Arnold Palmer: A Biographical Look


November 17, 2005

Arnold Palmer is many things to many people -- world famous golf immortal and sportsman, highly-successful business executive, prominent advertising spokesman, skilled aviator, talented golf course designer and consultant, devoted family patriarch and a man with a down-to-earth common touch that has made him one of the most popular and accessible public figures in history. 

His popularity and success grew with the tremendous golf boom in the latter half of the 20^th Century to heights few ever anticipated and they have been recognized in countless ways over the years.  Certainly each contributed to the other, a fact given recognition when he was named "Athlete of the Decade" for the 1960s in a national Associated Press poll.  Before, during and after that great decade, the famous golfer amassed 92 championships in professional competition of national or international stature.  Sixty-two of the victories came on the U.S. PGA Tour, starting with the 1955 Canadian Open.

Arnold Palmer acknowledges the gallery during this year's Senior Open, which he said would be his last. (John Mummert/USGA)

Besides the magnificent performance record, his magnetic personality and unfailing sense of kindness and thoughtfulness to everybody with whom he comes in contact have endeared him to millions throughout the world and led to the informal formation of the largest non-uniformed "military" organization in existence - Arnie's Army.  Seven of his victories came in what the golfing world considers the four major professional championships.  He won the Masters Tournament four times, in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964; the U.S. Open in spectacular fashion in 1960 at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver and the British Open in 1961 and 1962.  He came from seven strokes off the pace in the final round in that U.S. Open win and finished second in four other opens after that.  Among the majors, only the PGA Championship eluded him.  He finished second in the PGA three times. 

Arnie's springboard to professional fame and fortune was his victory in the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1954.  He turned professional a few months later.  His hottest period was a four-year stretch from 1960 to 1963 when he landed 29 of his titles and collected almost $400,000 at a time when the purses were minute by today's standards.  He was the leading money-winner in three of those years and twice represented the U.S. in the prestigious Ryder Cup Match during that time, serving in 1963 as the victorious captain.

It was also during this period that his rapidly-growing business interests got their start, through the impetus of Palmer himself and with the guidance and efforts of his business manager, the late Mark McCormack , and his wide-ranging organization.  Arnold is president of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, a multi-division structure encompassing much of his global commercial activity that is centered in Cleveland .  He has been involved in automobile and aviation service firms over the years and still is the principal owner of a car dealership in his Latrobe (PA) hometown.

Arnold is president and sole owner (since 1971) of Latrobe Country Club and president and principal owner of the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Orlando , Fla. , which he and a group of associates acquired in 1970.  Bay Hill hosts the annual Bay Hill Invitational, presented by MasterCard, on the PGA Tour.  In 1999, Arnold and a group of investors purchased the famed Pebble Beach golf complex on the California coast.  He also is a tournament professional and member of the board of directors of Laurel Valley Golf Club, Ligonier , Pa. , with which he has been affiliated since its founding on the late 1950s.

Palmer is consultant to The Golf Channel, based in Orlando , which went on the air on cable networks in January 1995.  Another important facet of his activities involves the Palmer Course Design Company, in which he is associated with Ed Seay , past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.  Since the mid-1960s, Palmer has put his stamp on more than 200 new courses throughout the nation and world.  His modest business empire and golfing activities keep

Palmer on the move much of the year, most of the travel in his Cessna Citation X jet aircraft with Arnold at the controls when aboard.  He was recognized in 1999 for his contributions to aviation and his Western Pennsylvania community when the Westmoreland County Airport at Latrobe was renamed the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport .  He is a member of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority.

Palmer was born on Sept. 10, 1929 , in Latrobe, a small industrial town in Western Pennsylvania at the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains some 50 miles east of Pittsburgh .  He still lives out there during the warm months of the year, but spends the fall and winter months at his homes at Bay Hill and at the Tradition Golf Club in LaQuinta , Calif.   He has numerous active and honorary memberships in clubs throughout the world, including famed August National in Georgia , St. Andrew in Scotland , Pine Valley in New Jersey , Winged Foot in New York and Oakmont in Pittsburgh .

The golf great has been the recipient of countless honors, the symbolic plaques, trophies and citations scattered throughout his personal, club and business worlds, the epitomy coming in 2004 when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush at a White House ceremony.  He has received virtually every national award in golf and after his great 1960 season both the Hickok Professional Athlete of the Year and Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year trophies.  He is a charter member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and a member of the American Golf Hall of Fame at Foxburg , Pa. , and the PGA Hall of Fame in Florida .  He is chairman of the USGA Members Program and served as honorary chairman of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation for 20 years.  He played a major role in the fundraising drive that led to the creation of the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando in the 1980s.  A long-time member of the board of directors of Latrobe Area Hospital , he staged a major annual fund-raising golf event for that institution for six years that led to the formation of the Latrobe Area Hospital Charitable Foundation.

