Arnold Palmer | |
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— Golfer — | |
Palmer in September 2009
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Personal information | |
Full name | Arnold Daniel Palmer |
Nickname | The King |
Born |
Latrobe, Pennsylvania |
September 10, 1929
Died |
September 25, 2016 (aged 87) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
Height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) |
Weight | 185 lb (84 kg) |
Nationality | United States |
Residence | Latrobe, Pennsylvania Orlando, Florida |
Spouse | Winifred Walzer Palmer (1934–99) (m. 1954–99, her death) Kathleen Gawthrop (m. 2005–16, his death) |
Children | 2 daughters |
Career | |
College | Wake Forest College |
Turned professional | 1954 |
Retired | 2006 |
Former tour(s) |
PGA Tour Senior PGA Tour |
Professional wins | 95 |
Number of wins by tour | |
PGA Tour | 62 (5th all time) |
European Tour | 2 |
PGA Tour of Australasia | 2 |
PGA Tour Champions | 10 |
Best results in major championships (wins: 7) |
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Masters Tournament | Won: 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964 |
U.S. Open | Won: 1960 |
The Open Championship | Won: 1961, 1962 |
PGA Championship | T2: 1964, 1968, 1970 |
Achievements and awards | |
World Golf Hall of Fame | 1974 (member page) |
PGA Tour leading money winner |
1958, 1960, 1962, 1963 |
PGA Player of the Year | 1960, 1962 |
Vardon Trophy | 1961, 1962, 1964, 1967 |
Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year |
1960 |
Bob Jones Award | 1971 |
Old Tom Morris Award | 1983 |
PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award |
1998 |
Payne Stewart Award | 2000 |
Presidential Medal of Freedom |
2004 |
Congressional Gold Medal | 2009 |
Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and the circuit now known as PGA Tour Champions. Nicknamed The King, he was one of golf's most popular stars and its most important trailblazer, the first superstar of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s.
Palmer's social impact on behalf of golf was perhaps unrivaled among fellow professionals; his humble background and plain-spoken popularity helped change the perception of golf as an elite, upper-class pastime to a more populist sport accessible to middle and working classes. Palmer was part of "The Big Three" in golf during the 1960s, along with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, who are widely credited with popularizing and commercializing the sport around the world.
In a career that spanned more than six decades, he won 62 PGA Tour titles from 1955 to 1973, placing him at that time behind only Sam Snead and Ben Hogan, and still fifth on the Tour's all-time victory list. He collected seven major titles in a six-plus-year domination, from the 1958 Masters to the 1964 Masters. He also won the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, and in 1974 was one of the 13 original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Palmer was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a working-class steel mill town, the son of Doris (Morrison) and Milfred Jerome "Deacon" Palmer. He learned golf from his father, who had suffered from polio at a young age and was head professional and greenskeeper at Latrobe Country Club, allowing young Arnold to accompany his father as he maintained the course.