Arnold Palmer
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
50 free Arnold Palmer trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Arnold Palmer learned golf from his greenskeeper father at Latrobe Country Club, served three years in the Coast Guard, won the 1954 U.S. Amateur and then turned a working-class game face and a go-for-broke swing into the first superstar career of golf's television age. He won seven majors between 1958 and 1964, became the first player to earn a million dollars on tour, dragged American pros back to the Open Championship and built an empire of courses, dealerships, a hospital and a drink that carries his name. This quiz covers the playing record and the life around it: the Cherry Hills charge from seven back, the Masters wins with Iron Man Avery on the bag, the playoff heartbreaks at the U.S. Open, the Ryder Cup captaincies, Mark McCormack and the birth of sports marketing, Bay Hill, the Golf Channel, the first course in China, the pilot's licence, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the estate he left behind. Fifty questions with four options each and a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for the clubhouse.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Arnold Palmer grew up in which Pennsylvania steel town?
Latrobe
Latrobe Country Club, where his father was greenskeeper and pro, let young Arnold on the course only when members were away. In 1971 he bought the club.
Q 02Palmer attended which college on a golf scholarship?
Wake Forest
Wake Forest drew him because his friend Bud Worsham played there. When Worsham died in a car crash, a distraught Palmer quit school and enlisted.
Q 03In which branch of the US military did Palmer serve for three years?
Coast Guard
Coast Guard duty in Cleveland left his weekends free for tournaments. Palmer later said the three years matured him and had a lot to do with his success in golf.
Q 04Which 1954 title did Palmer call 'the turning point in my life' before turning pro?
U.S. Amateur
U.S. Amateur glory was a class upset: the greenskeeper's son beat Robert Sweeny, a millionaire socialite and former British Amateur champion, 1 up in the final.
Q 05What job did Palmer give up in 1954, shortly before turning professional?
Selling paint
Selling paint ended for good that autumn. At his next tournament he met Winnie Walzer on a Tuesday and asked her to marry him that Saturday.
Q 06Which event gave Palmer his first PGA Tour win as a rookie in 1955?
Canadian Open
Canadian Open: holding a big lead, the rookie hooked a drive into the trees and, rather than chip out safely, fired an iron through a narrow gap onto the green. He won by four strokes.
Q 07Whose tournament gave Palmer the last of his 62 PGA Tour wins?
Bob Hope
Bob Hope's Desert Classic ended an 18-month drought for Palmer in 1973: he holed a birdie putt on the final green to clinch it and sent his visor sailing into the crowd.
Q 08How many major championships did Palmer win?
7
7 majors, all won between the 1958 and 1964 Masters. An eighth was his for the taking in 1966, when he led the U.S. Open by seven strokes with nine holes to play and lost.
Q 09Which major was the only one Palmer never won?
PGA Championship
PGA Championship: the man credited with dreaming up the modern Grand Slam in 1960 never completed his own. He finished second in this one three times.
Q 10What nickname did golf give Arnold Palmer?
The King
The King was a title he shared with Elvis, and it came from popularity more than records: his charisma turned golf into a mass television sport.
Q 11Who caddied for Palmer in every one of his Masters victories?
Nathaniel Avery
Nathaniel Avery, known as Iron Man, was one of the first caddies reporters sought out for a quote. Yet after his death in 1985 his grave lay unmarked until a headstone was placed in 2019.
Q 12Which pioneering agent signed Palmer as his first client around 1960?
Mark McCormack
Mark McCormack, a Cleveland lawyer, sealed the deal with nothing more than a handshake. The agency it launched, IMG, grew into a giant of sports management.
Q 13Palmer lost the 1960 Open at St Andrews by a single shot to which golfer?
Kel Nagle
Kel Nagle, a 39-year-old Australian, had never finished in the top ten of a major. With Palmer charging, he needed pars on the last two holes and made them.
Q 21Palmer's 1966 U.S. Open collapse came at which San Francisco venue?
Olympic Club
Olympic Club had done it before: at its first U.S. Open, in 1955, a little-known municipal-course pro named Jack Fleck beat the game's biggest name in a playoff.
