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September 22, 2007
ArnoldPalmer.com Named Best
Wins prestigious web award from the Web Marketing Association
In the eyes of many golf-loving Americans, Arnold Palmer is the greatest. Now, at least in the eyes of one prestigious panel of award-bestowing experts, so is his website.
ArnoldPalmer.com was recently named one of the Web Marketing Association’s Best Web Sites of 2007. The Palmer site, which is anchored by a daily timeline item harkening back to a corresponding news item from Palmer’s vivid and colorful past, was one of just 96 winners selected from 2,400 entries from more than 40 countries.
For Palmer, who celebrated his 78th birthday on September 10, a lifetime of earth- and airborne achievements has notched a first in yet another realm, the internet.
“Yes, this is the first time I’ve ever won a web award!” he says. “I couldn't be happier that ArnoldPalmer.com was chosen as one of the best. It's the one place where all the fans can go to instantly learn everything that might interest them about our charities, my history, our businesses, Kingdom Magazine, the outstanding golf courses we’ve built and what's new in our world.”
Organizers said entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology. Teams of independent Internet professionals representing a variety of relevant disciplines of web site development weighed each entry. Judges included members of the media, advertising executives, site designers, creative directors, corporate marketing executives, content providers and webmasters.
The WebAward competition format allows Web sites to compete head to head with other sites within their industry to win the Best of Industry and Standard of Excellence awards. Here’s the award and here’s the announcement.
The Web Marketing Association (http://www.webmarketingassociation.org) works to create a high standard of excellence for web site development and marketing on the Internet. Founded by the Web Marketing Association in 1997, when the letters “www” still looked like a sloppy typo, the WebAwards is the standards-defining competition that sets industry benchmarks for the best web sites.
If you’ve never had the opportunity to immerse yourself in www.ArnoldPalmer.com, now's the time.
Because it’s only here at ArnoldPalmer.com that will you learn the surprising connection between Arnold Palmer and Tony Soprano, and why you’d be a wise guy to listen to Palmer’s astute Super Bowl picks. It’s here where you can read about the day in 1970 that Johnny Carson tabbed the golfer to be his “Tonight Show” stand-in, and it’s here where you’ll learn just what insights U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts sought from Palmer the Spring 2007 day after the golfer dined with The Queen.
ArnoldPalmer.com is what happens when old school goes high tech. This is what happens when one of the most storied lives -- not just in golf, but in all America -- is given the most lavish and loving consideration that only a medium like the world wide web can bestow.
And it’s all right here, fresh and new everyday, all the insight, warmth and glory. It’s a virtual cornucopia of Palmer knowledge and trivia that, until now, couldn’t be contained between the covers of even the most voluminous biographies.
“I'm proud of the team that's taken advantage of this fantastic medium to give the fans such an excellent high-tech umbrella for everything that's going on in our world,” Palmer says. “I hope fans will check it out. I don’t think they’ll be disappointed.”
Posted by crodell at 09:57 AM
GQ says Palmer's historically cool!
Names him to list of 50 most stylish men in history
The magazine that’s synonymous with cool has named the 50 men it admires for their enduring cool. One of them is Arnold Palmer.
And it happened the same week the man who’s regarded as the greatest golfer on the planet said he still looks up to Palmer. “He’s the King,” said Tiger Woods. “To even be mentioned in the same breath as Arnold Palmer means you’ve done something special. To have him at 62 wins and I’m one away . . . I never would have dreamt this in my wildest dreams.”
Records will always be broken, and Tiger’s smashing lots of them.
But cool endures, as GQ points out in its gala 50th anniversary edition that highlights who it thinks are the 50 coolest, most stylish men, from the last 50 years. It’s a virtual hall of fame of American masculinity studded with profiles of Steve McQueen, Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Tom Brady.
And, yep, Arnold Palmer.
GQ writes: In the early 1960s, Arnold Palmer was more than a golfer: He was a superstar—the Elvis Presley of sports. With his horde of fans (Arnie’s Army) and his pomaded pompadour, Palmer brought golf to the masses. He could dress, too, favoring flat-front gabardine pants with a heavy crease and wool cardigans. And those fitted golf shirts: “There was some talk that maybe my muscles were too big for the shirts,” Palmer admits today. But sportswriter Frank Deford has testified that Palmer’s cool came from those L&M’s: “All America had this image of Palmer taking a cigarette out of his mouth, throwing it on the green to putt, and then sticking it back in his mouth. It was golf’s equivalent of Bogart and Bacall. It’s odd to think of a cigarette as an athletic totem, but back then it was sexy. Palmer with a cigarette was like those old convertible ads with a beautiful woman sitting in the front seat and her scarf blowing in the wind.”
