50 Fun Facts About Arnold Palmer

Arnold Palmer was born in which Pennsylvania steel town?

His father Deacon was head professional and greenskeeper at the local country club, which Palmer bought outright in 1971.

Palmer attended which college on a golf scholarship?

He left after the death of his close friend Bud Worsham and returned to finish his college golf career after military service.

In which branch of the US military did Palmer serve from 1951 to 1954?

While stationed at Cape May, New Jersey, he built a nine-hole course to keep his game sharp.

Which 1954 title did Palmer call 'the turning point in my life' before turning pro?

He won it in Detroit, quit his job selling paint and announced on November 17 that he was turning professional.

What job did Palmer quit in 1954 before playing the Waite Memorial?

He then played the Waite Memorial in Shawnee-on-Delaware, where he met his future wife Winifred Walzer.

Which event gave Palmer his first PGA Tour win as a rookie in 1955?

The win was worth $2,400; his first Masters cheque three years later was $11,250.

How many PGA Tour titles did Palmer win between 1955 and 1973?

That leaves him fifth all-time behind Sam Snead, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan.

How many major championships did Palmer win?

All seven came in a six-year burst from the 1958 Masters to the 1964 Masters.

Which major was the only one Palmer never won?

He finished a tie for seventh in the 1960 edition, two weeks after his Grand Slam bid ended at St Andrews.

How many times did Palmer win the Masters?

He won in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964, always with the same Augusta National caddie on his bag.

Who caddied for Palmer in every one of his Masters victories?

Augusta National required all players to use the club's own caddies at the time.

Which pioneering agent signed Palmer as his first client around 1960?

McCormack listed Palmer's looks, modest background, risk-taking style, TV finishes and affability as the five things that made him marketable.

Palmer lost the 1960 Open at St Andrews by a single shot to which golfer?

He shot 70-71-70-68, which he called the four best rounds of his career, and returned to win the next two Opens.

Whose 1953 feat of winning the Masters, U.S. Open and Open in one year was Palmer chasing in 1960?

Hogan's 1953 trip had also been the first time in years that a top American bothered to cross the Atlantic for the Open.

Palmer won his first Open in 1961 at which course?

He beat Dai Rees by a stroke in a week of gales and rain, becoming the first American to lift the Claret Jug since Ben Hogan in 1953.

Palmer's only U.S. Open win, in 1960, came at which course?

The Colorado course sits more than 5,300 feet above sea level, which helped him drive the green on the par-4 first.

How many strokes behind did Palmer start the final round of the 1960 U.S. Open?

He was tied for 15th, birdied six of the first seven holes and shot 65 to beat amateur Jack Nicklaus by two.

Who led the 1960 U.S. Open by seven shots after 54 holes before Palmer overtook him?

He shot a final-round 75 and slid to a tie for third while Palmer fired a 65.

What score did Palmer shoot in the final round of the 1960 U.S. Open?

He drove the first green, chipped in at the second and was six under on the front nine before cooling off.

Who beat Palmer in the 1966 U.S. Open playoff after erasing a seven-shot deficit on the back nine?

Palmer had been eyeing Hogan's scoring record at the turn, then shot 39 coming home; the playoff was his third U.S. Open playoff loss.

The 1966 U.S. Open collapse happened at which San Francisco venue?

It was played on the Lake Course, which had also ended in a playoff in 1955.

Which two players did Palmer beat in the 18-hole playoff for the 1962 Masters?

Palmer shot 68 to Player's 71 and Finsterwald's 77, with first, second and third places all decided by the playoff.

Who were the runners-up, one stroke back, when Palmer won his first Masters in 1958?

Palmer eagled the 13th on Sunday after a disputed embedded-ball ruling at the 12th went his way.

Which phrase did writer Herbert Warren Wind coin describing the 1958 Masters Palmer won?

The Sports Illustrated piece used it for the stretch of holes where the final day's drama had unfolded.

What was Palmer's fan following famously called?

