Arnold Palmer likely is the most written-about golfer in history, both because he won so much (more than 90 times) and because of his hard-charging, people-loving charisma. While it’s tempting to think that there’s not much more to write about Palmer, who was eulogized upon his passing last September, veteran sportswriter Tom Callahan pulls together many anecdotes and personal observations from his years on the Palmer watch. It all began in the early 1970s when Callahan bluntly asked Arnie how much he was getting for playing in a charity event, and getting a straight answer. When Callahan seemed contrite for pressing the issue, Palmer said, “Don’t ever apologize for doing your job.” A longstanding, solid relationship ensued.
Here’s an excerpt from Arnie:
“On September 10, 1966, Palmer’s 37th birthday, he looked up into the Latrobe [Pa.] sun and saw a Jet Commander just like the one he owned. But because Arnold’s airplane had never ventured anywhere without him, he took the one in the sky for a look-alike. A few minutes later, when Winnie [his wife] asked him to get the door – ‘It’s the TV repairman,’ she lied – there stood [Dwight] Eisenhower with a suitcase and a question: ‘You wouldn’t have room to put an old man up for the night, would you?’ Along with a weekend’s kit, the former president carried an oil canvas of a barn, a horse, and a corral he had painted on his farm as a birthday present for Arnie, initialed in the lower right-hand corner ‘D.D.E.’ (‘You won’t believe this,’ Palmer said, ‘but I had a teacher once who thought I could become a painter. Not a housepainter, either.’)”
