Fifty Years On
By Tom Bedell
I had a bit of a chin wag the other day with my old pal, Arnold Palmer. I say that because I had the pleasure of playing 18 with Arnold a few years back, after which we shared a couple beers in the Bay Hill clubhouse at the King’s winter domain in Orlando. It remains one of the great highlights of my golfing existence. I can’t vouchsafe the same for Arnie, who politely feigned remembrance when I reminded him of the historic occasion.
The reason for my call was an article for a new magazine, Tee It Up, that my colleague and friend George Fuller is starting up out in California. Part of the inaugural issue is to include a tip of the golf cap to Palmer on an actual occasion, his first Masters win, also his first major win, in 1958.
Palmer’s last round card at the 1958 Masters
Arnie took the time, albeit all of twenty minutes, while preparations were going on for the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill–which Tiger Woods won today with an electrifying birdie on the 72nd hole, moving him two past Palmer on the all-time PGA career wins list, and tying him with Ben Hogan. Palmer gave Woods a big hug as the champ walked off the green, and both were grinning ear to ear.
Tiger hoists his 2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational trophy
I was ten years old when Palmer, 28, first slipped on the green jacket. I wasn’t aware of him then; few were. Though he had been on the PGA Tour for three full years and had won eight tournaments, no one paid as much attention in those days. But Palmer was about to change all that, his charging style of play converging with and energizing the early days of golf on television. (The Masters was first televised in 1956, though only the last four holes were covered.)
Palmer became the lightening rod that made the PGA Tour what it is today, with a little help from Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. Tiger Woods is carrying on as the cynosure of today’s golf world. He has a strong supporting cast, but they don’t seem to offer much competition. On Sunday afternoons most fold like cheap lawn chairs.
What most struck me about the conversation with Palmer was how genially he agreed to it in the first place. There was nothing in it for him. But golf gave him everything he has, and he seems genuinely concerned in giving back.
Palmer (left) and Sam Snead were tied at the top after three rounds of the 1958 Masters
Tiger can sure light up the post-tournament interview with that thousand-watt grin of his. And his fire and enthusiasm on the course is thrilling to see. No one currently playing seems able to match Tiger’s will to win. Still, once the lights go down, Tiger withdraws as well.
Tiger gives back plenty in terms of his charitable foundation. But I know I’ve had no luck collaring him for an interview beyond press conference questions; few have, since a profile in GQ magazine early in his career depicted him telling some off-color jokes. The drawbridge has been pretty well up ever since, the moat patrolled by his agency, IMG. Curiously enough, that’s Palmer’s agency, too.
Palmer made a handshake deal with Mark McCormack in 1959 that eventually evolved into IMG, now the largest sports management firm in the world. But in 1959, Palmer was McCormack’s sole client.
Sure, plenty has changed in fifty years. The sheer growth of the media (and its increasingly morbid curiosity) undoubtedly creates countless demands on Tiger’s time, so that the negative default response becomes almost understandable, if no less irksome to a working stiff.
And, sure, Tiger still has plenty of tournaments to win, while Arnold Palmer’s main task these days is to be Arnold Palmer and, when asked, to cast his mind back to the glory days, which he does in peerless fashion.
Going strictly by a count of majors won, Jack Nicklaus is still the greatest male golfer of all time. But surely Tiger is the best to ever play the game, an otherworldly, perhaps celestial talent.
The fiftieth anniversary of Tiger’s first Masters win, and his first major title, will arrive in 2047. I’ll be 99, and I hope I’m around to scribble a few lines.
I’m not holding my breath about it, or over ever playing 18 with Tiger. It surely would be quite a thrill to play with the best there ever was. Still, it wouldn’t shoot to the top of my list. There’s only one King, and that round is already in the books.
