Palmer: The King of fairways and gentleman

27 September 2016 - 09:31 By © The Telegraph

Arnold Palmer was not only one of the great champions of golf; through the panache and daring of his play. He did more than anyone else to turn the game - and in particular the British Open - into a spectacle which commanded the attention of millions. Palmer died on Sunday aged 87.His heyday as a player was short-lived. His seven Major victories were achieved in the six years between 1958 (when he was already 30) and 1964; and the last of his 62 wins on the US tour came in 1973.There was little grace and elegance in his golf. His technique, it seemed, was simply to close his enormous hands like a vice on the club and attack the ball with such brute force that he would recoil backwards at the end of the stroke. In his prime he was also a superb putter, though rather less reliable in his chipping and bunker play.Purists such as Henry Cotton disapproved of Palmer's swing. But his fans - Arnie's Army - were mesmerised. Before him, professionals had regarded the crowds as a distraction; Palmer, by contrast, fed off them through chat and banter.At a tournament at Fort Worth in 1962, Palmer pulled away from a shot when a young boy started talking at the critical moment. He settled again, only to be disturbed again as the mother tried to strangle the boy's incipient scream.So many other professionals would have foamed; Palmer simply walked over, patted the boy on the head, and told his mother: "Hey, don't choke him; it's not all that important."Though Palmer won his first professional major title, the Masters, in 1958, it was really only in 1960, at the age of 32, that he established his full dramatic potential.No one could have imagined that his fourth Masters victory, in 1964, would be the last Major."For a few years", as American sports writer Dan Jenkins recalled, "we absolutely forgot that anyone else played the game."Palmer's decline was partly due to the advent of Jack Nicklaus, partly to his being distracted by extraneous interests, and partly to the natural process of age.Nevertheless, with the aggressive, daredevil, crowd-pleasing approach of his prime, Palmer had immensely enhanced both the appeal and the rewards of professional golf."When I started out on tour," remembered Chi Chi Rodriguez, "we used to play so maybe we could be head pro at a nice club some day. Thanks to Arnie, the guys on tour are now playing to buy the club."Arnold Daniel Palmer, the eldest of four children, was born in Youngstown, Pennsylvania, on September 10 1929, and brought up in Latrobe, Pittsburgh. His ancestors, of German and Irish origin, had farmed in the region since the early 1800s. From 1933, his father worked as greenkeeper and teaching professional at the local golf course.Palmer played golf from the age of three, often with his mother who, he said, was "quite good for a woman and a real stickler for keeping a scorecard". When he lost his temper after messing up a shot in a junior match, his father let him know in no uncertain terms that if he ever lost control of himself again, he would play no more golf.Palmer made a fortune from the game. He bought a Learjet, and in 1975 established a new world record of 57 hours for a round-the-world flight in an executive jet, 29 hours less than the previous record.He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. He is survived by his wife Kathleen Gawthorp and two daughters from his first marriage. ..

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