His Army Will Always March On

I published this post below, simply entitled "The King",  on February 25, 2012.  Sadly, the tribute contemplated therein will never come to pass.   Good night, sweet King, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest, where the fairways are  eternally lush and the greens always putt true.  God Bless You, Arnold Palmer. Your Army will always march on!

*****

The King

While the golfer of today could not have been present at the creation of the game of golf, many of us were witness to the birth of the modern game.  For many golfers, the ritual of the modern game, the shared sense of community with millions of other golfers, has lifted golf to a level higher than a game, if not to the level of a religious experience.   Every religion has its spiritual leader.  From the Pope to the Dalai Lama, most religions seem to focus their mantle of authority on one person.  Golf's spiritual leader is also its secular leader and King, a rare combination in modern times that does not also involve totalitarian rule.  Golf’s King, of course, is none other than Arnold Palmer.

The King

            When I was a young boy the best golfer on the planet was Arnold Palmer. I was too young then to appreciate the historic extent of his contribution to the game.  And while perhaps not the greatest player in golf history, he might have been the most important one, because he was the steward of the game of golf from its roots as a limited, country club experience to the mass exposure and popularity the modern game enjoys today. 

            Not only were his skills great, his personality and charisma also made him a swashbuckling golf hero to many fans who were just beginning to understand and play the game.  Not one to sit on a lead, Arnie would charge from behind, hitting shots out of impossible lies with an aggressive, powerful  swing that finished with a curious, high twist (not a finish you would teach to a youngster nowadays).  Once his swing was done, Arnie would hitch up his trousers and lead a charge down the fairway and up  to the top of the leaderboard, as Arnie’s Army followed and cheered every shot, urging him to “charge” toward victory.   (Arnie’s Army is hard to fathom today.  Huge crowds would follow Palmer around the course, cheering their hero as he boldly shot his way around the course.  Woe betide those fans, and sometimes competitors, who stood in the Army’s way.  Other golfers popular at the time had their following, complete with alliteration, like Lee’s Fleas (for Lee Trevino.)  But nothing topped Arnie’s Army.   Back then, keeping with the trend, what would Tiger’s gallery have been named, Tigers' Tails?  (Oops, better not go there.)

Not The King

            The modern equivalent of Arnie’s Army might have been the crowds who in the past followed Tiger Woods.  I attended his AT&T event in Washington several years ago, waiting at a green a few holes ahead of his playing group.  As he played closer, the fans began to move along ahead of him, like a rising tide gradually pushing waves higher up the beach, that ebbed once he had played the hole and moved on, leaving the same, diminutive crowd around the green, like beached seaweed or sun-bleached driftwood, to watch the rest of the professionals play through in Tiger’s wake.  How things change.

            Arnie pulled off what is arguably the most famous come-from-behind win in golf history at the 1960 U.S. Open, coming from seven strokes (and 14 players) behind at the start of the final round to beat a 21-year old amateur named Jack Nicklaus, “The Hawk” Ben Hogan, the leader Mike Souchak and other notables.  Arnie also won the 1960 Masters Tournament by coming from behind and birdieing the last two holes to move past Ken Venturi to victory.   (Venturi would cement his place in golf legend by winning the 1964 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club, playing 36 holes in blistering 100-degree heat and humidity on the final day, wracked by heat exhaustion and dehydration, nearly dying in the process. The picture of him trudging down a steamy Congressional fairway with a wet towel draped over his head on the last day is a sports classic.)

            Both Palmer victories corresponded to the burgeoning growth of sports in general and golf in particular on television.  The year 1954 marked the first national television coverage of the U.S. Open. CBS began its television coverage of the Masters in 1956, and added coverage of the PGA Championship in 1958.   And the classic Wide World of Sports television show, bringing you the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and the human drama of athletic competition, began broadcasting in 1961, bringing clips of the Open Championship to America before ABC began broadcasting the tournament in America in 1966.

            Overall, Arnie finished with 92 professional victories, 62 of them coming on the PGA tour, the fifth-highest total all-time.  He won 7 majors, donning the Green Jacket four times, the British Open two  times and the US Open once.  He won the U.S. Amateur in 1954, and five majors on the Senior Tour.  Palmer never won the PGA Championship, but as a consolation prize he has had a delicious beverage named after him, as well as receiving the adulation of millions of golf fans.    

The Drink Of Champions

            But the numbers, as impressive as they are, simply don’t tell the story, because the telegenic, personable and hard-charging Palmer burst into the homes and hearts of the golfing world, and became one of the most famous (and wealthy, due to his commercial endorsements) athletes in the world, while at the same time ushering the game of golf into the modern era and simultaneously into the Golden Age of the game.  It can be argues that, as a result of his popularity, the game of golf experienced a boom during the decade of the 1960s that it has not experienced either before or since.  According to research conducted by the National Golf Foundation, approximately 3,800 golf courses were built in the ‘60’s, a good four-iron more than in any decade since and almost a quarter of the number of courses that exist today.   Perhaps most telling, the courses built in the 1960s were mostly affordable public courses, not the high-end, daily-fee courses you see being built nowadays.  The common man, inspired by his hero Arnold Palmer, now could hitch his own pants and storm around the local golf course, unlike in prior eras.  And he did so in droves, with the growth rate of golfers calculated by the NGF to be three to five times higher in the 1960s than in any decade since.