The saga of Arnold Palmer began when he was four years old, swinging his first set of golf clubs, cut down by his father, Milfred J. (Deacon) Palmer, who worked at Latrobe Country Club from 1921 until his death in 1976, much of that time as both golf professional and course superintendent.  Before long, Arnie was playing well enough to beat the older caddies at the club.  He began caddying himself when he was 11 and worked at almost every job at the club in later years.

The strongly-built young man concentrated on golf in high school, soon was dominating the game in Western Pennsylvania and twice won the Pennsylvania high school championship.  He won his first of five West Penn Amateur Championships when he was 17, competed successfully in national junior events and went to Wake Forest University (then College), where he became No. 1 man on the golf team and one of the leading collegiate players of that time.  Deeply affected by the death in an auto accident of his close friend and classmate, Bud Worsham , younger brother of 1947 U.S. Open Champion Lee Worsham, Arnold withdrew from college during his senior year and began a three-year hitch in the Coast Guard.  His interest in golf rekindled while he was stationed in Cleveland .  He was working there as a salesman and playing amateur golf after his discharge from the service and brief return to Wake Forest when he won the U.S. Amateur in 1954 following his second straight victory in the Ohio Amateur earlier that summer.

It was during that period that he met Winifred Walzer at a tournament in Eastern Pennsylvania .  They were married shortly after he turned professional in the fall of 1954 and Winnie traveled with him when he joined the pro tour in early 1955.  Mrs. Palmer died of cancer on Nov. 20, 1999 .  Mr. Palmer underwent successful prostate cancer surgery in 1997 and has become a strong advocate of programs supporting cancer research and early detection.  The Palmer family consists of two daughters - Peggy Palmer Wears, of Durham, N.C., and Amy Palmer Saunders, of Windermere, Fla.; five grandchildren, Emily (1/27/81), Katherine Anne (9/2/82), Anne Palmer ( 9/14/84 ) Saunders, Anna Flexer Wears ( 2/24/97 ) and Peggy's stepdaughter, Nicola Wears ( 4/15/82 ); and two grandsons, Samuel Palmer Saunders ( 7/30/87 ) and William Gray Wears ( 10/16/94 ).  Arnold 's brother, Jerry, who succeeded their father as course superintendent at Latrobe CC, and his sisters, Louis Jean Tilley and Sandra Sarni , live in their home area in Western Pennsylvania .  Jerry is now general manager of Latrobe CC and all Palmer properties there.  Their mother, Doris, passed away in 1979 after a long, brave battle against crippling arthritis.

Palmer's Professional Career

Individual Records

Special Golf Achievements

PGA Player of Year - 1960 and 1962

PGA Tour Leading Money-Winner - 1958, 1960, 1962, 1963

Vardon Trophy - 1961, 1962, 1964, 1967

Ryder Cup Team - 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1971, 1973; Capt. - 1963, 1975

Chrysler Cup Team and Captain (Senior Golf) - 1986-90

Presidents Cup Captain - 1996

UBS Cup Team and Captain - 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

Charter member, World Golf Hall of Fame, Pinehurst , N.C ., 1974

American Golf Hall of Fame, Foxburg , Pa.

