Arnold Palmer Turns 82

Yesterday, Arnold Palmer turned 82. In honor, the Golf Channel played the full 1960 Masters Tournament coverage (the first part starts above) which was Palmer's second (he also won the 1958 Masters). Looking over Palmer's record (here) produces an interesting list of great (Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Raymond Floyd, Johnny Miller) and probably forgotten (Dow Finsterwald, Doug Ford, Bob Goalby, Gay Brewer, Doug Sanders, Johnny Pott, Dai Rees, Billy Casper, Mason Rudolf, Gene Littler, Lionel Hebert, Gay Brewer, Gardner Dickinson, Deane Beman, Orville Moody, Gibby Gilbert, etc.) players that he beat.

From the "probably forgotten" list I have a story about Bob Goalby. I was walking in to the Thursday round of the Greater Milwaukee Open by the players entrance (the tournament stopped allowing entrance here a few years later) when a car pulled up along side me and the driver said "Get in". I hesitated, the driver looked familiar but I couldn't place him.

He said again, "Come on, get in," so I did.

Before we got to security at the players entrance, the drive said "Do you recognize me?" I said, "You look familiar, but..."

He said "I'm Bob Goalby" and I wish I could have said "Sure, you lost to Arnold Palmer in the 1959 Oklahoma City Open Invitational in 1959 by 2 strokes," but I didn't find that out until reading Palmer's record a few minutes ago!

In any event, "Thank you, Bob Goalby for a free pass into the GMO!" Bob was there to see his nephew, Jay Haas, play.

Back to the 1960 Masters, I had a flood of reactions to the coverage: (1) Palmer certainly was a physical specimen compared to the conditioning of most other players (Doug Sanders would say that "the heaviest thing he ever lifted was a skirt"), (2) the wristy putting styles are shocking by today's standards, (3) the caddies cleaned balls by rinsing them in their mouths (who knows what kinds of carcinogens they were putting on the greens then) and of course (4) it's amazing how far Plamer hit the ball with persimmon woods and balata balls.

In honor of Arnold's birthday and his achievements in golf (particularly introducing today's modern, power game), here's an analysis of Palmer's swing (above) by Wanye DeFrancesco with a very interesting comparison to Dustin Johnson swing and lots of discussion about the left wrist position.