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May 26, 2008
Five guys, one question: What's your favorite Palmer story?
Frank Nobilo, Robert Trent Jones II, Chi Chi Rodriguez and others tell their favorite Palmer stories.
Five guys, one question: What’s your favorite Arnold Palmer story?
A U.S. Open always draws experts from diverse fields to what for one week is the absolute center of the golf universe.
That makes it a good time to ask a variety of golf industry people -- players, architects, golf journalists -- about the one story they like to tell about golfing icon Arnold Palmer above all others. Here are some of their answers:
• Frank Nobilo, former PGA player & current commentator The Golf Channel: “You could say that Arnold Palmer kept me from quitting golf. It was back in 1995 at the Masters and I was playing dreadfully. I’d shot an 81 the day before and had thought about withdrawing. I was really about my game. I told my coach I was planning on quitting and he said, ‘Man, you couldn’t if you wanted to. You’re scheduled to golf tomorrow with Arnold Palmer.’ What was I going to do? Let Arnold Palmer play Augusta as a one-ball? So I showed up the next day determined to do my best. He didn’t know me from Adam, but Arnold greeted me on the first tee with the warmest handshake and twinkle in his eye. Just that look let me knew he was out there to have fun and I was invited to be a part of it. And what a time it was. Neither one of us was going to nudge our way onto the leader board, but it was a lively round and I got to have my own mini-Masters with Arnold Palmer.”
• Bubba Watson, professional golfer: “My favorite Arnold Palmer story? That was the day I got to meet him and shake his hand. Yeah, he probably shook a couple hundred other hands that day, but I spent the next week showing people that hand that shook the hand of Arnold Palmer.”
• Chi Chi Rodriguez, World Golf Hall of Famer: “People on tour used to complain that Arnold Palmer got preferential treatment. I’d ask them, ‘Do you want preferential treatment, too? Then start treating everyone the way Arnold Palmer does.’ When I came on tour in 1960, he was the man who came up and offered his friendship. He treated me with great respect. He’s old school like that. He treats everyone with respect. And, man, I loved the way he played the game. Some guys went for the pin some of the time, but Arnold always went for the pin. Still does. Man, you could put the pin thousands of feet below sea level on the deck of the Titanic and Arnold would scramble to find a scuba suit and get diving. He’ll always go for it. That’s why I like Sean O’Hair this week. He plays like Palmer. Had O’Hair hit a 9 iron instead of a wedge into the 17th at TPC everybody would be talking about him as a favorite here at Oakmont. Keep your eye on him.”
• Cameron Morfit, senior writer, Golf Magazine: “My favorite Palmer moment may have came during the end of an interview I did with him a few years ago. He’d just gotten married and was a happy newlywed. I figured I’d ask him about if he used Viagra or not. I was a little reluctant to ask because I knew we’d get a lot of letters from people saying I was an impudent young jerk with no manners -- and I was afraid he might react that way, too! But I asked him and he came to life. He got a big smile on his face and said he didn’t need it. That he was still charging. I think the interview would have gone much better if I’d have asked him that first. He welcomed the question and was happy to talk about his virility. We got some letters complaining about the question, but Mr. Palmer didn't mind one bit.”
• Robert Trent Jones Jr., architect of more than 240 courses in 40 countries: “I could tell you tons of stories, but it would always come back to his warmth and generosity. The think I like about him, too, and this may surprise some people, are the courses he designs. I’m a big fan. Some marquee players design courses for their own ego, They never can get it through their heads that the key to designing courses is drainage, drainage, drainage. You need to spend 10 years working on bulldozers or hire people who have done the nitty-gritty. Arnold’s been smart enough to surround himself with the best people in golf, starting with Ed Seay and Erik Larsen. They're wonderful course designers and great people, too. Really, Arnold's building himself a nice legacy apart from his competitive career with the great courses he and his team have put together. My favorite Palmer designs? I like Orchid Island Golf Club in Vero Beach, Florida. I think they did a tremendous job at PGA West in La Quinta and Tralee Golf Club in Ireland has some brilliant holes out on the dunes.”
