By Guy Yocom
Arnold Palmer didn’t leave behind a tutorial on how to live the perfect golf life. Which is just as well, because his life and golf game could never be copied by rote anyway. To play the game as well as he did and look so good doing it, to be adored so thoroughly by the public and your peers, to have a lion-like command of every environment would make a how-to useless. To live Arnold’s lifestyle, have his wealth and influence, and build such a grand family—all the while avoiding the land mines most people face—it was too fantastic to be duplicated.

Arnold might not have written down the rules, but he shed a lot of clues along the way. From golf courses, grillrooms, boardrooms, banquet halls, pressrooms, exhibition tents and on TV, he revealed how to absorb and enjoy all the benefits the game can offer. And there has been nobody better at paying it forward. Here are 10 things we learned from Arnold, on and off the course.

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1. INVENT A SYSTEM, THEN OWN IT

Photo by Bob Gomel/The Life Images Collection/Getty Images
A simple Palmer gem: Turn the shoulders as far as they’ll go.

“System” in golf usually describes a connect-the-dots, full-swing method. To Arnold, it meant something else. “It’s a whole way of playing,” he said.

It included the fundamentals but also the intangibles, like how far you hit each iron, your tendencies on sideslopes and downslopes, how to play in the wind or to stay calm under pressure. Arnold thought a system could partially be taught but that it mainly was self-discovered. “When you saw me gripping and regripping the club on the tee and taking a bunch of waggles, I was thinking about how I was going to play the shot,” he said. “It was part of my system and was a lot better than dwelling on how important the situation was.”

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2. ALWAYS DRESS THE PART

Around the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Arnold was known to not wear socks with his loafers. On the flip side of this nontraditional style choice, he loathed beards, hats worn backward or indoors and shirts left untucked. He was a principled dresser and always a trendsetter. In the 1960s, he rocked a navy-blue cardigan like nobody else. In the ‘70s, he went with bat-wing collars and mod patterns, and in the ‘80s, hard-collar shirts with long plackets. Even in recent decades, his look commanded attention. He had quirks, too, favoring pink shirts and breaking out a new pair of golf shoes every week of competition. But he was basically old school. “The neatly appointed golfer,” he told Golf Digest in 2008, “is like a businessman or someone headed to church: He gives the impression he thinks the course and the people there are special.”

3. REMEMBER THE KIDS

The defining moment of a 2013 Golf Digest cover shoot with Arnold and supermodel Kate Upton had little to do with either celebrity. It was Arnold who brought the shoot to a halt while he bragged about the golf game of his granddaughter Anna Wears, then 16. How she drove it 240 yards, was breaking 80, was the most athletic of all the grandchildren, and on and on until photographer Walter Iooss Jr. had to ask Arnold to get back on his mark. Young people got Arnold’s attention. No athlete signed more autographs for young fans, endorsed more youth initiatives, put in more calls of support. A small example of his largesse: In 1984, when Arnold was turning down far more endorsements than he was accepting, he agreed to lend his name to P. Bryon Polakoff’s children’s book Arnold Palmer and the Golfin’ Dolphin. Then there’s the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, a highly regarded pediatric hospital that was a passion of Arnold’s since it opened in 1989. His foundation donates to many causes, but the common denominator is that they’re all for young people.

4. WALK, AND WALK SOME MORE

If for no other reason than he intensely disliked golf carts, it’s doubtful any human walked more miles on the course than Arnold. To him, it was as intrinsic to the game as swinging the club. He did it for health and enjoyment but also to help him play better. When physically-handicapped tour player Casey Martin went to court to be allowed to ride in PGA Tour events, Arnold reluctantly—but firmly—took a stand for walking. Arnold never voluntarily rode during competition as a senior and lobbied against the use of carts on the senior tour. He enjoyed incredible vitality for almost all of his 87 years. There are crazier notions than to assume walking had something to do with that.

