Arnold Palmer: Hail to the King

Any and every perk the modern day golfer enjoys, whether that be the fame or the bank accounts filled with tens of millions of dollars, can be traced back to one man—Arnold Palmer.

When Tiger Woods changes out of his Nike gear, gets on his luxury Gulf Stream jet and heads back to his mansion located in the exclusive Isleworth golf community, he has got Arnold Palmer to thank for just about all of it.

Through combining astounding skill on the course with an uncanny likability, Palmer transcended the PGA Tour from nothing more than a group of travelling vagabonds into a very large and lucrative business.

Palmer was the son of a greens keeper in Latrobe Pennsylvania and grew up in a working class family in a town that epitomized the industrial working class neighborhoods that began sprouting up all over the country following World War II.

When Palmer began to make a name for himself on the PGA Tour, his modest upbringing came into the public eye and drew the attention of every blue-collar worker in the country.

Factory workers, electricians, plumbers, etc. were in awe of Palmer as they saw him as an ordinary blue-collar guy who was dominating a sport that was typically reserved for the wealthy country club folks, and they loved him for it.

They saw Palmer as essentially one of their own.

These blue-color workers who adored Palmer began showing up at country clubs and made up a gallery of fans the likes of which had never been seen before in the world of golf.  

They were loud, they were rowdy, they heckled Palmer’s competitors—they were "Arnie’s Army."

If Palmer were not as likable of a character as he was and still is, the initial infatuation with Palmer might have worn off and "Arnie’s Army" might have eventually faded away.

However, Palmer loved his army just as much as they loved him and he engaged and embraced them at every opportunity, which turned out to be the best recruiting tool imaginable as his army seemed to grow exponentially with each additional tournament he attended.

Anywhere Palmer turned up to play, the local blue-collar workers would show up and support one of their own; they considered themselves the local chapter of "Arnies Army" and would feel almost obliged to go out and show their support.

At the time, the more traditionalists would have viewed "Arnie’s Army" as a group of loud, disrespectful fans that had no business being anywhere on a golf course.

But, what they didn’t realize was that Palmer was actually opening up the game of golf to an entirely new and extremely large audience.

Off the course, Palmer had even more of an impact in terms of paving the way for the financial benefits the modern day golfers so thoroughly enjoy. 

During the early '60s, Palmer was right smack in the middle of his prime and his popularity had reached mammoth proportions. At the same time, golf was just beginning to enter the television era and Palmer seemed to be the leading character in just about every weekly telecast.

An ambitious young sports agent by the name of Marl McCormack saw a once in a lifetime opportunity in Palmer.

McCormack realized that a player of Palmer’s skill and personality come along once in a generation, maybe even once in a lifetime. With golf now being shown on national television, Palmer was one of, if not the most recognizable athlete in the country.

Coming from modest beginnings, Palmer was understandably apprehensive when first approached by McCormack about becoming the face and spokesman of wealthy Fortune 500 companies.

McCormack was relentless in his mission to persuade Palmer to let him take the reins of his off-the-course affairs and Palmer eventually gave in and signed on as Mark McCormack’s first client, with just one minor catch.

Palmer didn’t want McCormack using him as a guinea pig to build up his sports management company, so he signed on with a clause that stated McCormack could not represent any other athlete unless being given permission to do so directly from Palmer himself.

When Palmer finally did decide to sign-on with McCormack, it was a decision that would drastically change the life of both men and would significantly change the landscape of sports forever.

Palmer would become and remain the highest paid athlete in the country for more than 20 years while McCormack, with Palmer's blessing, would go on to form the largest sports and entertainment management company in the world, IMG.

By the mid-'60s Palmer was appearing in advertisements representing everything from sporting equipment to cigarettes to Pennzoil motor oil and was making considerably more money off the course than he was through his PGA Tour earnings.

Palmer was the quintessential perfect corporate spokesman—everyone loved him and Palmer knew his role in it all.

Palmer realized that corporate sponsors were not paying him big-time bucks just for his good looks and Palmer was willing to do virtually anything sponsors demanded of him, whether that be playing in their company golf outing, making an appearance at company picnics, or simply showing up at the offices for a quick meet-and-greet, Palmer happily obliged.

Palmer, needless to say was handsomely rewarded for his efforts with the fans and sponsors.

From the mid-'60s all the way up until Michael Jordan came along in the late '80s, Palmer was the highest paid athlete on the planet. 

No one cared that Palmer didn’t win another major after the 1964 Masters or that his place as the best golfer in the world was quickly taken over by Jack Nicklaus.

Fans and sponsors simply loved Arnold as a person even more than they loved him as a golfer, which was all the result of an ordinary blue-collar man taking just a little extra time to engage the fans and sponsors. 

To this day, Palmer is referred to simply as "The King" and is one of the only athletes, past or present that is addressed by fans, players and the media as Mister Palmer.

In light of the current global financial meltdown and the potentially catastrophic sponsorship situation the PGA Tour could be facing in the next two years, it’s time that modern day tour professionals take a lesson from Mr. Palmer.

When the modern day tour professional plays in just 14 out of a potential 35 PGA Tour events and goes about his business as if those thousands of adoring fans lining the fairways and greens don’t even exist, it is not good for the individual player nor the game of golf as a whole.

Granted, Palmer had a charisma and likability that does not come along often.  However, Palmer is the perfect example of how a little extra time and effort with the fans and sponsors can go an extremely long way.

In this tough economic climate, players need to look only to "The King" as a model of how each and everyone on of them can do their part to help out the PGA Tour and probably help out themselves in the process.