by Jeff Skinner
Arnold Palmer turns 85 today and golfers and golf fans everywhere should take a second today to wish Arnie a happy birthday and thank him for making golf the game it is.
Without Arnie and his swashbuckling attitude televised golf wouldn’t be what it is today. It was “The King” that happened to be at his peak when golf first appeared on television.
He was the star of the show. Women wanted him and men wanted to be him.
Much is said about the debt today’s professional golfer owe Tiger Woods. They play for a million dollar paycheck each week but if there was no Arnold Palmer there might have been no Tiger.
It was Arnie that made golf cool. It was Arnie that played every shot as hard as he could. It was Arnie that truly made the majors the majors. It was Arnie that invented the modern Grand Slam. It was Arnie that brought golf into mainstream American life. It was Arnie that shook every hand and signed every autograph and built his army of fans. It was Arnie that that became the first true athlete pitchman as he showed what an incomparable endorser he could be. It was Arnie that engaged his fans in a way that no one ever had. It was Arnie that paved the way for all of today’s professional golfers. 
Just about anyone that touched a club has an Arnie story but one of the best is that of golf pro Jason Gore. As a golf obsessed eleven year old he conned his mother into driving him to Arnie’s country club in Latrobe. They entered the club and asked for Mr. Palmer and low and behold Arnie comes by and spends an hour with a kid who happened to be trespassing on his country club. It changed Gore’s life. Arnold Palmer changed many lives.
Happy birthday to The King and many more.
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