Palmer seemingly came out of nowhere to conquer golf ’s Major championships and electrify everyone with his fierce, aggressive swing and the courage of a young lion. Athletic prowess, rugged good looks, bulging biceps and spades of charisma were his killer ingredients. Palmer made golf exciting for millions of people who knew nothing about the game by making birdies from impossible positions and charging to victory from the middle of the pack. Palmer didn’t know what “defensive” meant. He attacked golf courses with brute strength and a supreme putting touch, and he did it all with stylish elan.

Born on September 10, 1929, in Latrobe, a small industrial town in Western Pennsylvania at the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains some 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, Palmer’s father was a coal miner and strict disciplinarian. Palmer inherited his father’s values, strength and sense of humor, plus the belief that no one can play golf without a good grip. Those huge hands maintained a now-legendary firm hold on the golf club and allowed him to develop the characteristically strong game that he developed. Palmer gave it everything; sometimes the results were disastrous, and sometimes he looked like a genius. At his peak, he showed a flair for recovery from the most unlikely situations that seemed almost miraculous.

He had a similar effect on the game in his day as Tiger Woods has in recent years. But where Woods is smooth and machine-like, the Wall Street broker of golf, Arnie was the game’s docker. His forceful, blue-collar persona mixed with a magnetic personality was a cocktail the game couldn’t resist.

It was that fiercely determined “I can win this thing yet” expression on his face that golf fans everywhere fell in love with back in the early ‘60s. It wouldn’t have made much of a difference if Palmer had been an ordinary golfer - but he wasn’t.

Like Babe Ruth, Arnold Palmer stirred the American soul. He showed the people what could be achieved for those who dared - even those who had never been on a golf course and couldn’t tell a brassie from a doorknob. From shopkeepers to tycoons, the whole world got caught up in Arnie’s Army, the group that followed his every move, and watched him at the Majors in particular. They wept for him when he took six on the final green at Augusta to blow the 1961 Masters. They cheered for him when he clinched the US Open in spectacular fashion in 1960 at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver. Heading into the final round he was seven strokes behind Mike Souchak but he was in typically determined mood. At the first hole he drove the ball 346 yards onto the green and easily made the two putts for the birdie. He birdied the next three holes as well and completed the outward nine holes in 30, equaling the US Open record for nine holes. He finished with a magnificent final round of 65 to beat Jack Nicklaus by two strokes and seal perhaps his most famous win.

His deeds in the Majors meant his popularity and success grew with the tremendous golf boom to heights few could ever have anticipated. He was named “Athlete of the Decade” for the 1960s in a national Associated Press poll. The game knew it was in the presence of someone special, too. How many players, for example, have not one, but two plaques dedicated to their daring deeds? There’s one at Royal Birkdale in England which commemorates one of the most audacious shots ever seen in a top flight golf tournament. Playing the 15th hole (now the 16th) in the 1961 Open British Championship, Palmer hit his second shot into the bottom of a small bush. At best, it looked as if Palmer might be able to hack out onto the fairway - or he had the option to take a drop, of course. But Palmer caused gasps from the crowd when he pulled out a 6-iron and with a mighty swing proceeded to demolish the bush and propel the ball around 140 yards on to the green. He went on to win the British Open for the first time. The other plaque dedicated to Palmer’s contribution to The Masters is positioned on the 12th at Augusta National.

Palmer won seven Major championships in all. He won the Masters Tournament four times, in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964; the US Open once and the British Open in 1961 and 1962, when he turned in one the finest performances of his career. Troon was baked hard that year and the ball ran and bounced forever, not always fairly. He failed to get off to a good start in any round but played the back nine superbly every day, particularly the dangerous 11th by the railway line. On the last day, he set the lowest aggregate in the history of the British Open (276), beating runner-up Kel Nagle by six strokes and the rest of the field by 13. Palmer had resurrected the fortunes of the Open Championship almost single-handedly, by declaring his intention to play and win the British Open and persuading his fellow American stars to make the journey to Britain, a habit they’d fallen out of as the US Tour grew in stature and wealth.

But it wasn’t all runaway successes for Palmer in the Majors, even during these halcyon days. He managed to lose a playoff for the 1962 US Open to a young Jack Nicklaus, a loss that was to be a sign of challenge that was to come from the Golden Bear. He threw away the Masters in 1959 and again in 1961, when he needed a four at the last to beat Gary Player but bunkered his second shot and took a six. He also finished a shot behind Kel Nagle on his debut in the Open Championship in 1960. Among the Majors, only the PGA Championship has eluded him. His greatest disaster was in the 1966 US Open at Olympic Club when he dropped seven strokes to Billy Casper over the last nine holes in the final round and lost a playoff the following day, just as Ben Hogan had done in the same event at the same course in 1955.

In all, Palmer amassed 92 championships in professional competition of national or international stature by the end of 1993. Sixty-one of the victories came on the US PGA Tour. His hottest period was a four-year stretch from 1960 to 1963 when he landed 29 of his titles and collected almost $400,000 at a time when the purses were minute by today’s standards. He was the leading moneywinner in three of those years and twice represented the US in the prestigious Ryder Cup Match, serving in 1963 as the victorious captain.

His best golf probably came at the 1964 Masters when he was just 34. Palmer enjoyed a level of accuracy and skill that he would never match again. It was also to be the last Major win of his career.

Palmer never came close to breaking the record for the number of Major championship victories, with seven wins to his name. His reign at the top of the golfing tree was also relatively short, especially when compared to players such as Sam Snead, Gary Player, Lee Trevino or Jack Nicklaus. While those players won Major championships over a period spanning a decade or more, Palmer collected all his seven Major championship victories in the six-year span. His flame in the Majors may have been burned briefly but, boy, did it burn bright.