THE King

[Rich Goodale]

Golf Channel currently is streaming Arnold Palmer's greatness outside of the golf course, particularly in funding health care for children.  He was and will always be the KING.

[archie_struthers]

 




Absolutely Rich , he was the best !!!!

[Thomas Dai]

With due respect, to some of us The King was born in Cefneithin in 1945 and christened in New Zealand in 1971.
Atb

[Duncan Cheslett]

With due respect, to some of us The King was born in Cefneithin in 1945 and christened in New Zealand in 1971.
Atb

Who are you talking about?


Shakin' Stevens?


 

[Rich Goodale]

With very due respect, I don't think that Wales, as at best a Principality, never had a King.  Princes maybe, and a few decent rugby players and two great poets, but Kings? Nay.

[Adam Lawrence]

based on that logic, America, from its birth a republic, can't have a king either

[BHoover]

It's upsetting to hear that only 10 of the top 25 in the OWGR are currently scheduled to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. If ever there were a year to pay tribute to The King, this is surely it. These guys should reconsider just how important Mr. Palmer was to their current profession.

[Sam Krume]

It's upsetting to hear that only 10 of the top 25 in the OWGR are currently scheduled to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. If ever there were a year to pay tribute to The King, this is surely it. These guys should reconsider just how important Mr. Palmer was to their current profession.

Could not agree more. They all should be falling over themselves, queing up to play at the API, if it wasnt for Arnie they wouldnt have what they have now without him.

[Niall C]

Sam


Not to denigrate Arnie, or Jack, or Seve or even Young Tom if you want to go that far back, but its the game people love. Guys like Arnie and Tiger were merely the poster boys of their time, but the game went on and ultimately got stronger after they had gone. From what I've heard Arnie was a great man and well loved but I don't think any of the modern guys owes him anything for their own gains for playing the game very well. Just MO.


Niall 

[Sam Krume]

Sam


Not to denigrate Arnie, or Jack, or Seve or even Young Tom if you want to go that far back, but its the game people love. Guys like Arnie and Tiger were merely the poster boys of their time, but the game went on and ultimately got stronger after they had gone. From what I've heard Arnie was a great man and well loved but I don't think any of the modern guys owes him anything for their own gains for playing the game very well. Just MO.


Niall

I agree that its the game people love BUT Arnie drew people to the game because of Arnie, the same as Seve, the same as Tiger. The one difference I believe between Arnie and the rest was that he started it all with a hand shake with Mark McCormack. I think that's exactly the time the gravy train left the station on its way to the millions and millions the players now play for and yes he was a great man, exactly as you say.

[Niall C]

Sam


To use your analogy, Arnie didn't invent the gravy train, and the slow and sometimes not so slow build to where we are now started long before he got on board. Golf is a great game which lends itself to TV coverage so if you want to credit anyone with the millions that todays pros earn then perhaps you should credit John Logie Baird or the Italian bloke also credited with inventing television.


Niall 

[David_Tepper]

Niall -

It would be a mistake to underestimate the impact that Arnold Palmer had on golf, both in the U.S. and worldwide. There are very, very few sportsmen who have had the impact on the growth and popularity of their sport that AP had on his.

The fact that AP, in his 80's, was one of the highest earning athletes in the world is some testament to that.

DT

[Kirk Gill]

Niall, it is certainly true that Arnold Palmer came a a propitious time. The same could be said of, say, The Beatles. Surely it's the game (or the music) that people love, but Arnold Palmer grabbed ahold of the public interest in a way that Billy Casper just didn't. The Beatles did it, too, in a way that Acker Bilk just couldn't make happen.

[Ronald Montesano]

How many of you are writing from an "I was there and I recall it like it was 70 years ago" perspective, and how many are writing from an "I heard/read about it and I have made it real from source material"?


Arnie was damned important. Of that there can be no doubt nor denial.

[David_Tepper]

Ronald -

If it wasn't for Arnie, I doubt I would have asked for (and received) a set of Wilson irons as a bar mitzvah present in 1962.

DT

P.S. I don't think it is a coincidence that the Senior Tour in the U.S. became viable right when Arnie was in his early 50's.

P.P.S. How many other professional golfers have been referenced in a James Bond movie?

[Niall C]

DT

The fact that Arnie was one of the highest earning athletes in his 80's largely speaks to the quality of the investments he made when in his prime. Also to use the same argument I used a couple of years ago when Tigermania was in full flow and Elderick was getting credited with everything from saving golf to curing cancer (OK I exaggerate but only slightly) if you imagined he'd never lived and someone like Phil was the top player, would the game of golf be any smaller in terms of industry turnover/number of players ? I very much doubt it.

Same with Arnie. When you asked for a set of Arnie clubs when you were a kid, I'd suggest it was because you wanted to play the game not because Arnie was a great guy, and the fact that you wanted Arnie's clubs is probably down to the bloke who invented television as I mentioned earlier. That's what helped create the market and Arnie just took a big share of that market, perhaps more than anyone else, but at the root of it all you wanted to play golf because of the game itself.

But to get back to Rich's original post, Arnie was a great golfer and a great golfer and it's that we should be celebrating.

