RIP Arnold Palmer

Hope that beast has been somewhere around Barstow at least once.

 

If it's been mentioned, well, shame on me, but Ian O'Connor's "Arnie and Jack" was a great read.

Arnie is the reason I started playing golf in the mid-1960s as a teenager. I remember being crushed when he lost at Oakmont to Johnny Miller. Watched most of the final round from the porch on the Bob-O-Link on Transit Road in Orchard Park, sharing a sandwich and a pop with my father after our round at the par-3.

 

An abridged version of the King and his empire. ....
Mighty damn impressive.

Arnold Palmer's $700m fortune: How The King built an empire

 

That's a great photo, Chef. I wonder how much the SI photo archive would be worth if they sold it to collectors. Probably more than all of Time Inc.

 

Bay Hill #1 since his passing.
I still say the story of him and Roger Maris at the 1960 Hickok Belt Ceremony is one of the funniest stories ever told.

 

Board 101: Include the story. Don't leave people wondering.

When Arnold Palmer ran into Roger Maris at a ceremony to name the 1960 Hickok Belt award winner, signifying the professional athlete of the year, Maris asked Palmer, "What the hell are you doing here?" Upon winning the diamond-encrusted, alligator-skin belt, Palmer brushed past Maris on his way out the banquet door and said, "What the hell are you doing here?"

 

I always thought Maris said "What the FUCK are you doing here?".......then Palmer responded the same.....

 

Probably true. This was the best Internet account I found, but most of the others had it as "WTF?"

 

Maybe including the story was a bad idea.

 

If anyone saw the tribute from the players in the field at Bay Hill this morning........everyone teeing off on driving range, very similar to all players at 00 US Open after Payne Stewart's death......very very cool.