Nicklaus, unsurprisingly, issued a heartfelt tribute to his close friend after his death, which came amid reported complications from heart problems.
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“Arnie’s Army” started marching in the late 1950s and continued throughout the 1960s and early 1970s in homage to one of the greatest players ever to pick up a club and surely the most charismatic. “I think both Gary and I felt it was more about Arnold this morning than anything else, and I think that was just fine”.
“That”, he said, “was Arnold Palmer?”. He obviously meant so much not only to the PGA Tour, but to the entirety of golf by lifting it to newfound visibility and popularity. He was an icon.
She enjoys spending time with friends and family as well as running, reading and exploring Southern Oregon.
We got to the dinner early and my dad was exhausted so I took him into the empty banquet room so he could sit for a bit. He won golf’s biggest titles: the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, with only the PGA Championship eluding him from completing the career grand slam, winning seven majors in all.
When he made his farewell Open appearance at St Andrews in 1995, Sir Nick Faldo said: “If Arnold hadn’t come here in 1960, we’d probably all be in a shed on the beach”.
4,408,211 – Career earnings (in dollars) as a player on the PGA and Champions/Seniors Tours. But that didn’t prevent him from being ranked as the world’s third highest-paid retired athlete previous year, with estimated earnings of $40 million. An eagle at the par-5 13th hole on Sunday helped push him to a one-shot victory and inspire the naming of the 11th-13th holes as “Amen Corner” by writer Herbert Warren Wind.
50 – Consecutive appearances at the Masters.
His business interests span clothing, cars, golf events and beverages – with the iced tea and lemonade drink that bears his name.
‘We loved him with a mythic American joy, ‘ Dodson said. That’s what Arnold has always tried to do.
“We were great competitors who loved competing against each other, but we were always great friends along the way”.
“He was the king of our sport and always will be”.
On a sporting day that dawned with the tragic passing of one athlete too young, the evening death of one we were lucky to have for as long as we did only added to the sadness of a year already filled with too many good ones gone, reminding us how we miss the presence of Muhammad Ali, how we mourn the lost future of 24-year-old Marlins’ pitcher Jose Fernandez, how we remember the singular force of Palmer and his smiling face, easygoing demeanor and daring, fierce golf game.
Arnold Palmer was a genuinely nice guy.
While Woods is generally reluctant to take advice from anyone, Palmer’s words of wisdom were appreciated.
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Woods said: “Thanks Arnold for your friendship, counsel and a lot of laughs”. Your philanthropy and humility are part of your legend. What is important is that we just lost one of the incredible people in the game of golf and in all of sports.