5. A GOOD GRIP COMES FIRST

Butch Harmon has long maintained that the Vardon Trophy—a bronze-colored statue of two hands holding a club that goes to the PGA Tour player with the lowest scoring average—was modeled from a cast of Arnold’s grip. It is linear perfection, golf’s equivalent of a silhouetted Jerry West as the logo for the NBA. Arnold never denied or confirmed the rumor, but it’s true that for years, his grip was the envy of other players. Position-wise, neither hand shaded toward weak or strong, the Vs of both hands aiming at his right ear. Arnold was given the grip at age 3 by his father, along with the directive, “Don’t ever change it, boy.”

Photo by Walter Iooss Jr.

So gripping properly became second nature to Arnold, and he took immense pride in it. His grip was a perfect model for aspiring golfers a half century ago—and is to this day.

6. HIT THE BALL HARD

It started when he was 7, when a woman at Latrobe (Pa.) Country Club named Mrs. Fritz paid Arnold a nickel to drive her ball over a ditch on the sixth hole. For the next 80 years, Arnold rarely spared himself physically on any shot. The violence of his driver swing led to a balanced but contorted follow-through, and he took huge divots on iron shots. When Arnold played from a tree stump at the 1963 U.S. Open at Brookline, he sent splinters flying everywhere. He preached what he practiced: Keep the head still, turn the shoulders as far as they’ll go, and finish with the hands high above the left shoulder. But he also issued a warning: “Swinging all-out is good. Swinging beyond all-out usually leads to disaster.”

Photo by Bob Thomas/Getty Images
Legions of golfers copied Palmer’s go-for-broke style.

7. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DRIVER

Through good times and bad, Arnold’s game was married to the driver. He hit the most famous drive in the game’s history: a Herculean bomb on the par-4 first hole at Cherry Hills outside of Denver that found the green and fueled his victory at the 1960 U.S. Open. “When I drove the ball well, I was usually tough to beat because my game flowed off that,” he said. Hundreds of his drivers, persimmon and metal, line the shelves of a modified maintenance barn at Latrobe. Arnold was a powerful driver and wanted ordinary players to taste power, too. In 2000, he controversially backed a nonconforming driver.

8. ACCEPT THE GAME’S MYSTERIES

A dark counterpoint to Arnold’s driver blast at Cherry Hills was a series of snap-hooked tee shots on the back nine at the Olympic Club in the 1966 U.S. Open, which led to an incoming 39, a blown seven-shot lead, and the title going to Billy Casper. It wasn’t the only time Arnold’s game left him. He lost the 1961 Masters to Gary Player with a double bogey on the final hole. The lesson learned is, sometimes you lose your game, and there’s little you can do about it. “When the train leaves the tracks, it’s rare you can get it back on track again,” he told Golf Digest in 2007. “It’s very hard—impossible, really—to reverse your thinking and go back to the frame of mind you were in just a couple holes before. I’m not sure we’ll ever figure out an answer.”

9. IMITATE YOUR HEROES

Arnold’s swing model when he was a boy in the 1930s was Byron Nelson, and he pored over the instruction book Byron Nelson’s Winning Golf. When he finally met Nelson, who was already famous for his proficient ball-striking, Lord Byron’s sportsmanship and unfailing politeness gave Arnold even more to imitate. Later, a generation of young golfers copied Arnold’s pants-hitching, go-for-broke style. Today, when tour pros like Phil Mickelson sign hats and programs, they often mention they’re following Arnold’s lead.

10. GET IT TO THE HOLE

“The worst thing you can do is leave a putt short,” Arnold said. In his prime, he charged them all. In the final round of the 1960 Masters, he banged a birdie putt on No. 16 off the flagstick (which at the time could be left unattended). He then rammed home a 20-footer for birdie on 17, and rapped in a four-footer for another birdie at the last to win by a shot. That’s just one example of his aggressive putting. Even when the three-footers stopped falling late in his career, he defended his style. “Get the ball to the hole no matter what,” he said. “If you do that, you’ll at least give it a chance to go in, which, if I’m not mistaken, is the object of the game.” Simple, sound advice from The King.

