Arnold Palmer
Arnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmeris a retired American professional golfer, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in professional golf history. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955. Nicknamed "The King", he is one of golf's most popular stars and its most important trailblazer, because he was the first superstar of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGolfer
Date of Birth10 September 1929
CityLatrobe, PA
CountryUnited States of America
Winning is a drive, it's a thing that you feel like when I go to bed at night I go to sleep.
My father started on this golf course at Latrobe when he was sixteen years old. He was digging ditches when they were building the golf course.
I started [flying] by being scared. When I was an amateur I played a couple tournaments and I had to fly, and got into weather and stuff, and it scared me, and I decided that would not work, I had to learn to fly, I had to find out about airplanes and aeronautical engineering and what it was all about.
I love America. I wanted to play golf.
I worked for dad on the grounds and I was in high school and I said I wanted to go to college, and he said, well, you figure it out. He said I will pay for your college but you're going to go to St. Vincent. St. Vincent College right here. That's about as much as I can afford, you work here, right here at home. I said, what if I can get somewhere else? And he said if I can get there, that's your call.
If you can concentrate on what you're doing and have the desire to do the things you have to do to win, you'll succeed.
I was playing cowboys and Indians in the trees, and then I started hitting the golf club with clubs father sawed off for me, and I began playing right here with my father.
I was the first son and first child. When my sister came along, well, she was two years younger, and I had to go to the golf course because my mother couldn't handle all the action going on. So I came with father to the golf course since I was a year and a half old and I spent the day with him here, and it worked in naturally. And it was fun for me being with my father, and doing things that a kid did it was great.
I wanted to emulate my father. I wanted to be as tough as he was. I wanted to do the things that he did. I watched him.
I was born in 1929, that was the depression, so the golf course was manned by my father and two guys, they worked for my dad and they took me with them everywhere they went. And it was fun.
That's another thing about my father. He made me very conscious of the fact I wasn't very good and I had to prove to him that I was good. And that hung with me, and I always wanted to play golf with him and show him. He said Never, Never tell anyone how good you are. Show them!
I think the guys are more conscious of the fact that being in good physical condition under the conditions that they play will make them better players.
All the things that I have derived either directly or indirectly through the game of golf are things I owe a great deal to the game and to the people who support the game.
I played high school golf, I played amateur golf and I started getting officers. I was playing pretty good, won amateur tournaments as a junior, and the whole thing.