PGA Hall of Fame, Palm Beach Gardens , Fla. , 1980

All-American Collegiate Golf Hall of Fame, Man of Year, 1984

Ohio Golf Hall of Fame, 1992

Phoenix Open Hall of Fame

Bob Jones Award , U.S. Golf Association, 1971

Walter Hagen Award, International panel of selectors

William D. Richardson Award, Golf Writers Association of America , 1969

Charles Bartlett Award, Golf Writers Association of America , 1976

Herb Graffis Award, National Golf Foundation, 1978

Gold Tee Award, Metropolitan (NY) Golf Writers Association, 1965

Golf Digest "Man of Silver Era", 1975

Old Tom Morris Award , Golf Course Superintendents Association of America , 1983

Golfer of Century, New York Athletic Club, 1985

Commemorative Honoree, 1987 Golf Digest Commemorative Seniors Tournament

Golfer of Decade (1958-67), Centennial of Golf, Golf Magazine, 1989

American Senior Golf Association National Award, 1989

Chicago District Golf Association Distingushed Service Award, 1989

Ambassador of Golf Award, World Series of Golf, 1991

Bing Crosby Award, Metropolitan (N.Y.) Golf Writers Association, 1992

Memorial Honoree, Memorial Tournament, 1993

PGA of America Distinguished Service Award, 1994

Distinguished Service Award, Tri-State Section, PGA of America , 1996

Centennial Award, Golf Associations of Philadelphia , 1996

Francis Ouimet Award , Francis Ouimet Caddie Scholarship Fund, Boston , 1997

Lifetime Achievement Award, PGA Tour, 1998

Golfer of Century, Western Pennsylvania Golf Association, 1998

Donald Ross Award , American Society of Golf Course Architects, 1999

Golf Newsmaker of Century, Golf World, 1999

Ike Grainger Award , USGA, 2000

Golf Family of Year, National Golf Foundation, 2000

Payne Stewart Award, PGA Tour, 2000

Dave Marr Award , Novell Utah Showdown, 2000

National Golf Course Owners Association Award of Merit, 2001

Golden University Award, Metropolitan (NY) Golf Writers Association, 2001

Tri-State PGA Hall of Fame, 2002

50^th Anniversary ACC golf team, 2003

Dave Marr Shell Award, Houston, 2004

General Sports

Associated Press Athlete of Decade - 1960-1969

Hickok Professional Athlete of Year - 1960

Sports Illustrated Sportsman of Year - 1960

Dapper Dan Award , Pittsburgh - 1960

Pennsylvania , Western Pennsylvania , Westmoreland County , Cambria County , North Carolina , Florida , Sports Halls of Fame, Wake Forest Hall of Fame

Sports Appreciation Trophy, Atlanta AC CC, Atlanta , 1990

Athletes Who Changed Game, Sports Illustrated's 20^th Century Sports Awards, New York , 1990

Top 10 Male Athletes, 50^th Anniversary, Atlantic Coast Conference, 2003

Roy Firestone Award, Los Angeles , 2004

Alfond Award of Excellence, Rollins College , Orlando , 2004

Arthur J. Rooney Award , Catholic Youth Association, Pittsburgh , 1977

Dapper Dan Man of the Year, Pittsburgh , 1960

Lowman Humanitarian Award, Los Angeles

Distinguished Pennsylvania , 1980

Partner in Science Award, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation

Theodore Roosevelt Award, National Collegiate Athletic Association

Business Leaders Award, Northwood Institute

National High School Sports Hall of Fame

Ellis Island Medal of Honor, New York , 1986

Gold Medal, Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, 1988

Order of Eagle Exemplar , U.S. Sports Academy , 1989

Van Patrick Career Achievement Award, Dearborn , Mich. , 1990

Eagle on World Award, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York , 1990

Pathfinder Award, Youthlinks Indiana , 1992

Outstanding American Award, Los Angeles Philanthropic Foundation, 1992

National Sports Award, Washington , 1993

Sports Legends Award, Juvenile Diabetes Association, Pittsburgh , 1993

Humanitarian Award, Variety Club International, 1993

"Good Guy" Award, American Legion National Commanders, 1993

Man of the Year, Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, 1994

Ford Achievement Award, Dearborn , Mich. , 1994

Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement, 1995

History Makers Award, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania , 1995

Community Service Award, Latrobe Chamber of Commerce, 1995

Reagan Distinguished American Award, Jonathon Club , Los Angeles , 1996

Lifetime Achievement Award, March of Dimes Athletic Awards, 1998

Caritas Award, Richstone Family Center , Los Angeles , 1998

Spirit of Hope Award , University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, 1998

James Ewing Layman's Award, Society of Surgical Oncology, Orlando , 1999

Harold A. Stewart Amicus Libri Award, Adams Memorial Library, Latrobe, 1999

Patriot Award, Congressional Medal of Honor Society, 2000

George Bush Three Amigos Inspiration Award, Houston, 2001

Great Ones Award, Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, Los Angeles , 2001

Paul Harris Rotary Club Award, Orlando, 2002

Great American Award, Starkey Hearing Foundation, Minneapolis , 2003

Presidential Medal of Freedom, White House, 2004

Honorary Doctor of Laws, Wake Forest University , Winston-Salem , NC

Honorary Doctor of Humanities, Thiel College , Greenville , PA

Honorary Doctor of Laws, National College of Education , Evanston , IL

Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Florida Southern University, Lakeland , FL

Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, St. Vincent College , Latrobe , PA