Posted by crodell at 09:53 AM
September 06, 2007
Palmer statue, nature preserve enjoy festive celebrations
The gateway to Latrobe, cradle to a host of indelible American icons, will be bracketed by ceremonies dedicated to celebrating two of its most beloved emissaries: Arnold and Winnie Palmer.
On Sunday, the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve on the northern side of U.S. Route 30 and S.R. 981, officially opens to the public, and on Monday directly across the busy highway at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, a statue will be unveiled honoring the airport’s namesake on the day of his 78th birthday.
The statue of Palmer, strikingly similar to one gracing the grounds at Augusta National where Palmer won four Masters championships, is the work of renown, award-winning sculptor Zenos Frudakis, the creator of the Augusta piece. A public dedication ceremony, to be attended by Palmer, will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday.
The statue is positioned in front of the main terminal at the former Westmoreland County Airport where Palmer, a world-record setting aviator, learned to fly. From their mutual humble beginnings, both the golfer and the airport have thrived, and the airport was re-named for Palmer in 1999 on his 70th birthday.
Palmer’s renown would be secure if he’d never even set foot on a golf course. He’s a world-record setting aviator who in 1976 helped circumnavigated the world in a Lear 36 business jet in just 57 hours, 25 minutes and 42 seconds. Writing about the record, Time magazine said, “Considering the water hazards and long pars, the 46-year-old Palmer didn't do a bad job. He was 77 1/2 days ahead of Phineas Fogg.”
The Palmer Airport, too, is soaring in other ways. With free parking, it is becoming a regional departure hotspot for savvy western Pennsylvania commuters looking for easy access to national hubs. The Airport enjoys updated terminal facilities and fine dining and banquet facilities overlooking the newly extended 8,224-foot-long runway. Northwest is the airport’s premier airline, and regular charters to Orlando, Nevada and Atlantic City are available.
And as of Sept. 10, all commuters entering the terminal will be greeted by the 7-foot tall, 250-pound statue of the airport’s most familiar pilot. As impressive as it is, the statue will be dwarfed in scope by the spacious 50-acre monument just across the highway.
According to a commemorative book about the project, The Winnie Palmer Nature Preserve is “what happens when everybody’s best intentions are allowed to harmonically triumph. It’s something to think about the next time you allow yourself to luxuriate in a place of peace, education and inspiration that was allowed to flourish naturally, all because a group of people agreed that real community progress doesn’t always have have to start with pavement.”
The majestic Preserve is a natural playground of orchards, wildflowers, birds, frogs and other native delights. It came about after the late Winnie Palmer worked with activists, corporations and environmentalists to ensure that the scenic parcel of land framing St. Vincent College would not fall to developers’ bulldozers.
With a restored hallmark barn as the centerpiece of the property, the acreage is a wonderland of serenity for hikers, bird watchers or anyone seeking to engage the elements. The land will also serve as a living laboratory for the St. Vincent College Environmental Education Center.
Combined, the two Palmer projects give added heft to the notion that Latrobe is on the verge of becoming a tourist destination for those eager to enjoy the splendors of the Laurel Highlands.
Besides Arnold Palmer, Latrobe is the birthplace of the first banana split and the first professional football game. In addition, you need to fly into Arnold Palmer’s airport if you ever want to visit Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood. Palmer and the late Fred Rogers, the beloved children’s TV show host, were Latrobe High School classmates. And St. Vincent College is the summer home of the five-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, and the site of the soon-to-be-open Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media.
Winter sports are enjoyed at nearby ski resorts, and golfers from around the world are making reservations to fly into the Palmer Airport to enjoy rounds of golf at Latrobe Country Club, now available for pre-arranged public play upon the discretion of the club’s pro shop. National golf magazines have featured the club and its five finely-appointed guest houses as a great destination for lovers of golf and all things Arnie.
Posted by crodell at 04:03 PM