Two old friends will be getting together in the desert this week and the golf world is invited to whoop it up right along with the chuckling chums.
Arnold Palmer and Bob Hope have been linked in golf and fun for more than 50 years. The gala 50th anniversary of the Bob Hope Classic, Jan. 19-25, will be hosted by Palmer, the man who through dint of being a five-time Hope winner, could for years have practically claimed co-ownership of the tournament.
“It is very special to me to be asked to serve as host of the 50th anniversary Bob Hope Classic,” Palmer says. “I enjoyed some of my greatest success in the Hope in the early years and have loved the Palm Springs area ever since I first laid eyes on it.
“I consider it a great honor to follow in the footsteps of Bob Hope as host of this wonderful tournament, which has been a PGA Tour mainstay for so many years. I thought the world of Bob Hope and spent many priceless hours with him on and off the golf course.
“He loved the game and was a great contributor to its growth and popularity.”
The Hope, coming just two months prior to the March 23-29 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club, (www.arnoldpalmerinvitational.com), puts Palmer in the unique position of hosting two marquee PGA tournaments before the season’s first major, a fact not lost on Hope organizers.
“We are privileged to have Arnold Palmer as our host for this special year and we know Bob would agree,” says Hope Classic president Dave Erwin. “There is not a more appropriate person to help us celebrate our 50th year of this wonderful event. In addition to his success here as a player, it was because of Arnold’s classic style and unmatched connection to his adoring fans that we ever reached such an honorable milestone.”
The Palmer-Hope relationship predates by nearly four years the wave of sporting and celebrity popularity that would make the Palmer name as famous as Hope’s. It was in 1954 after the Latrobe golfer’s pivotal U.S. Amateur victory that Hope invited the 25-year-old Palmer to New York to appear on the monthly “Bob Hope Show” in the then-still fledgling television industry.
“I was in awe of Bob Hope and the situation,” Palmer told Kingdom Magazine recently. “Bob made me feel like I had known him for years from that very first show. And I was surprised at how casual he was about it. He made some offhand comments about how to play golf and how good he was.”
No one, not even the soon-to-be professional himself, sensed at the time just how good Palmer was about to become.
It wasn’t until the Masters in 1958 that Palmer truly vaulted onto the national consciousness, a place from which he’s never been dislodged.
He went on to win 92 times on the PGA Tour, highlighted by seven major championships. The total ranks him fifth on the all-time winner’s list, but it was his go-for-broke style and approachable, charismatic personality that’s made him an indelible fan favorite.
Many of his career playing and course design highlights have Coachella Valley desert roots. He played his first tournament there in 1956 at the Thunderbird Invitational, a tournament that was home to his first desert win in 1959 with a come-from-behind final-round 62.
The next year he won the inaugural Palm Springs Golf Classic, the tournament that would be renamed for host and golf fanatic Bob Hope. He won the Hope again in 1962, ‘68, ‘71 and in ‘73 overtook and fended off a tenacious Jack Nicklaus for what would be his final victory of his stellar PGA Tour career.
He returned in 1986 to participate in the first Skins Game played at PGA West.
He skipped the tournament for the first time in 1997 when he underwent successful prostate cancer surgery. But he was back the next year and in 2001 he shot a 1-under par 71 to become the first player in tournament history to shoot his age.
And, competitive golf aside, Palmer’s had more than his share of memories that had nothing to do with pressure putts and high-stakes golf.
In 1963, he appeared in Hope’s popular movie, “Call Me Bwana.”
Palmer’s left his mark in other ways, as well. Arnold Palmer Design Company has designed five Palm Springs-area courses, three of which -- SilverRock Resort, Bermuda Dunes and Palmer Private at PGA West -- are in this week’s Hope rotation.
After a week of galas, golf and recollections about both Palmer and Hope, who died at age 100 in 2003, Palmer will return to Bay Hill and begin immersing himself in the upcoming Arnold Palmer Invitational. Much of the pre-tournament buzz centers on speculation if defending and five-time champion Tiger Woods will make his heralded return to Tour golf after following up his stirring 2008 U.S. Open victory with knee surgery.
“We’re sure hoping that it will be his time to make his return to professional golf,” Palmer says. “I hear he’s training very hard. I hope he’ll be ready to make his return to defend again at Bay Hill. The tournament date’s moved to the end of March and that should help our field, always a strong one, be stronger still. Also, being later in the spring will improve weather and course conditions. We’re very excited at Bay Hill.”
But first things first: Palmer will be spending time treading much-loved and familiar ground. It’s a place studded with so many Palmer courses, memories and events (and don’t forget Arnold Palmer’s Restaurant, www.arnoldpalmers.net, in La Quinta!) that reporters filing stories from the desert can be excused if the datelines refer to PALMER SPRINGS, Calif.
Because that’s what it’ll be all next week.