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Led by Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders, those teeing off in succession at Bay Hill’s driving range on Wednesday were all asked to do their best imitation of Arnie’s famed follow-through. Check it out:

And here’s another angle from Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard:

Ceremonial tee shots at Bay Hill. pic.twitter.com/0dMEWjsU9R

— Rex Hoggard (@RexHoggardGC) March 14, 2018

Nicely done, everyone. But for our money, we’re going with Brandt Snedeker as the player who copied Palmer’s move best.

Arnold Palmer died on Sept. 25, 2016, at 87. This is the second year that the golf legend’s PGA Tour event is being played without him. In addition to this group ceremonial opening tee shot becoming a tournament tradition, the winner of the event also gets an “Arnie’s Army” red cardigan in Palmer’s honour

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By John Feinstein
Sam Saunders sat in the clubhouse early on a Tuesday morning. He was relaxed, clearly in a place where he felt comfortable. He exchanged greetings with players in the way one does when he is part of a club and is well-liked by the other members.

Saunders isn’t a star on the PGA Tour. He finished 148th on the FedEx Cup points list in 2016, giving him partial status for this past season. His goal for 2017 was simple: make the top 125 so he could take part in the playoffs for the first time and get fully exempt status for next season. He came up just short, finishing 129th.

“I turn 30 at the end of July,” he said in late June. “I honestly think I’m ready to play my best golf in my 30s. I’m still improving.”

In every way, Saunders is like many younger players on tour: He has worked hard and made a lot of progress to get where he is. And yet, he’s still a long way from where he wants to go.

There’s just one difference …

Ten minutes into the conversation on that late June day, the questioner brings up the name Arnold Palmer.

“I think,” Saunders says with a laugh, “that’s the longest I’ve ever gone in an interview without his name coming up.”

There’s no doubt that fact doesn’t bother him in the least. That wasn’t always the case, notably when he first turned pro and everything ever written about him said, “Sam Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer … “

“It was almost as if that was my full name,” he says. “Now, I’m happy to be identified that way. I’m very proud of it.”

Saunders still remembers the weekend when he first understood clearly who his grandfather was. He was 16, a talented junior golfer, and he had been invited to play in the Sunnehanna Amateur, a prestigious annual event in Johnstown, Pa.

“There were a lot of top guys playing,” Saunders says, the memory still bringing a smile. “Guys like Trip Kuehne and Nathan Smith—guys who’d been around the game and had a lot of success.

“Most of the field were guys older, more accomplished and more experienced than me. But they all came up, introduced themselves and wanted to talk. I was just a kid, a good junior player, nothing more. Of course they didn’t really want to talk to me. They wanted to talk about my granddad. They wanted to know everything possible about him. And to tell me how he had affected them at some point along the way.

“It was that weekend when it really hit me that he wasn’t just a great player—I already knew that—but he was truly an icon, something way beyond a major-championship winner.

Saunders paused for a moment. “I realised he was Arnold Palmer. There are plenty of guys who have won multiple major championships. There’s only one Arnold Palmer.”

Hunter Martin
Saunders won many fans with his memorable eulogy at the public memorial for Palmer.

Saunders knows he isn’t going to come close to being Arnold Palmer, or even Arnold Palmer. But since his grandfather’s death last Sept. 25, he has shown that he’s capable of keeping his legacy alive and moving forward.

His interviews in the days after Palmer’s death were clear-eyed, insightful and filled with emotion. His eulogy at the nationally televised memorial service blew people away. He spoke without notes and from the heart.

“Sam has always been comfortable with who he is and never made a big deal about being Mr. Palmer’s grandson,” says Ben Martin, Saunders’ college roommate at Clemson and one of his closest friends on tour. “But when I heard that eulogy, I was really impressed, even as someone who knew him.