His charitable foundation later took the same name and funded a children's hospital and a nature reserve.

In which year did Palmer become the first golfer to pass $1,000,000 in PGA Tour career earnings?

He had won 29 tour events between 1960 and 1963 alone, including five majors.

Which two rivals made up 'The Big Three' with Palmer in the 1960s?

The trio reunited as Masters honorary starters in 2012, when Player joined Palmer and Nicklaus on the first tee.

How many times did Palmer win the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average?

He took it in 1961, 1962, 1964 and 1967.

In which year was Palmer the Ryder Cup's last playing captain?

He played on six Ryder Cup teams and captained again as a non-player in 1975; the US won every time he was involved.

Palmer's 2004 Masters was his last and marked how many consecutive appearances?

He went on to serve as the tournament's honorary starter from 2007 until his death.

Palmer's Bay Hill Club and Lodge, home of his PGA Tour invitational, is in which city?

He first visited the city during a college match in 1948 and later spent his winters there.

What does the winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational receive in his memory?

The tradition began in 2017, the first edition after his death; Palmer himself won the event's forerunner in 1971.

Which television network did Palmer help to found?

He also negotiated the deal to build the first golf course in the People's Republic of China.

Palmer built one of the first golf courses in which communist country?

The course at Henry Fok's Zhongshan Hot Springs Hotel was among more than 300 Palmer designs on five continents.

Who was Palmer's long-time golf course design partner?

Palmer Course Design was formed in 1972 and renamed the Arnold Palmer Design Company when it moved to Florida in 2006.

The Arnold Palmer drink mixes iced tea with what?

Palmer himself preferred three parts unsweetened tea to one part of it; the bottled version uses half and half.

Adding vodka to an Arnold Palmer produces a cocktail named after which golfer?

The tequila version is called a Lee Trevino or Juan Daly.

Which brand has bottled and distributed the Arnold Palmer drink since 2002?

Palmer's picture and signature appear on the can; Chick-fil-A sells its own version as 'Sunjoy'.

Palmer said the drink's name spread after a woman copied his order in which city in the late 1960s?

He told the story in a 2012 ESPN 30 for 30 short; at Augusta National he would simply order 'a Mr. Palmer'.

Palmer is name-checked by a caddie in which James Bond film?

The line — 'If that's his original ball, I'm Arnold Palmer' — comes during the golf match with the villain.

Palmer was the first golfer to receive which honour, in 2004?

Five years later he became the second golfer, after Byron Nelson, to get the Congressional Gold Medal.

Roughly how many hours of flight time did Palmer log as a pilot?

He took up flying to conquer a fear of it and flew his Cessna Citation X for the last time in January 2011.

Which airfield was renamed for Palmer on his 70th birthday in 1999?

He grew up less than a mile from its runway and watched the world's first official airmail pickup there in 1939.

Which car brand's dealership did Palmer buy in Charlotte with partners in 1974?

He had earlier been a Lincoln-Mercury brand ambassador; the Charlotte store was sold to Sonic Automotive in 2011.

Palmer and O.J. Simpson were both spokesmen for which rental-car company?

Palmer also endorsed cigarettes during his career before reversing course and campaigning against smoking.

Which US president, a personal friend, gave Palmer one of his own paintings as a birthday present?

Palmer's daughter Peggy described her father as a Goldwater Republican who declined repeated invitations to run for office.

Palmer's grandson Sam Saunders, a pro golfer, revealed Palmer's family nickname was what?

Saunders won the Bay Hill club championship at 15 and turned pro in 2008 after playing at Clemson.

Palmer was one of how many original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974?

He added the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.

Palmer's estate at his death in 2016 was valued at roughly how much?

It was split between his daughters, his second wife, eight employees and his charity, Arnie's Army, which received $10 million.

Less than a week after Palmer's death, which event held a tribute to him at Hazeltine?

His 1975 captain's bag was placed on the first tee, and the US team later brought the trophy to his memorial service.