Thursday, Sep. 10, 2009

Arnie's army celebrates 80

South Carolinians recall encounters with ‘The King’

As golf legend Arnold Palmer celebrates his 80th birthday today, the world pauses to remember the man who made modern professional golf what it is. The winner of four Masters and three other majors among 62 career victories helped create the first TV sports generation in America, fans who formed “Arnie’s Army” and followed their hero long after his winning days were done.

But the true gift of the man from Latrobe, Pa., was his ability to connect with everyone and create lasting memories in their lives. Here are thoughts from six South Carolinians who have known and loved “The King.”

JIM FERREE, Hilton Head

Ferree, 78 and a longtime PGA Tour player, was the model for the knickers-wearing logo of the Champions Tour. He has known Palmer almost 60 years, starting when they played on competing college teams (Palmer at Wake Forest, Ferree at North Carolina). He has been affiliated with Long Cove Club since 1981.

“The thing that amazed me, it’s so easy to go in and do a good interview after you’ve shot 68 or 70 and won, but after Arnold wasn’t winning any more in his 40s, people still expected him to. He’d shoot 75, go in and have to explain what happened, but I don’t ever remember him getting short with the press or with the public, his fans. If he shot a bad score, he’d shake hands, sign autographs, and smile.

“Some of my favorite memories are of flying places with him. One year we flew from Latrobe to Portland, Ore., for the U.S. Senior Open, over the July 4th weekend. We stopped in Wichita, where the Cessna plant was; they were building him a new plane. When we arrived, the president of the company was there, and he took us to look at Arnold’s new plane. Then we got back on the old plane and flew on to Oregon.

“I have a great picture of him giving me a Budweiser and a dozen golf balls. We had a bet on the Carolina-Wake game, and we nipped them, and he had to present the beer and the balls to me on the practice tee the next week.”

HOOTIE JOHNSON, Columbia

The Chairman Emeritus of Augusta National Golf Club, in 2002 he sent letters to several older past champions that they should not play because they were not competitive, prompting Palmer to announce his final Masters because “I don’t want to get a letter.” After consulting with Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, Johnson rescinded the edict, and Palmer played his 50th Masters in 2005 and became the tournament’s honorary starter in 2007.

“Arnold Palmer is a hero in American golf and someone I have long admired and respected as a player and as a person. His impact on both the growth of the game and the popularity of the Masters Tournament is immeasurable. I couldn’t be happier to congratulate him on 80 wonderful years. In my mind, he is a living legend.”

JACK LEWIS, Florence

Lewis, 62, was recipient of an Arnold Palmer scholarship from 1965-69 while at Wake Forest. He played with Palmer in the 1972 PGA National Team Championship in Ligonier, Pa., after Nicklaus withdrew with an injured finger. Lewis teaches at the Carolina Golf Academy in Greensboro, N.C. and Randy’s Golf Center in Burlington, N.C.

“One favorite memory doesn’t pertain to golf, but to a joke I once played on him. It was at the 1974 PGA Championship at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, N.C. We were living across the river from Tanglewood at Bermuda Run Country Club and invited Arnold, his wife Winnie and some other couples over for dinner.

“I had crashed a few parties at Bermuda Run, wearing a lifelike mask and being known as ‘Uncle Duncan.’ I had a couple of friends that evening set up Arnold, telling him I had an uncle named Mr. Duncan who ‘wasn’t quite right’ and who might show up. ‘Just be kind to him and he won’t bother anyone,’ they said.

“About a half hour later, I showed up as ‘Uncle Duncan’ at the sliding glass doors off the den of our condominium. I said, ‘I’m here to see Mr. Arnold Palmer,’ and when he came to the door, I said — disguising my voice and acting strange — ‘Mr. Palmer, I hear you are a great golfer.’ Arnold had visited many hospitals over the years, so he was very sympathetic to ‘Uncle Duncan.’

“I had him hook, line, and sinker for about ten minutes until there was laughter in the den. Then I took off my mask, and he said, ‘You S.O.B.’ ”

HAPP LATHROP, Irmo

Executive director, S.C. Golf Association

“Arnold was always willing to help out the SCGA when we were raising money for our projects. One year I had bought some stuff for our Hootie and the Blowfish Monday After the Masters event that raises money for junior golf, including a couple of prints of him, and I needed to get him to sign those. So I packed up the prints along with two copies of our event program and a magazine article which talked about the S.C. Junior Golf Foundation and its mission.

“When I got the package in the mail, Arnold had signed everything, every document — including the event programs and the magazine, and the two prints — and mailed them back to us.”

RANDY GLOVER, Mount Pleasant

Glover, 67 and eight-time winner of the South Carolina Open, played six years on the PGA Tour during the 1960s with Palmer. Glover teaches golf at Pine Forest Country Club in Summerville and at the Naval Weapons Station course in Charleston.

“The first time I was ever paired with him was the Texas Open in San Antonio in 1963. I was so scared, all I could think about was not killing anyone with my drive on the first tee.

“The first hole, I hit a 3-wood that was just about perfect, and then I found myself just watching him. Instead of playing my own game, I’m watching Arnold Palmer. He holes out his second shot at the par-4 seventh hole for eagle, and I said to myself, ‘Wait a minute, Randy, you’re in this, too.’ So I shot 67 and made a hole-in-one on the par-3 last hole. I think he shot 69 or 70.

“He pretty much adopted my daughter, Wendy. He just took up with her. I took the family to Bay Hill (site of the Arnold Palmer Invitational), and after that, any time she was at a tournament he was in, he’d take her inside the ropes, in the clubhouse; he was just great to her. She’s 37 now, lives in Savannah, and still loves him to death, still a big Arnie fan.”

BILLY POTEAT, Columbia

A Wake Forest graduate, Poteat, 65, taught at the USC School of Medicine before starting Pro’s Yardage Caddy, which creates yardage books and scorecards for golf courses. He won the 1983 Carolinas Open Championship, and serves as rules official each year for the Fairway Outreach City Tournament.

“A golf exhibition in 1953 or 1954 at the old Paschal Golf Club, a nine-hole course in the town of Wake Forest, is my first memory of being in ‘The King’s’ presence. This was after he returned to Wake Forest University for his final season after getting out of the Coast Guard (where Palmer served during the Korean War). “A vivid memory was at the Legget & Myers Match Play Championship at the Country Club of North Carolina in 1971. I was on the ropes at the first tee with my mom and my wife, and Arnie was waiting for the fairway to clear. He came over our way, and Mom says, ‘Go ahead and speak to him, he’s looking at you. Tell him you went to Wake, too.’ Well, I could’ve died, but Mom spoke right up, and Arnie had some nice words and a good laugh with us.

“In the 1990s was the first time I got to spend some time with him at a Wake Forest alumni party the Thursday of the Masters. I was there with my brother and his son, who also graduated from Wake, and we had a grand talk with Arnie — that’s when he told us he had avoided the class taught by my granddad, who was a Latin professor at Wake. The picture of the four of us hangs above my desk and is one of my most treasured keepsakes.

“I love and admire the guy, and next to my dad and a couple of others, he’s the guy I most admire and would have liked to have patterned my life after.”

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