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2016 Golf Year in Review #1 Biggest Event

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What story could possibly be at the top of this list? What was the biggest golf story of the year? Let’s recap:

Number 10 was the dominance on the LPGA Tour of women not from the United States.

Nine was the rules changes that went into effect at the beginning of the year.

Eighth and seventh were Henrik Stenson and Dustin Johnson winning the Open and the US Open, respectively.

Sixth was the great win by the USA at the Ryder cup.

Fifth and fourth were two more major champions. Jimmy Walker won the PGA, and Danny Willett won the Masters.

Third was the return of Tiger Woods after nearly a year and a half off.

And second was the return of golf to the Olympics after more than 100 years.

And finally on top of the list is…

The passing of Arnold Palmer.

What can you say about Arnold Daniel Palmer? I don’t think I can do him justice, but here goes.

Arnold was from Latrobe, PA, not far from Pittsburgh.

He was the son of the pro at Latrobe Country Club and from those humble beginnings, changed the way professional golf is played, and the way golf is viewed by the general population.

The list of things for which Palmer is known is vast, but I’d like to focus on one thing in particular, and that is the way he changed professional golf.

 

Palmer was charismatic, handsome, plainspoken, and polite. He came into his own as a player at the dawn of television as a powerful medium for sports, and the camera loved him. It was a perfect storm of him building his legend while television was looking for people like him to put on its far-reaching stage. While he was making himself one of the most popular and well-known athletes on the planet, he was changing golf’s image from a stuffy, stodgy game that rich people played into a game for the masses to be played by guys who work in factories and on assembly lines.

People gathered around their televisions to watch the swashbuckling Palmer lashing shots up the fairway and forcing the ball into the cup with his bent-over putting style and sheer force of will.

The ball dare not disobey him when he stared it down on its path to the hole.

In 1958, Palmer won the first of this four Masters. He was the first man to win four Masters and is tied for second in number of Masters wins behind Jack Nicklaus. Starting with that first win, he would win the Masters every other year until 1964.

He, along with Nicklaus and Gary Player, became the “Big 3” of golf in the 1960s and into the 1970s. From 1958 until 1966, only one man not named Palmer, Player, or Nicklaus won the Masters.

It was during this time that Palmer amassed his throngs of adoring fans, who came to be known as “Arnie’s Army.” And it was also during this time that his coronation took place, and he became, “The King.”

Palmer won the US Open only once, but it was in 1960 over a young amateur named Jack William Nicklaus, who would be his main foil over the next decade and a half. Two years later, Nicklaus would battle the King in a playoff in Palmer’s back yard at Oakmont Country Club.

 

Palmer won the Open Championship twice, and in doing so, elevated the status of that already prestigious tournament. He charmed the Scots, as knowledgeable of golf fans as you will find anywhere, and they embraced him just as fans in the United States did.

Before Palmer went to Royal Birkdale and won, many American pros would skip the Open, mainly because it was too much hassle to travel over there.

By playing and winning, he sent a message to the rest of the American players that skipping the Open was no longer an option. In the 89 times the Open was played before Palmer won, Americans only won 14 times, and 12 of those were from 1921-1933.

Since 1961, the Open has been contested 56 times and Americans have won 30 times. Palmer may not have been the only reason for that, but there is no denying he is part of the reason.

 

Palmer never won the PGA Championship, but did finish second three times. It was the only major he failed to win.

He was instrumental in the formation of the PGA TOUR and the Champions Tour. If not for Arnold Palmer, professional golf players might not have the fame, celebrity, and money they have today.

Palmer won 62 PGA Tour events and made $1,861,857 in golf winnings in his career. If you made that much money on Tour in 2016, you would have been 53rd on the money list. For a single year.

Arnold Palmer’s awesome impact on the game cannot be overstated. He is the reason the Tour is as popular as it is, and that purses are as high as they are. Certainly Tiger Woods can take some credit for the dramatic increase in those purses during his heyday, but even the mighty Woods owes a lot to Palmer.

 

We lost Arnie on Sep. 25, 2016, and it was far too soon. The Masters starts in 97 days. It will not be the same without seeing Arnie leading his army on the walk to the first tee on Thursday and stripe a ball down the fairway to open play at the first major of the year.

The King is dead. Long live the King.


Cover Image via Flickr

I'm a reinstated amateur who took up the game at 19 while in the military, and attempted to play for a living for a year. I've play all over the world, and still play competitively. I currently teach Golf for Beginners at Anne Arundel Community College and have coached high school golf. I am a single father of two children, and I enjoy reading, writing, movies, and of course, sports.

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