Arnold Palmer, one of golf’s greatest players whose enormous popularity drew a legion of fans known as “Arnie’s Army” and helped propel the game as television was coming of age, died on Sunday at the age 87 due to heart complications, his agent said.
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Alastair Johnson, CEO of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, said Palmer, known as “the King”, died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of complications from heart problems.
As if there were any doubt: There is no other King. “Thanks for the memories, Arnold”.
A seven-times major champion, Palmer had no peers as a fan favorite and always went to great lengths to ensure that every person waiting in line ended up with a cherished autograph, an approach that even today’s generation of players tries to live up to. According to Golf Digest, Palmer made $1,861,857 in 734 PGA Tour career starts over 53 years.
GQ Magazine named him one of the “50 most stylish men of the past 50 years” and Esquire had him in a list of the “75 best-dressed men of all time”.
“The restaurant will be closed tomorrow in honor and remembrance of Arnold Palmer”. Along with winning seven majors and playing the Masters for 50 consecutive years, Palmer also co-founded the Golf Channel, the first cable network devoted a single sport.
His rise – along with those of Nicklaus and Gary Player – set the stage for the sport’s huge broadcast rights fees and prize money riches, which were later enhanced by the success of Tiger Woods. Your philanthropy and humility are part of your legend. He enlisted in the United States Coast Guard, spent three years in the service, and continued to work on his golf game.
A shocked and saddened Nicklaus, who won a record 18 major titles, mourned one of his dearest friends. “Arnold Palmer made golf sexy”.
Former President George W. Bush, who presented him the Presidential Medal in 2004, said in a statement: “He was a great American whose friendship – and swing thoughts – will be missed”. “No one has had a greater impact on those who play our great sport or who are touched by it”. Present golfers like Tiger Woods took to the social media and paid respects to one of the golf icons. There is no way to adequately express the depth of our loss, the loss of millions of Americans, and people around the world, who loved and admired this great man. “That never changed. He was the king of our sport and always will be”.
This was in June 2016, and he was sitting in a golf cart behind his office just across the road from Latrobe Country Club, the Western Pennsylvania course Palmer grew up on as the son of the greens-keeper-club pro and later bought.
Palmer, who celebrated his 87th birthday two weeks ago, was largely associated with his eponymous drink, a combination of iced tea and lemonade.
“To have longevity has been a special gift”, Player said at the time. “He had charisma. He just fell out of bed with it”.
That grin melted quickly in the heat on that June afternoon, though, as Palmer talked about the rest of his day. He had served as a ceremonial starter with Nicklaus and Player in recent years but was too ill to do more than sit and watch the others tee off this year.
“A lot of us knew Arnie hadn’t been doing well for a long time”, McIlroy said. “He was such a great man”. It’s probably the greatest rivalry in the sport’s history. I know that he was suffering for a little bit.
He won the PGA lifetime achievement award in 1998 and was one of the 13 original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla.
“I think deep down”, says O’Connor, “Jack knows he couldn’t have been Jack without Arnie and Arnie knows he couldn’t have been Arnie without Jack”. The Arnold Palmer Invitational is played every March in Orlando.
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Payne said the club will pay tribute to “our game’s finest ambassador” at next year’s Masters, adding, “Most importantly, we, his friends at Augusta National, will always love him”. He won four Masters, with the 1958 championship setting his career in motion.
