Arnold Palmer, who rose to the top of the international golf world and later became a successful businessman and humanitarian, was being remembered Monday across sports and business following his death on Sunday evening. He was 87.
In a career that spanned five decades, Palmer went from winning his first professional tournament in 1955 to becoming one of golf’s greatest players and one of its most recognized ambassadors, amassing 92 championships including four Masters tournament wins between 1958 and 1964. The son of a greenskeeper, he went on to build a company that designed more than 200 golf courses around the world.
Off the course, Palmer’s famous handshake deal with IMG’s Mark McCormack gave birth to the modern era of sports marketing, and in the 1990s, he was a founder of the Golf Channel cable network. Beyond sports, his efforts led to the 27-year-old, 158-bed Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children owned by Orlando Health — the only Central Florida hospital with a children's emergency trauma department — which Palmer and his wife Winnie helped raise funds for and saw open on his 60th birthday. There’s also the 10-year-old, 315-bed Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies. The two hospitals are part of the Arnold Palmer Medical Center, which are connected so the specialized physicians and services can be shared among the babies and children.
In addition, there's the Arnie's Army Charitable Foundation, which provides financial support to institutions and organizations that help children, youth, families, the environment and the community.
Younger Years
Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Palmer never lost touch with his hometown roots. Around western Pennsylvania, he owned the Laurel Valley Golf Club and the Latrobe Country Club as well as the Marriott hotel in Latrobe and Arnold Palmer Motors, a Buick and Cadillac dealership.
The Unity Township airport was renamed Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in 1999 in honor of Palmer, who among his many other accomplishments was a longtime pilot. Palmer had also been chairman of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, most recently leading a meeting in June.
Palmer was often quoted and kept the company of presidents and other dignitaries, but he also was generous and self-effacing. In a column in December 2013, writer Harvey Mackay noted Palmer never flaunted his success nor made it apparent to those with whom he spent time.
Influencing Business
Palmer influenced countless business executives throughout his life. Among them, in a July interview, Charlotte real estate executive Johnny Harris said he counted Palmer his most trusted adviser in golf matters. Harris runs Quail Hollow Club, home of the annual Wells Fargo Championship since 2003. Next summer, Quail Hollow will host the PGA Championship, the first golf major to be played in Charlotte.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve the interaction of the game with people,” Harris said. “That was inbred in my life with my father and with my relationship with Arnold, who, in so many different ways, embraced the PGA. It was the one [major] tournament he could never win, but his father was a PGA professional.”
At the time of the interview, Harris was planning a trip within a week or two to visit Palmer in Pennsylvania. Palmer helped Harris’ father, a co-founder of Quail Hollow, recruit the Kemper Open, played in Charlotte from 1969 to 1979.
The golfer later became known as much for a sports-marketing empire that included course design, signature clubs, apparel and ads for Pennzoil — and the launch of a once-fledgling firm called International Management Group. Palmer also was a member at Quail Hollow and, at one point, owned a home near the course.
“[Arnold has] always been so very supportive and has always done anything we asked him to do to support whatever we did in Charlotte,” Harris said.
Among other favors, Harris recalled Palmer appearing in a video filmed as part of a successful Charlotte bid to host the 1994 NCAA men’s Final Four basketball tournament. His contribution? Noting that, as a professional golfer who had played in impressive foursomes at some of the best locations in the world, Palmer had a recommendation for the NCAA’s great basketball foursome: Charlotte.
“I don’t do anything in golf that I don’t talk to Arnold,” Harris said. “Somebody asked me ... how it all started, my interest and love. I said, growing up with my dad, watching that, remembering Arnold coming to tell my dad that if he would build this golf course, they would do a tournament. But traveling with Arnold from the time I was 28 on, playing golf with him, lots of really, really, really fun matches — back then I could play a little bit and he could play a lot.
“And we had so much fun and cut up and laughed and went all over the world. Played in New Zealand, played in Australia, played in Spain, played in France, played all over Scotland and Ireland, Canada. And everywhere we went, I never met a bad guy at golf. I met some people who needed to grow up, including myself, but I never met a bad guy.”
On Campus
Palmer was an alumnus of Wake Forest University, which he had attended on a golf scholarship some 60 years ago.
“No alumnus ever has had a bigger impact on Wake Forest University as an ambassador, role model, benefactor and friend than Arnold Palmer,” said Wake Forest University President Nathan O. Hatch. “[My wife] Julie and I will always remember his kindness, his gracious hospitality, his love for golf and its culture of respect and fair play — as well as his love for Wake Forest. He was a true gentleman.”
Palmer left Wake Forest and entered the Coast Guard after his friend, Buddy Worsham, was killed in an automobile accident, but his ties to the university in the decades since were strong. Palmer mentored generations of Wake Forest student-athletes, especially golfers, the university recalls, including establishing a scholarship fund remembering Worsham.
“Wake Forest University has become synonymous with exceptional golf and that extraordinary reputation began with Arnold Palmer,” Hatch said in a statement.
Palmer also served as a university trustee from 1983 to 1997 and became a life trustee after his final standard term ended.
According to the university, from 1989-96, Palmer co-chaired its Heritage and Promise capital campaign, which exceeded its $150 million goal by $23 million. That campaign helped fund a 52,500-square-foot wing of Z. Smith Reynolds library named for legendary English professor and Provost Emeritus Ed Wilson (’43) and Worrell Professional Center, built as the home of law and business programs in 1993 and among the largest academic facilities on campus. In fact, the school said, students each spring celebrate Arnold Palmer Day with iced tea and golf-related activities.
The university also noted this commentary from Palmer in 2013, reflecting on his arrival on campus in 1947: “I came to Wake Forest on a bus with my golf clubs and my suitcase. When Jim Weaver offered me a scholarship here, that was the beginning of a whole new life for me: the opportunity to come here, to go to school, to learn the things I have learned as a student, as a golfer and as a personality. Wake Forest taught me things I had no idea existed in this world.”
Palmer in 1962 received Wake Forest’s Distinguished Alumni Award at the age of 32, the second-youngest recipient still in the history of the citation. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1970 and in January 2007 was the football team’s honorary captain in the Orange Bowl.
Among the facilities on campus bearing his name are a residence hall that was dedicated in 1982 and the golf practice complex for the men’s and women’s teams, renovated in 2010.
“Friendship brought me here and friendship has kept me associate with the University since my student days,” Palmer once said of his relationship with Wake Forest.
Lloyd Whittington of the Triad Business Journal and Erik Spanberg of the Charlotte Business Journal contributed to this report.