in the USA and serving as a challenge for his countrymen to get their passport stamped and join him. Not only was he the greatest personality the game has produced, he was King of the fairways every time he played. He blew a seven-shot lead on the back nine to lose a U.S. Open.
He represented the USA in the Ryder Cup six times, twice as captain.
His death has been confirmed by the United States Golf Association, who described him as “golf’s greatest ambassador”.
His friend and former rival Jack Nicklaus tweeted: “I just got the news at about 8:45 that Arnold had passed”.
But then, standard he set went beyond trophies. He shook your hand and looked you in the eye. “You made every fan feel special”.
A PGA tour competition was renamed for Palmer, in 2007. And for his respected design career spanning more than 300 courses, Palmer was giving the Donald Ross Award for lifetime achievement from the American Society of Golf Course Architects.
Palmer retired from professional golf in 2006, but stayed connected to the sport as the owner of a golf club in Florida, and also served as a consultant for US network the Golf Channel.
Palmer was born on September 10, 1929, in Latrobe, a small industrial town east of Pittsburgh.
Arnold Palmer’s smile was wide, his autographing pen busy and his wit razor sharp Monday afternoon at Hillcrest Country Club.
2,400 – Palmer’s first winner’s cheque (in dollars) for victory at the 1955 Canadian Open. The man congratulated him on winning his second straight Masters (Palmer won in 1960).
Palmer’s first wife, Winnie, died in 1999. They married in 1954 and had two daughters.
His 50th and last appearance at the Masters came in 2004 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush that same year. That’s one thing made me strong.
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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