            Not satisfied with being the Father of the Modern Game, Palmer was the impetus for the creation of the Senior Tour (known as the Champions Tour since 2002) as well.  Arnie’s presence alone guaranteed crowds at the early Seniors events, events that most older golfers avoided like the plague, not wanting to be associated with “geezer golf”.  Arnie thrived on the Senior Tour, winning five senior majors.  The Senior Tour thrives today, thanks in large part to Arnold Palmer.

            Part of his aura was his confidence and his positive approach to the game.  As Arnie said in his book, Go For Broke, “"Yes. You must play boldly to win. My whole philosophy has been based on winning tournaments, not on finishing a careful fifth, or seventh, or tenth." The next quote summed his philosophy to a tee, if you’ll pardon the pun:  Asked about taking a reckless shot, (which to most golfing mortals he would do on a regular basis) he said “In 18 years of tournament golf I feel I've never tried a shot I couldn't make."  Most athletes have an unswerving belief in their abilities; the great ones are correct in their assessment of the extent of their own abilities, and Arnie was one of the greats.

            As is the case with the passage of time and the laser-like focus on the “now” by the media and most of us regular humans, Palmer, now that he no longer plays the game on any tour and has receded gently out of the spotlight, does not seem to get the tremendous acclaim or credit that he should for his leading golf into the enormous popularity it enjoys today.    Even his well-chronicled bout with mortality and prostate cancer did not seem to bring him the awards and encomia he most assuredly deserved.  Being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this nation’s highest civilian honor, one of only two golfers to receive this prestigious award (Jack Nicklaus is the other), while remarkable, just doesn’t seem enough.

            While America seems to have a nasty habit of waiting for its stars to die before heaping the proper acclaim on their heroes, I don't want golf fans to make the same mistake here.  There will never be another Arnold Palmer, so let’s give The King his proper due, today, although the following suggestion hardly meets the standard of the tribute he truly deserves.    (Someone with a lot more juice than me – read:  just about anybody)  will have to organize the following tribute, but here’s the concept:

And A Great Humanitarian

            Rent a golf course, with a finishing hole built for a huge gallery.  We have one right here in the D.C. area, TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm (nee TPC at Avenel).  It would be perfect in every way.  The course was originally crafted as a perfect stadium golf facility, designed for hosting a PGA Tour event.  It was taken off the market for a few years, refurbished and reopened in 2009 to entice a tournament back to the place.  And the course would bring back fond memories for Arnie.  The King made back-to-back aces on the par-three third hole prior to the start of the 1986 Chrysler Cup. During a practice round on Tuesday, Palmer, the captain of the U.S. team, made a hole-in-one with a five-iron on the then 182-yard hole. The next day was the pro-amateur event and Palmer, again using a five-iron, made a one -- the first time that back-to-back aces were recorded on any professional tour.

          Make a day of it.  You could sell 25,000 tickets easily at $100 a pop in this golf-crazed market.  Cover expenses- the rest goes to charity.  (Make sure to include one of Arnie’s causes in his amazing network of charities as a beneficiary.)  Sell the rights to the highest bidder, who could run the tribute until the end of time on its video channel.  The entire event would be great for a good cause, honoring a man who truly deserves it – unlike most modern athletes, he has never done anything to insult or besmirch either his reputation or the integrity of the game.             

           Open the gates at 10:00 am.  Set up skills demonstrations by any pro that wants to be there.  Import some of Arnie’s contemporaries.  Fly in Jack, Lee, Gary, Tom, all the legends.  Set up video screens with the highlights of his career all over the course.  Set up the food tents, beverage tents, tchochke tents and of course, the air-conditioned corporate tents.

Our Arnie Marches On

          Later in the day, move to the live testimonials.  And then as the sun slowly sinks to the horizon and crepuscule sets in (more on the French motif in a second), cue the lights and lasers for a brilliant son et lumiere spectacular.  Line the fairway with all the spectators and turn everyone’s attention to the top of the hill of the 18^th fairway.  The spotlight shines, and there in the light is Arnie, the King, hell, the Emperor, alone at the top of the hill against the setting sun, save for his chosen family member on his bag.  Let Arnie wave to his adoring fans, then begin the long stroll down the 18^th fairway slowly, down to the green in the stadium setting, ringed by a raucous sea of golfing humanity.  Let Arnie’s Army, in full throat, 25,000 strong, raise their voices to the sky and cheer their leader one more exultant time.  Let the acclaim of the crowd roll over him like the Pacific surf as he stands on the green embraced by his fans once again, the noise settling on him with Nature’s grace,  like dew on the grass on a cool summer morning in Latrobe, PA.  Then, let the choirs sing out his everlasting praise.

The Battle Hymn Of The Re-Publinx

(Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe)

Mine eyes have seen the glory

of the coming of his horde

They are tramping down the fairways

Where the King of Golf has scored

He hath hitched his fateful trousers

on his terrible swift charge,

His Army marches on.

