Arnold Palmer is The King at Cherry Hills Country Club — and many other prominent venues in the world of golf — so the college players competing in this week’s Palmer Cup best heed the playful warning Arnie threw out Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m going to be on the first hole,” Palmer said, looking alternately at golfers from the U.S. and European teams which will square off this week. “And the first guy that pulls out a 1-iron, 2-iron or 3-wood, I’m going to run out there and hand him his driver.”
Palmer, of course, cemented his go-for-broke reputation as a player on the 346-yard first hole at Cherry Hills, where he”˜s now a member. Using a driver on the par-4, he knocked his tee shot on the first green during the final round of the 1960 U.S. Open and made a birdie. That launched him to a final-round 65 that overcame a seven-shot deficit as he claimed the only U.S. Open title of his illustrious career.
Palmer has accomplished many things in his lifetime — including 62 PGA Tour victories, including seven major championships as a professional — but the way that final round unfolded at Cherry Hills makes the 1960 U.S. Open arguably his most notable feat on a golf course.
“It was my only (U.S.) Open win; it was the highlight of my career,” Palmer said Tuesday during a sit-down two days before the Ryder Cup-like competition that bears his name begins at Cherry Hills. “I’d won the Masters in 1958 and 1960 in squeakers, then I won the Open by two shots, and it was a good shot (in the arm) for me.”
Palmer, who will turn 80 in September, has told the story countless times, but he never fails to entertain audiences with his recollections of the final day of the 1960 Open at Cherry Hills.
Palmer trailed leader Mike Souchak by seven shots entering the final 18, and in the locker room before the last round Arnie encountered Pittsburgh Press sports writer Bob Drum, a good friend of Palmer’s.
“I said, “˜Bob, if I shoot 65, do you think that will win,'” Palmer recounted. After at first ignoring Palmer, Drum said, “‘Nothing’s going to help you.'”
But by driving the first hole, shooting 65, and beating the likes of an aging Ben Hogan and a young Jack Nicklaus, Palmer etched himself in history.
Palmer said that with the ball and equipment players have today, some can hit the first green on the fly now. “It’s an exception, but not really not an exception anymore,” he said. But with the relatively soft ball Palmer used in 1960, “To hit it as far as I did was just lucky.”
Palmer noted Tuesday that at the 1960 Masters, Hogan gave Palmer the Hogan driver that The King used for his famous shot at Cherry Hills. But given his endorsement deal at the time, Palmer admits “making it look like a Wilson driver.” Then he adds, “I’m not sure how I did hit it that far.”
After winning the U.S. Open, Palmer took the step — unusual back then for many American players — of going to the British Open. On his way over to St. Andrews in Scotland, Palmer traveled with Drum, and Arnie noted in a conversation that no amateur was going to duplicate Bobby Jones’ feat of winning the Grand Slam — claiming the U.S. Amateur, British Amateur, U.S. Open and British Open in the same year. So Palmer brought up the idea of a new Grand Slam — the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship. Drum wrote about the notion shortly before the 1960 British Open and “it caught on right away,” said Palmer, noting that that was the genesis of the modern Grand Slam.
Palmer gave that Grand Slam a run in 1960, winning the Masters and the U.S. Open before finishing a shot behind winner Kel Nagle in the British Open. Palmer would win the British Open each of the following two years.
Palmer claimed his last major championship in 1964, and his final PGA Tour victory came in 1973, but it remains remarkable how The King has stood the test of time. Being the ambassador he’s been for the game for more than 50 years, Palmer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in 2004. And after a recent House of Representatives vote, Palmer appears likely to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor granted by Congress.
“He’s a man who has given more back to the game than just about anybody,” USGA president Jim Vernon said Tuesday at Cherry Hills.
Another measure of Palmer’s ongoing stature is that in Golf Digest’s list of the top incomes earned among professional golfers — on and off the course combined — Arnie still ranks No. 4, at $30 million-plus per year. The only people ahead of him in the magazine’s most recent rankings were Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh.
And, mind you, Palmer hasn’t played an official round of golf on the PGA or Champions Tours since 2006.
RAIN ALTERS PALMER CUP SCHEDULE: Because of Tuesday’s rain, the Palmer Cup schedule for the remainder of the week was changed. The College-Am, a private event, has been moved to Wednesday. And all four rounds of actual Palmer Cup competition will be held on Thursday and Friday, with the general public admitted free of charge those days.
Four-ball matches are set for Thursday beginning at 7:30 a.m., with Singles scheduled for 1 p.m. On Friday, Foursomes will begin at 7:30 a.m., with Singles starting at 1 p.m. The closing ceremonies will take place Friday at about 7 p.m.
PALMER CUP NOTES: During Tuesday’s opening ceremonies, a trumpeter played the national anthem of every country who has a golfer competing this week — eight in all: the U.S., England, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Scotland, Spain and Sweden. “¦
Skip Manning of Fort Collins, who retrieved the red visor Arnold Palmer joyously tossed in the air after winning the 1960 U.S. Open, was among those in attendance as Palmer visited Cherry Hills on Tuesday.
