I was pleasantly surprised by this book, by its candor and by how well-written it was. It minimized many warts, but there is still some bite to it.
Arnold Palmer defines what charisma is. Charisma has nothing to do with skill, he certainly was not the most skilled or accomplished golfer. His talent and achievements fall short of those of Nicklaus, Hogan and even Gary Player. Yet Palmer with his amazing charisma can arguably be considered the most important golfer in the last 50 years.
A few years ago I was watching a Senior tournament. My wife came by and became enraptured by what was on. That was extremely odd, she usually does not watch golf. She asked me who the man on the screen was that was so fascinating. It was Arnold Palmer.
The portraits that Palmer draws of his parents, especially of his father, are wonderful. His stories of growing up are wonderful and I feel a good sense of the man and his roots. And he spares no words in discussing the death of his best friend while he was at school at Wake Forest, a death he still somewhat blames himself.
However, the story about the Ku Klux Klan meeting and his mother's reaction to it (live and let live) is rather naïve.
Palmer brings up an interesting theory about his career, that his decision to stop smoking played a factor in it. Nicotine creates a dependency, physical and psychological, no doubt about it. Palmer feels that cigarettes helped him concentrate. But I admire him for not starting again, even if it cost him some strokes. So do his grandchildren and his fans, if he had not stopped, he would not be here today.
Palmer talks about several people in the golf world at length. He speaks highly, yet evenhandedly, of Clifford Roberts and the Masters. I daresay that there are others who would not agree with that opinion.
It is obvious that Arnold did not get along with Ben Hogan, but few people did. Hogan was a hard man and while Palmer speaks highly of Ben's skills, you can see that he did not like him personally.
The section about Nicklaus is fascinating. There is a major rivalry in many ways between the two of them, there is no question about it. Palmer makes some very astute observations about their divergent styles and personalities.
There is much greater kinship with Gary Player and the stories about Player are quite funny.
People have tried to analyze Palmer's appeal for years. One of the ideas is that he comes across as a blue-collar worker in a rich man's sport. It was him that drew fans across income and class lines.
To many people, Arnold Palmer is old-line establishment. He was a close friend of Eisenhower, and of Bob Hope. The book slows when he talks of the rich people he is friends with.
In particular, I was repulsed by a golf course he built with an airstrip within, so one can land one's private plane and then tee off. Give me a break!
And his apparent tolerance for many of the racist policies of the PGA is galling as well. Palmer could have done more to bring the PGA into the 20th Century. His decision to keep quiet and "work within the system" again shows naivity beyond belief.
But Palmer has some wonderfully nice things to say about President Clinton, so he is even-handed.
Palmer is not overly introspective, so he does not try analyzing his popularity very much. He does say that he loves to perform, to show off and entertain people. He talks of his joy the first time that happened.
A section of Feinstein's "A Good Walk Spoiled" discusses Palmer from a fan's perspective and also from a fellow player's. It gives a different perspective on the man.
Palmer has always been treated well by the press. But he deserves a lot of the credit himself. He tells a great story about Jim McKay getting all noisy and excited in the 1960 Masters and interrupting Palmer's concentration. Palmer could have snarled or been nasty. Instead, he just smiled and McKay realized what was going on. You can get more with the carrot...
At the time this book was written, his wife Winnie had just been diagnosed with cancer. She is no longer with us and my heart aches for Mr. Palmer and his loss. Palmer also talks little of his own fight with cancer and the remarkable recovery he has made. Nor does he talk about all the money he has raised for research of prostate cancer.
There is very little about his daughters as well, or his family life beyond his early married days.
In an ESPN show, one of those daughters said on-camera that her dad loved being Arnold Palmer. There are countless people who can testify of how nice a man he is.
Good book!