Chorus:

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His Army marches on.

I have seen him as he's cheered on

by ten thousand circling fans,

he has builded Golf, the modern game

as one of its great champs

We could guess his righteous scoring

by the din of roaring fans;

His Army marches on.

Chorus:

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His Army marches on.

I have known of Arnie's gospel

Writ in burnished irons of steel

Arnie has so few condemners,

Because his grace is real;

Let the golfers born of woman

regard him as the ideal;

His Army marches on.

Chorus:

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His Army marches on.

He has always played a golf game

that never sounded a retreat;

While graying hair means higher scores

his legend grows replete.

Oh! Be swift, my soul to answer him,

be jubilant, my feet!

Our King is marching on.

Chorus:

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His Army marches on.

(Solemnly now)

In the beauty of St. Andrews

Golf was born across the sea

With a glory in Her bosom

Golf transfigures you and me;

As he played to make golf holy

let us sing on the first tee,

While Arnie marches on:

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Our Arnie marches on.

AMDG

 Copyright R.E. Kelly 2012

A Well Deserved Honor

During a period of time when the negative side of race relations is dominating the headlines, it is nice to note a positive bit of news on that front.  On November 24, 2014, eighteen civilians, including World Golf Hall of Famer Charlie Sifford, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.  To those of you who may not be entirely familiar with Mr. Sifford, here is his bio produced by the White House for the ceremony:

Charles Sifford

Charles Sifford was a professional golfer who helped to desegregate the Professional Golfers’ Association, despite harassment and death threats. He started his life on the links as a caddy, and though he was formally excluded from the PGA for much of his career because of the color of his skin, he won six National Negro Opens. In 1960, he won his challenge over the PGA’s “Caucasian only” membership policy. He went on to win official PGA events and the PGA Seniors’ Championship. He was inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004 and received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of St. Andrews in 2006.

Golf's Jackie Robinson

(The official PGA events won by Sifford were the 1967 Greater Hartford Open Invitational and the 1969 Los Angeles Open, as well as the 1975 PGA Seniors' Championship and the 1980 Suntree Classic on what is now the Champions Tour.)  Sifford was the only sports figure to receive the award in this year’s ceremony. 

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.  Prior to Sifford, only two golfers, Arnold Palmer in 2004 and Jack Nicklaus in 2005, had been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

At the end of the ceremony, the President described the gifts that these extraordinary individuals have given to the American people:

"We thank all of them for the gifts they’ve given to us, the incredible performances, the incredible innovation, the incredible ideas, and the incredible expressions of the human spirit. And not only have they made the world better, but by following their example, they make us a little bit better every single day." 

Now, the cynical among you might be thinking, “ “It must have been extremely difficult for him, but thank goodness Charlie Sifford broke the color barrier like Jackie Robinson did in baseball to open the way for today’s African-American pro golfers like Tiger Woods, and, uh, and…”  The fact that the number of African-American golfers who currently own a tour card is less than the number of wedges carried in most pros’ bags offers a depressing commentary on the status of golf in America in 2014.  According to this amazing article by Michael Bamberger in Golf.com, entitled “Where Are all The Black Golfers?”,

“ At the 2012 PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship, the winning squads from the men's and women's draws (Texas Pan-American and Bethune-Cookman, respectively) didn't have a single black golfer on their rosters.” (!!!)  

Perhaps even more striking, the 2014 U.S. Open, America’s national golf championship, did not have a single African-American participant.

The provenance of the de facto segregation in the sport is largely economic, as it is the country clubs, they of the expensive membership fees and not the publinx, that produce almost all the college golfers who eventually end up on tour. But the dearth of black golf pros was not the case after Sifford broke the color line in 1960.  In the mid-1980s, Calvin Peete and Jim Thorpe combined for 15 tour wins. Black pioneers such as Pete Brown, Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder preceded them, each enjoying success.  In 1964, Pete Brown became the first African-American player to win a PGA-sanctioned event, the Waco Turner Open. He also won the 1970 Andy Williams San Diego Invitational. In 1975, Lee Elder became the first African-American to play in the Masters. He missed the cut, but went on to win four times on the PGA Tour and eight times on the Champions Tour.  He was also the first African-American to play in the Ryder Cup in (1979).

In 1979, Calvin Peete won the 1979 Greater Milwaukee Open, the first of his 12 career PGA Tour victories. Peete was the most prolific African-American winner until Tiger Woods.  Other notable African-American pros were Jim Dent (he won 12 Senior/Champions Tour 
tournaments between 1989 and 1998).

Thank You, Charlie

It was the rise of the golf cart hegemony and the death of the caddie in golf that ended opportunities for black folk like Sifford to learn the game.  Almost all of the aforementioned golfers learned their trade by caddying.  Now that caddies have gone the way of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus to its friends), opportunities to learn the game no longer exist for those that cannot afford the membership fees at country clubs or the greens fees at tony daily-fee courses.  So the Tour remains for the most part lily-white, and the promise of increased numbers of minority golfers offered by the early success of Tiger Woods remains a pipe dream.

 

AMDG^TM

© 2012-14 R.E. Kelly