Niall

[BCowan]

Niall,

   I assume you live across the pond in the UK?  If so, then I would understand why you wouldn't get Tigermania and Arnie's Army.  People who never would of played the game, did because of those 2.  Golf in the US has an elitist feel to it, that both broke through.  Made it popular to the masses.  Phil is popular, but nothing like Tiger and Arnie.  Tiger hurt and old still moves the needle like no other.   

[David_Tepper]

"The fact that Arnie was one of the highest earning athletes in his 80's largely speaks to the quality of the investments he made when in his prime"

Niall -

I don't believe that is/was the case. AP's earning power in his later years was largely derived from his role as a spokesman for and endorser of a number of products. There are very few athletes in any sport who have been able maintain their public profile once their playing careers have ended. In a real sense AP's persona transcended the sport.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rONXxy9kk0

As for as what inspired me or others to play golf, no doubt AP was in the right place at the right time. But, for many people in the 1960's, it was watching the way that Arnie played golf that inspired them to play the game.

DT
 
   

[JMEvensky]

As for as what inspired me or others to play golf, no doubt AP was in the right place at the right time. But, for many people in the 1960's, it was watching the way that Arnie played golf that inspired them to play the game.

DT
 
 

+1


Every kid I grew up with putted knock- kneed. And we'd have flicked away our cigarettes the same as AP if our parents had let us smoke  .

[Jason Chambers]

As someone who grew up a stones throw from Hazeltine and remember seeing the senior open there in the early 80's, I always wanted to be Arnie.  I was a club pro in the Orlando area in the late 90's and had the opportunity to meet the man through a friend who worked for him.  He was tough, but real, fair and still hard driving in his late 60's.  The game would not be what it is today without his personality, his charisma, and yes, his willingness to exploit that for financial gain on TV.  Tiger added the same thing in the naughts.  Let's hope that there will be others who make the game bigger than just the game and make it cool again.  Thank you Mr. Palmer.

[Niall C]

David/Jason/JM,
 
I appreciate that Arnie was your man. For others it was Jack, or Seve, or Tiger. Personally for me it was initially Trevino and then ultimately Watson. I’m a huge fan of both men. Not just for their golf but also the way they conduct themselves.


However the point I was making was that the spurious claims that somehow the top golfers of today owe their living to players of yesteryear, is nonsense. It’s nonsense whether you are talking about Arnie or Tiger or anyone else.


The game has grown exponentially in the last 120 odd years since the initial golf boom of the 1880’s and 1890’s. Back then caddies didn’t have shoes, now they are retired in their 50’s and driving about in Ferraris and the top players can feasibly retire after one decent year on tour. Every other major sport has a similar story. That’s not down to the players, it’s down to the individual characteristics of the individual sport, and probably most importantly more and more people becoming more affluent and therefore having more time and money to spend on sport.
 
Niall

[Kalen Braley]

Oh please....


This guy aint buying it, theres only one king at the moment

[David_Tepper]

"However the point I was making was that the spurious claims that somehow the top golfers of today owe their living to players of yesteryear, is nonsense. It’s nonsense whether you are talking about Arnie or Tiger or anyone else."

Niall C. -

While no professional golfer owes their living to another, there is no doubt that AP's presence on the golf scene in the 1960's and Tiger's presence on the golf scene beginning in the late 1990's was directly responsible for an increase in the visibility of golf within the world of sports and within the world at large.

Their presence in their eras led to more golf on TV, bigger prize money, bigger endorsement opportunities, etc. While other golfers don't "owe their living" to AP and TW, they are certainly living better because of them.

DT 
 
P.S. Unlike Watson, Seve, Trevino and possibly even Nicklaus, AP's presence and name recognition transcended the sport. The fact that, past the age 80, he could invent a drink, have it named after him and then sell it commercially says it all.       

[Niall C]

DT

Let me suggest that Nicklaus's name, and indeed Tigers and Watson and Faldos and even (perhaps especially) Monty's names tend to resonate more than Arnies in this country, especially for those under say 55. But at the end of the day people play golf because of the game, not who plays it.

For example there's a guy called Rick Wakeman who played in the band Yes in the 70's who pops up on British TV these days as a talking head for all sorts of things. He has a fantastic dry sense of humour with some great stories to tell. To me, he's the funniest man on TV but he's never going to get me to listen to prog rock. Same with Elton John, great personality, very funny and irreverent but don't expect me to buy his records, learn the piano or enter in to a gay relationship anytime soon.

Point is, it's all about this wonderful game. Not the TV stars who play it.

Niall

ps. didn't know AP had a drink named after him. Again I suspect you're more likely to hear someone in this country ordering a John Panton than an Arnold Palmer. 

[JMEvensky]

For example there's a guy called Rick Wakeman who played in the band Yes in the 70's who pops up on British TV these days as a talking head for all sorts of things. He has a fantastic dry sense of humour with some great stories to tell. To me, he's the funniest man on TV but he's never going to get me to listen to prog rock. 

From a huge Yes fan--Rick Wakeman surrounded by a wall of keyboards circa 1972 was the be all/end all of rock music.


Dissing AP and Yes in the same thread? This is craziness  .