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June 20, 2012
Palmer opens new hotel near Latrobe, PA
Courtesy of TribLive.com - By Joe Napsha
Arnold Palmer has put his stamp on another business venture — a unique $9 million hotel in Unity that opened Tuesday, in time for the Westmoreland County Air Show this weekend and the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp at St. Vincent College in July.
SpringHill Suites by Marriott Latrobe, a four-story, 109-room hotel at the intersection of Route 981 and Arnold Palmer Drive, just south of Latrobe, opened for business with a flourish. Palmer toured the hotel to give his stamp of approval to the upscale project, and local business and government officials joined in a reception.
Palmer’s hotel will be in competition with other hotels along the Route 30 corridor from Greensburg to Ligonier. But Palmer was confident that the Latrobe area not only can support another hotel, but needs it.
“With the (Arnold Palmer Regional) Airport expansion, the (Latrobe) Country Club ... with Kennametal’s national headquarters right across the street ... there’s just a very dramatic need for this kind of facility,” Palmer said.
“As a matter of fact, I’m not sure that it will be adequate for very long,” he added. “It is filling a need now, and as we grow around this area, it will be very valuable.”
The SpringHill Marriott is Palmer’s first hotel. He owns a majority of the business, through his Palmer Hospitality L.P. Construction began about a year ago. The facility has 40 full-time and part-time employees.
He developed it with Marriott International, but it is not a typical chain hotel. The first floor is a showcase of Palmer golf memorabilia, including photos chronicling his career from the time he was a youngster who played at Latrobe Country Club to his rise as the nation’s top golfer. Murals outside the elevators doors on each floor show a panorama of golf courses he owns or has played.
In a presidential suite hang photos of Palmer with past presidents and letters he received from presidents over 60 years. Among them are a message from President Dwight David Eisenhower, who apologized for not recognizing Palmer during a 1958 visit to Ligonier. A pre-Watergate President Richard M. Nixon congratulated Palmer in a January 1969 letter, and Gerald Ford thanked Palmer as the new president faced the challenges of the office.
“This is the most unique SpringHill Marriott in the United States,” said Keith McGrew, a partner in Concord Hospitality Enterprises Co. of Raleigh, a part owner and the property manager.
Palmer’s hotel, built on a 23-acre site he owns, offers a perk that other motels in the area can’t duplicate — an opportunity to play a round of golf at Palmer’s Latrobe County Club, less than a mile away.
Among the first guests at the hotel will be the members of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels, the aerial demonstration team that will perform Saturday and Sunday at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport across Route 981 from the hotel, said Tiffany Price, hotel sales director.
On Sept. 10, Bill Marriott, former chief executive officer and chairman of the hotel chain, will visit the hotel on Palmer’s 83rd birthday, said Dawn Roberts, general manager of the SpringHill Suites.
Joe Napsha is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.
Posted by scurry at 01:14 AM
June 19, 2012
Palmer gets Rotary nod for community support
Courtesy of TribLIVE.com - By Joe Napsha
Legendary golfer Arnold Palmer was recognized Monday with a top Rotary International honor for his outstanding contributions to the community where he honed the golf skills that have brought him international fame.
The Paul Harris Fellow certificate, medallion and pin that Palmer received from the Greensburg Rotary Club recognizes people in the community who have given of themselves “to make the community and the world a better place,” said Westmoreland County Commissioner Charles Anderson, a former president of the Greensburg Rotary Club.
“I think what Rotary does and continues to do is fantastic,” Palmer told the crowd of more than 100 Rotarians gathered at his Latrobe Country Club in Unity. “It’s a great honor from the Rotary. It’s very special,” Palmer added.
His involvement in the community includes the Arnold Palmer Pavilion, a cancer treatment center at Mountain View, and the 50-acre Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve at St. Vincent College in Unity. The nature reserve is named after his late wife.
Anderson told the Rotarians that although Palmer’s has interests that go far beyond the region, he has not forgotten his roots.
“He’s still one of ours ... and we always will be ‘Arnie’s Army,’” Anderson said to a round of hearty applause.
Palmer lives by the Rotary’s moral code that calls for people to be truthful, to be fair to all and act in a manner that is beneficial to all, Anderson said.
The Greensburg Rotary Club will present its other 2012 Paul Harris Fellow certificate, medallion and pin to Hempfield auto dealer Bud Smail, who heads the Smail dealerships along Route 30 east of Greensburg. Smail was unable to attend Monday’s event due to a prior commitment, said Larry Blake, vice president of the Greensburg Rotary Club.
Joe Napsha is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.
Posted by scurry at 12:30 PM
June 14, 2012
Arnold Palmer's Guide to the Majors 2012 Now Available in the US at Barnes & Noble
Golfers the world over are aware that the game's four pinnacle championships are known collectively as the Majors. But not so many golfers realize that this grouping was in effect defined by Arnold Palmer during a transatlantic conversation with a journalist friend in 1960.
At the time, Mr. Palmer was the No.1 golfer on the planet, and had that year won the Masters at Augusta National and the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. His great idea came into being when he was on his way to play in the centenary [British] Open at St Andrews. The rest, of course, is history.
To celebrate and honour what the four Majors have become, their very different origins, the great players, past and present, whose careers have been shaped by them, and the marvelous courses that provide the stages on which these most theatrical of contests are played out, Mr. Palmer has teamed up with award-winning publishers TMCUSA, LLC to produce Arnold Palmer's Guide to the Majors 2012.
This superb, comprehensive, 172-page collectible magazine, which includes interviews with all the recent Major champions, articles by many of the game's best-known writers and a roll call of the winners of every Major ever staged, is now available for just $6.95 in Barnes & Noble and all leading news magazine outlets across the country from June 4th onwards.
Download the app for your iPad on iTunes for $2.99
See also
www.themajorsofgolf.com
Posted by scurry at 06:59 PM