“I mean … it was really something.”

Amy Saunders, younger daughter of Arnold and mother of Sam and his three older sisters, wasn’t surprised, either.

“We sat around as a family and talked about it,” she says. “What exactly should he say? What was really important? Finally we all looked at him and said, ‘Just speak from the heart. You do that, and you’ll be great.’ And that’s exactly what he did.”

• • •
LOSING BOTH GRANDFATHERS

Even though Palmer was 87 and had been dealing with a number of health problems and was in a Pittsburgh hospital for heart surgery, his death on that Sunday evening—five days before the Ryder Cup began—came as a shock to Saunders and his family.

“I talked to him that afternoon, about 4:30,” Sam says, voice softening. “Kelly [Saunders’ wife and mother of their two sons, Cohen and Robert Ace—whose name comes from Palmer’s nickname for Sam] reminded me that he was scheduled to have surgery and said I should call. He sounded fine. He told me he thought the surgery was going to help him feel better. I told him to call me after the surgery, and then I told him I loved him, and he told me he loved me. Funny thing is, we didn’t do that very often on the phone. I’m glad we did it that day.”

Four hours later, the phone rang. Saunders saw it was his father’s number. Sam had also spoken to Roy Saunders earlier that day and wasn’t expecting another call from him. After picking up the phone, he was filled with dread. “My dad was with his father, Bob Saunders—my other grandfather, who we all called Pop,” Sam says.

“He’d been sick for a long time. He was 87, too. When I picked up the phone I was afraid Dad was calling to tell me that Pop had died. Then he gave me the news.”

It was Dumpy—the name Sam and his older sisters had always called Arnold—who had passed away. A month later, Pop died, too, leaving Saunders with a huge void.

As stunned as he was by his father’s call, Sam knew he had work to do.

“My granddad had been preparing me for this for a while,” he said. “Remember, he was an old-school guy in every way. I was the youngest in my family, but he had told me repeatedly that when he was gone, I had to be the man of the family—especially when it came to golf, because I was the one playing the game professionally.

“I called all three of my sisters and said, ‘You have to make reservations right now and get to Pennsylvania to help Mom.’ When we all got up there, we agreed someone in the family had to speak. Everyone was looking at me. It was hard, really hard, but it wasn’t hard. I have so many memories of him.”

During his eulogy, Saunders told a story about calling his grandfather one day. “He always answered the same way: ‘Where are you?’ That day when he asked, I said, ‘I’m at home. Where are you?’ He said, ‘I’m with the president.’ I said, ‘The president of what?’ [Sam paused for laughter.] “He answered, as if it should be obvious: ‘The president of the United States. I’m in the Oval Office.’ “So I said, ‘Then why did you answer the phone?’ And he said, ‘Because I wanted to talk to you.’ “

Saunders paused again, this time to gather himself, and then said, “He always wanted to talk to me. He always wanted to talk to all of us.”

Chris Condon

• • •
THE BENEFITS AND THE WEIGHT OF A NAME

As he talked about his grandfather and that week in September, Saunders was about to start his preparation for the Quicken Loans National. His pre-tournament schedule wasn’t what you might expect for a player ranked 138th on the FedEx Cup points list at that moment.

He had played in a charity event on Monday, then visited the White House on Tuesday with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and a handful of players. They would be invited into the Oval Office and then to the private quarters of the building to spend some time with President Trump.

“I understand that, through the years I’ve definitely benefited because of who my grandfather was,” Saunders says. “I’ve gotten exemptions and invitations someone at my playing level might not get. That’s one reason I play in Monday pro-ams even if I don’t have to do it. I’ve come to understand how lucky I am to be his grandson.”

That wasn’t always the case. When Saunders first left Clemson, after three years, to turn pro, there were times when he bridled at the constant mentions of his heritage.

“It’s very hard to fail when people are watching you,” he says. “Especially when they know just who you are for reasons that really have nothing to do with who you are.”

