Thank You Mr Palmer

There is, well there always will be, a debate in golf about who is the greatest player of all time.

Its debate that very few will agree on and a debate our great grand children will probably have.

But one thing is for certain, professional golf would not be what it is today if it was not for Arnold Daniel Palmer.

Today is Mr Palmers 84th birthday and every professional golfer owes him something.

Now some would say he was lucky that he broke through just as television started to cover golf and that may have some truth to it.

But Arnie became not only the peoples champion but the first superstar golfer.

I can hear some of you now saying Jones, Hogan, Sarazen but outside golf very few knew them, Arnie became known world wide and not only by golfers.

Here was a humble man, of humble roots who showed the world that golf was not an elitist sport.

What is frightening though that in 734 PGA starts, with 62 wins, he earned $1,861,857! That would barely keep your PGA card these days.

Oh how earnings have changed.

There is no doubt that he was a golfing maverick who was more Mickleson than Woods, in his prime I dread to think what the Minolta BizHub Swing vision would make of his swing!

But that’s why people loved him, Arnies Army is still unique in golf.

It was about 10 years ago, while vacationing in Orlando, the Reunion Golf Resort had just opened. They were building 3 courses, Palmer, Watson and Nicklaus, now any time I see a new course I always want to play it.

So we drove in and went to the temporary clubhouse to see if we could get a tee time, I cant remember what the green fee’s were but they were extortionate, well by my standards at least. But the pro informed me if we went to see the model home and did the “property tour” we would get 2 complimentary rounds.

Ok I am a Scot! Free golf !! Of course I was going to take the “property tour”, well it was raining.

So the following day we turned up for our “complimentary” rounds, still my favourite kind of golf.

We played 9 on the Watson and 9 on the Palmer, when we arrived on the last I sensed something was up.

Ahead at the green there was 50 or so people standing round the green, a little strange I thought.

As we approached the green the number had risen to close to a 100, or so it seemed. Curiosity was now being replaced by blind panic!

As luck would have it I stiffed my approach to about 5 foot and this drew healthy applause from the gathering throng. “shit” was the only thing going through my head! What the hell was going on! By this time Donna had picked up.

We pulled up next to the green and I basically sprinted to my ball “Who the hell do they think we are?” was all I could think!

Donna pulled the pin, I holed the putt, got the applause, dofft my cap to the masses, turned to Donna and said “lets get the **** out of here quick”

Not a chance!

A reunion employee stood by the buggy “You enjoy that sir?” by now I was in major panic mode, “eh, aye” I replied while looking for the quickest escape route!

“Did you see who is playing behind you?” he asked, behind me ??

Now as a rule I pay no attention to who is behind me as long as I am keeping pace with whoever is in front.

“Eh, No, why” I replied, “Mr Palmer” he said, “ARNIE” I said!

As Mr Palmer approached the green there was genuine respect and warmth in the applause he received, you would have thought there was a thousand of us there by the noise.

Mr Palmer was a genuine gentleman and acknowledged as many as he could.

For the record he never matched my birdie!

But I got one of my prized possessions that day, a Reunion scorecard signed by Mr Palmer.

So wherever you are today take a moment to raise a class and wish Mr Palmer a very happy 84th birthday, we all owe him something.