Arnold Palmer
Arnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmeris a retired American professional golfer, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in professional golf history. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955. Nicknamed "The King", he is one of golf's most popular stars and its most important trailblazer, because he was the first superstar of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGolfer
Date of Birth10 September 1929
CityLatrobe, PA
CountryUnited States of America
My father started on this golf course at Latrobe when he was sixteen years old. He was digging ditches when they were building the golf course.
I was playing cowboys and Indians in the trees, and then I started hitting the golf club with clubs father sawed off for me, and I began playing right here with my father.
I wanted to emulate my father. I wanted to be as tough as he was. I wanted to do the things that he did. I watched him.
I was born in 1929, that was the depression, so the golf course was manned by my father and two guys, they worked for my dad and they took me with them everywhere they went. And it was fun.
That's another thing about my father. He made me very conscious of the fact I wasn't very good and I had to prove to him that I was good. And that hung with me, and I always wanted to play golf with him and show him. He said Never, Never tell anyone how good you are. Show them!
I received many years of good advice from my father - how to live, how to play, how to be a gentleman.
From the beginning it was drilled into me that a golf course was a place where character fully reveals itself -- both its strengths and its flaws. As a result, I learned early not only to fix my ball marks but also to congratulate an opponent on a good shot, avoid walking ahead of a player preparing to shoot, remain perfectly still when someone else was playing, and a score of other small courtesies that revealed, in my father's mind, one's abiding respect for the game.
My grandson Sam Saunders has been playing golf since he could hold a club and I spent a lot of time with him over the years. Like my father taught me, I showed him the fundamentals of the game and helped him make adjustments as he and his game matured over the years.
I've been playing there since 1955, but now I'm not so sure.
They are all talented and they all have great swings. I don't know that I can keep up with them.
Sam has displayed his talent through the past couple of years and this is an opportunity for a young man to get out and get some experience in the game that might not otherwise come his way. We, we'll see how he does with the big boys. I think that will be great.
Between now and 35 could be the absolute best years of his life. It would be very easy for that to happen, meaning that he could double or triple what he has done in the past.
Between now and 35 could be the absolute best years of his life.
Tell you what ... I'll wear it at the next tournament I play in.