He smiles. “I remember when it changed for me. I was playing somewhere on a sponsor’s exemption, and all three of us were well outside the cut line late on Friday. The rules officials came out and told us there was no way for us to finish before dark. They hinted it would be better for them if we all just WD’d, so we wouldn’t have to come back Saturday morning and they could start the tee times a little later. So, we all WD’d. The next thing I know, my Twitter is blowing up with people calling me spoiled and saying I was a typical silver-spoon kid who didn’t know how to deal with adversity. It really bothered me.

“Kelly sat me down and told me I couldn’t let these things bother me, that the only person I should be concerned about pleasing when it came to golf was me. I realized she was right. I got off Twitter that day and haven’t been on it since then.”

‘I remember once he asked me how I felt when I wasn’t playing well. I said, “Completely out of control, as if there’s nothing I can do to stop what’s going on.” He looked at me and said, “That’s exactly how I felt. It happens to everyone, and then, it does stop.” ’ — Sam Saunders on his granddad, Arnold Palmer

That’s just one way in which Saunders is old school. Like his grandfather, he has never been a believer in all the technology in golf or in the entourages that now surround so many players. The closest thing he had to a swing coach was his father—who first taught him the game as a kid. He doesn’t have a sport psychologist or a personal trainer, a masseuse or an omnipresent agent. When he became a star junior as a teenager—he was once the No. 1-ranked junior in the country—his grandfather talked to him about the vagaries of a pro’s life and continued to do so when he turned pro.

“I remember once he asked me how I felt when I wasn’t playing well,” Saunders says.

“I said, ‘Completely out of control, as if there’s nothing I can do to stop what’s going on.’ He looked at me and said, ‘That’s exactly how I felt. It happens to everyone, and then, it does stop. You have to always remember that. Don’t ever think it won’t get better, because as long as you keep working, it will stop.”

Martin remembers watching Saunders deal with that at Clemson: “He was so good as a junior that I think, at times, he was disappointed in his college career. But you never sensed there was any give-up or woe-is-me in him at all. He’s done the same thing as a pro. It’s not easy, but he’s steadily gotten better.”

Photo by Chris McPherson

It has been—as the players say—a process. Saunders is 6 feet and 180 pounds with wavy brown hair, an easy smile and a square jaw. He hits it long enough but would hardly be considered a bomber in what has become a bomber’s world on tour. He worries—as his grandfather did—about technology taking over the sport but believes the key to his game improving—as with so many players—is putting. “I’m at the point now where I spend more time putting and less time worrying about my ball-striking,” he says. “I feel like that’s going to pay off in the next 10 years.

“My grandfather and a handful of players had the ability to make something that’s very hard—making it to the PGA Tour and then winning on the PGA Tour—look easy. It’s not easy. I know how hard it’s been for me to get to where I am now. When I was a kid, I wanted to be the best player in the world. I don’t know anyone out here who didn’t have that dream at some point. I played with a lot of guys who were really good at golf—still are—who are playing mini-tours or not playing at all, so I know how lucky I am to be here.

“I want to win. I’ve had one great chance [Puerto Rico, where he lost in a playoff in 2015] and other weeks where I’ve been in the hunt. I believe I’m good enough.”

Saunders wants to make his own way on tour, but he’s keenly aware of the role he is expected to play—and wants to play—in preserving his grandfather’s legacy. He will leave the business side to others. His job is to make sure people never forget who Arnold Palmer was. “I think that’s a role Sam is willing to embrace,” Amy Saunders says.

”You know, my dad could be tough on him at times. On occasion, he told Roy and me that we weren’t tough enough on him. Sam learned from him and learned how to deal with him. He told me a story once about how he’d really gotten on Sam one day, and Sam kind of went back at him. That was important, I think. My dad respected the fact that he didn’t back down. It was good for both of them.”

