The Tributes

It's really quite touching to see the world memorialize our King, especially since it's not just our little golf world.

For instance, this is this week's Sports Illustrated cover:

OK, that's a sports magazine, but this was the paper of record:

That other New York paper could only fit Arnie below the fold, but then again that important story about rising incomes delivering millions of blacks and Hispanics out of poverty had to lede on the day of the first debate (and unfortunately I'm not kidding).

Shack had this interesting reaction to the photos used with the tributes:

Unlike that SI cover, so many of the photos and clips I've seen of Mr. Palmer are of him in his older years because (A) he aged incredibly gracefully and (B) he's been captured in so many modern mediums.

In yesterday's post I found myself gravitating towards the photos of the young, virile King, in a sense trying to present him as he would have appeared as he burst onto the scene.  But there are few that the camera loved more, as there's no bad photos of the man....  Well, maybe one....

James Corrigan appropriately sets aside his curmudgeonly persona in this fine tribute:

Timing was everything for Arnold Palmer. The player they were to coronate The King came along at the perfect moment to start a golfing and yes, marketing revolution and although his passing, whenever it came, was always going to be classed as premature, nobody could deny that he left the stage just as the spotlight was zooming in. 

That was Palmer, for you. Always the idol they were talking about long after he had made his gracious exit.

And this:

“[Arnold] Palmer was a swashbuckling mercenary, travelling across the channel, when

hardly any other US pro did, to play in the Open Championship at the turn of the Sixties. Where he went, the game followed. It had to. He was the Pied Piper,” writes James Corrigan of the Telegraph in London. 

“They called Arnold Palmer ‘The King’ but in many respects this was wholly inappropriate. The son of a head pro and greenskeeper whose own ambitions were thwarted because of a childhood disease, he was never handed anything because of his bloodline; apart from the odd bucket of range balls.

Yes, he's often credited with saving The Open Championship in 1960, when he traveled to St. Andrews in an attempt to create a modern professional Grand Slam.  He lost to Kel Nagle by a single stroke, but won the next two. including at Royal Birkdale in 1961 (photo above).

Now he came along at the perfect moment, but it was he who captured the public's imagination because he was, you know, Arnold Palmer....  Ryan Lavner captures it well, including quantifying his impact:

That’s why these days, weeks and months ahead are an important period of reflection for the current pros. 

There is an ever-widening divide between fans and the stars of our game, the mega-millionaires who are safe in their cocoon, protected by managers and publicists and image specialists. The money has never been greater – Rory McIlroy deposited $11.44 million Sunday; Palmer made $1.86 million in his career – and the lifestyles never more different. Each year, it seems, they only drift further away, the connection becoming more tenuous. 

And so, moving forward, will our stars use their fame, their fortune and their status to shield themselves from the public, from the fans that enriched their fabulous lives? Or will they stay grounded and humble and relatable – will they stay connected – the way Palmer did?

Arnie did well enough to afford his airplane, as well as lots of Arnold Palmers....Shack had this response to the above, which I think is a bit overdone:

The Olympic Zika virus fiasco this summer opened the door to this discussion and while the debate is not something that should overshadow the remembrances of The King, but throwing the point out seems fair as we hear from the players over the next few days about how they view Palmer's legacy and their places in the game.

I think it's fine to salute the King and his legacy of openness and approachability, but there was no Twitter in 1958....  If we look at the stars of our game today, I don't really have concerns about guys like Spieth, Day and McIlroy on that score.  It's just a different era, but we don't need to cudgel them over it.... You can argue, as Geoff does, that those guys should have sucked it up gone to Rio, but that's to me too easy an argument.  

If we want to contrast today's coddled players with those of hardier stock, I'd prefer to use this Steve DiMeglio anecdote:

Tiger Woods had much to celebrate as he plopped into a chair in the Bay Hill locker

room on a quiet Monday afternoon in March 2013. 

He’d just won the storm-delayed Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, his 77th victory on the PGA Tour. He was healthy and strong. And the victory moved him back to No. 1 in the world for the first time in 29 months. 

So cocktails were in order and Woods relaxed with a few friends including his caddie, Joe LaCava, and a vanquished opponent from the day’s work on the fairways, Rickie Fowler. 

Then a thunderous voice crashed the festivities.

From the other side of the room, a man took issue with Woods’ decision to lay up on the finishing hole to protect his lead. Sprinkling in some off-color language, he also chastised Woods for chunking his third shot to the green, leaving the ball some 100 feet from the hole. 

It was Arnold Palmer teeing up a world-class mocking. 

And Woods loved it, smiling throughout, dropping his head in mock humiliation and trying to get a word in edge wise. It’s one of the countless memories of Palmer that Woods can recite on command, spurred by a relationship he relished with a man 47 years his senior.

How lucky does one have to be to be mocked by The King?

I'll leave you with this Tour Confidential panel attempt to capture Arnie's significance, no less unsuccessful than all the others.  This one comes close:

Alan Shipnuck: No pro athlete has ever looked better in competition. Palmer exuded an earthy sex appeal and a postwar, American dream vibe that makes Don Draper look like Donald Duck. Those old pics of Palmer glowering on a tee box with a cigarette or slashing at the ball are utterly timeless. And they still will be 100 years from now.

Oh that wild swing.....especially the helicopter finish.

 And when asked about memories of the man, Shipnuck had this:

SHIPNUCK: The handshake. Decades ago I remember reading a list of things every golfer should do and one item was shaking Arnie’s hand. I thought that was curious … until the first time I met him. His big, meaty paw practically swallowed my arm! Those were the calloused hands of a craftsman, and the crushing grip was as manly as it gets.

I remember that article, fifty things every golfer should do.  Also on the list was to make birdie out of the water, and I'm still trying to figure out how one does that.

Long live The King!