Posted by crodell at 06:23 PM
March 19, 2008
BACK NINE AT CHERRY HILLS: THE LEGENDS OF THE 1960 U.S. OPEN
NEW YORK, March 17, 2008 – HBO Sports has begun production on BACK NINE AT CHERRY HILLS: THE LEGENDS OF THE 1960 U.S. OPEN, a documentary that recounts the unforgettable finish of the 1960 U.S. Open Golf Championship, it was announced today by Ross Greenburg, president, HBO Sports. Examining the historic changing of the guard that took place as ambassadors of golf’s past, present and future – Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus – battled down to the wire at Cherry Hills Country Club, the hour-long presentation debuts WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO, the evening before the world’s top players tee off at the 108th U.S. Open Golf Championship.
“This is an incredible story in a sport that we’ve never previously explored at HBO,” said Greenburg. “The 1960 U.S. Open was much more than just a historic golf tournament. The golf that was played and the athletes that performed at Cherry Hills nearly 50 years ago represented the very essence of the emerging sport. You had three generations of stars in Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus. Each had a unique relationship with his father and each grew up in a different era, yet there they were, fighting it out on the back nine at the U.S. Open.”
While the story reaches its climax on the final holes at Cherry Hills Country Club in suburban Denver, the path each of these sports icons took to this historic juncture is equally important. BACK NINE AT CHERRY HILLS: THE LEGENDS OF THE 1960 U.S. OPEN spans the early years of the three, all of whose lives were shaped by their relationships with their fathers. Ben Hogan’s Texas boyhood was tragic: His father committed suicide when Ben was nine years old, leaving him to struggle with his “demons” through the Depression and war years, determined to make something of himself as a pro golfer. Arnold Palmer, the Pennsylvania blue-collar groundskeeper's kid who constantly sought his father’s approval, was not allowed to mingle with the country club kids, but his strength and charisma brought him early success playing golf in post-war America. Jack Nicklaus, the exceptionally talented country club kid from Ohio, had a loving, friendly relationship with his pharmacist father during the prosperous years of the Eisenhower 1950s.
The special story of these three great men battling to the wire at Cherry Hills transcended the world of sports. Besides capturing the sheer excitement of the tournament, the documentary will illuminate the sporting landscape that Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus helped shape, and reveal the mood of the country that watched as these men changed their profession forever.
Famed sportswriter Dan Jenkins called this remarkable event “too big, too wildly exciting, too crazily suspenseful, too suffocatingly dramatic. What exactly happened? Oh, not much. Just a routine collision of three decades at one historical intersection. On that afternoon, in the span of just 18 holes, we witnessed the arrival of Nicklaus, the coronation of Palmer and the end of Hogan.”
High-profile interviews include: golfers Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Ken Venturi and Dow Finsterwald, and author and former Sports Illustrated writer Dan Jenkins.
The Dallas Morning News has written, “HBO is the undisputed champion of sports documentaries.”
The executive producers of BACK NINE AT CHERRY HILLS: THE LEGENDS OF THE 1960 U.S. OPEN are Ross Greenburg and Rick Bernstein; producer, Margaret Grossi.
For more information, please visit http://www.hbo.com/events/usopen/
Posted by scurry at 06:56 PM
June 13, 2007
Palmer on ESPN, Golf Channel from Oakmont
Arnold Palmer will be interviewed live on ESPN Wednesday at 3 p.m. the day before the start of the U.S. Open at historic Oakmont C.C. near Pittsburgh.
Host Chris Berman will ask Palmer about his near life-long involvement with one of the world’s greatest golf clubs.
The interview will precede a scheduled press conference that will be broadcast on the Golf Channel.
The day will be capped by a gala cocktail hour hosted by Golf World, which has asked Palmer to raise the congratulatory toast celebrating the magazine’s 60th anniversary.
Palmer also plans to attend the closing ceremonies Sunday and attend the post-tournament cocktail reception.
That means Palmer will be hustling between two of the busiest locations in western Pennsylvania -- Oakmont and Latrobe where his home course will be hosting, among others, former Homeland Security Advisor Tom Ridge, LPGA Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez, Walker Cup captain Buddy Marucci, and former LPGA star Mary Bea Porter-King.
Guests and visitors have been flocking to Latrobe one hour from Oakmont following Open rounds to play, visit and purchase Palmer memorabilia from the historic club
Posted by crodell at 11:01 AM