Saunders says it happened on the range: “My granddad jumped on me, and I went back at him. He loved it. It was a very important day for both of us, I think.”

Saunders and Kelly met in Colorado when Sam was playing the Web.com Tour in 2011. They were married a year later and settled in Fort Collins. Now they live in Atlantic Beach, which is between Jacksonville and Ponte Vedra Beach. Almost as important, it’s a two-hour drive from Orlando—where Saunders will continue to work with his parents on the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“I’d like to think, I hope, we can continue to make sure the tournament has a good field every year and that we can continue to build it the way my grandfather would have wanted,” he says. “I know a good deal of that responsibility falls on me now.”

He smiles again. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

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PALMER ESTATE SUPPORTS BUSINESSES AND CHARITIES
Long before Arnold Palmer died, he made certain that the businesses and charities he had built would be prepared to continue without him.

“About seven years ago, we formed an Arnold Palmer executive committee,” says Alastair Johnston, who has worked for the International Management Group for 45 years and for Palmer for 40.

“There were four of us: Arnold, myself, Amy [Saunders, Palmer’s younger daughter] and Steve Richards, who was our internal counsel. We met frequently to discuss the business then and going forward. Arnold never came to the meetings. He left it to us.”

Most important was ensuring that the Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundation would be in a position to continue Palmer’s legacy. In Palmer’s will, just less than $10 million was designated to be paid to Arnie’s Army—a pledge he had made two years before his death and the balance of a much larger amount he committed to funding his charitable foundation during his lifetime.

As in the past, much of the money raised will go to the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, named for Palmer’s late first wife. But the executive committee has plans to expand the foundation, which is the proprietor of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Cup. Next year, the Palmer Cup, contested among college golfers, will expand from 24 players to 48 to include women. Players will compete as teams, and it will be the United States versus the World instead of the U.S. versus Europe, as it has been in the past.

In all, according to court documents first acquired by WESH-TV in Orlando last fall, Palmer’s estate was worth about $875 million. His widow, Kit, will receive $10 million. Most of the estate will go to Palmer’s daughters, Peggy and Amy. According to Johnston, Amy Saunders will be the point person for the executive committee.

Palmer’s other businesses, including course design, senior communities, tea sales, automobiles and licensing—there are now 400 Arnold Palmer stores in Asia selling everything possible with the umbrella logo—will go on with people already in place.

The only part of the will that surprised those who knew Palmer was the $25,000 left to Doc Giffin, Palmer’s publicist, close friend and right-hand man for 51 years. Giffin was one of eight employees left that amount. “Arnold gave me very specific instructions to be certain that Doc was taken care of financially for the rest of his life,” Johnston says, “and I will absolutely do that.” Giffin, who is 88, is “virtually” retired—his word—although he makes occasional appearances at Palmer’s Latrobe office when asked to help out.

What will Sam Saunders’ role be in the future? “Whatever he wants it to be, really,” Johnston says. “He’s been so impressive since Arnold’s death. I try to keep him updated on the business through Amy. Right now though, we’re all encouraging him to play golf and follow his dream. That’s what Arnold would have wanted. His being an active part of the family business has no time limit. There’s no deadline. It’s strictly up to him.” —J.F.

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The passing of golf’s original icon has sparked an unprecedented outpouring of emotional tributes from the golfing community and beyond. Arnold Palmer died last night aged 87 after suffering heart complications. The American legend, who was known simply as ‘The King’, transcended his sport and played a central role in the global popularization of golf in the 1960s.

A winner of seven majors, the force of Palmer’s charisma and his competitive spirit captured the imagination of the wider public, and his old rival Jack Nicklaus was among the first to pay tribute.

Tiger Woods took to social media soon after the news broke to express his own sadness at the loss of a friend and mentor.

From top golfers to the President of the United States, the heartfelt tributes have been pouring in.

The President of the United States (and his possible successor) have also taken to Twitter to mourn the loss of the beloved star.

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