Q 22Whom did Palmer beat over 18 extra holes to win the 1962 Masters?
Player and Finsterwald
Player and Finsterwald were major winners too, and Player led Palmer by three at the turn. Palmer then came home in 31 for a 68 and won by three.
Q 23Which playing partner never accepted the ruling that helped Palmer win the 1958 Masters?
Ken Venturi
Ken Venturi watched Palmer play a second ball at the 12th after his first plugged behind the green. Officials later let the par he made with it stand, and Venturi always called the ruling wrong.
Q 14Whose 1953 feat of winning the Masters, U.S. Open and Open in one year was Palmer chasing in 1960?
Ben Hogan
Ben Hogan could not try for a fourth: that year's remaining major overlapped with the Open. He won at Carnoustie on his only visit and never played the Open again.
Q 15Palmer won his first Open in 1961 at which course?
Royal Birkdale
Royal Birkdale still marks his week with a plaque: from thick rough at the foot of a bush, Palmer ripped a 6-iron 140 yards onto the green and went on to win by a shot.
Q 16Palmer's only U.S. Open win, in 1960, came at which course?
Cherry Hills
Cherry Hills: between rounds a sportswriter friend told Palmer he was too far back to win. Irritated, he went out and shot 65.
Q 17How did Palmer begin his 1960 U.S. Open charge?
Drove the first green
Drove the first green, a par 4, and two-putted for birdie. From seven shots back and tied for 15th, he birdied six of the first seven holes and won by two.
Q 18Palmer's arrival in 1980 helped launch which fledgling golf tour?
Senior PGA Tour
Senior PGA Tour organisers needed a star, and Palmer turned 50 just in time for its first season. He won ten of its events, five of them senior majors.
Q 19In 1976 Palmer set a speed record for flying a business jet where?
Around the world
Around the world in 57 hours, 25 minutes and 42 seconds: Palmer, who had first taken lessons to beat a fear of flying, set the class record in a Learjet.
Q 20Who beat Palmer in the 1966 U.S. Open playoff after erasing a seven-shot deficit on the back nine?
Billy Casper
Billy Casper trailed by seven with nine holes to play. Palmer admitted he stopped playing his rivals to chase the tournament's scoring record, came home in 39 and lost the playoff next day.
Q 24Which phrase did writer Herbert Warren Wind coin describing the 1958 Masters Palmer won?
Amen Corner
Amen Corner was Wind's label, taken, he said, from the title of a jazz record, for the 11th, 12th and 13th holes, where a disputed ruling and an eagle had decided the tournament.
Q 25What was Palmer's fan following famously called?
Arnie's Army
Arnie's Army drew the laborers, truck drivers and waitresses golf had never courted. Their numbers, on the course and in front of televisions, helped turn a country-club game into a mass sport.
Q 26Palmer was the first golfer to reach which PGA Tour milestone?
$1 million in earnings
$1 million in earnings on the course was the smaller part of his fortune: endorsements and business deals brought in far more, and kept him among golf's top earners long after he stopped winning.
Q 27Which two rivals made up 'The Big Three' with Palmer in the 1960s?
Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player
Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player shared Palmer's agent, and the three rivals were sold to the world as a set. They stayed close friends and are credited with spreading golf's popularity worldwide.
Q 28Palmer won which trophy for lowest scoring average four times?
Vardon Trophy
Vardon Trophy wins in 1961, 1962, 1964 and 1967 showed golf's great gambler was also its steadiest scorer. The award was created in 1937 to honour Harry Vardon, who died that year.
Q 29Which children's TV host was a year apart from Palmer at high school?
Fred Rogers
Fred Rogers learned his golf from Palmer's father, the professional at their hometown country club, who gave the future Mister Rogers lessons as he did his own son.
Q 30Which ceremonial Masters role did Palmer take up in 2007?
Honorary starter
Honorary starter duty means hitting the ceremonial first tee shot, a tradition that had lapsed until Palmer revived it. He had played 50 Masters in a row, the last in 2004 at 74.