Arnold Palmer

Palmer plays to the masses at par-3

Like the Pope to the masses, Arnold Palmer stood on the balcony of the California Cabin, waving to those who adore him so.

His silver hair subtly contrasting with his aqua sweater and yellow shirt, Palmer clearly was ready to compete in, not just participate in, one of the highlights of the Masters week for golf fans all over the world: the par-3 contest, which was scheduled to feature a full field of 102 participants.

How was it obvious Palmer was ready? Thirty minutes before he was supposed to tee off he was wearing his golf glove as he observed the crowds.

Like the pilgrims at St. Peter's, the people returned his adoration with cries of "We love you, Arnie!" and "Go get ‘em, Arnie!"

Though he and partners Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, three of the greatest living golfers, with 13 Masters victories between them, choose not to play in the "big tournament" that starts Thursday, they still tried to scare the flags and their competitors in the "little tournament" that draws tens of thousands to the sometimes overlooked side of Augusta National Golf Club. The trio didn't play as well as they hoped, but Palmer said they had fun. Luke Donald won the event, shooting 5 under on nine holes.

Carl Paratore came from Boston with the hope of seeing Palmer, among others. He came away with lots of photos of him on the balcony that he said he would frame and hang in his office.

Augusta's Renee James stood beside the tee box at No. 8, hoping for a chance to see Palmer and Player. She got more than that. They invited her to join them as they waited, and both signed her white Masters hat.

She was so excited she ran back up the hill, jumping up and down as she yelled to her friends what happened.

They had to calm her down because the Molinari brothers, Edoardo and Francesco, in the group ahead of Palmer, were about to tee off.

"That was a once-in-a-lifetime moment," she said.

Best shots

Craig Stadler aced the 130-yard first hole.
Phil Mickelson showed off his short game by putting in from the front fringe on No. 8 to a back pin placement.
Duluth's Stewart Cink stuck his tee shot 13.5 inches away from the flag on No. 9.

Best moments

Rory Sabbatini's 6-month-old son, Bodhi, got a little help from dad to putt out on No. 9. "I tried to get him to kick it, but he was being a little uncooperative," Rory said. "He was having too much fun jumping around." Yes, Bodhi wore the required white jumper caddies must don.
Jeff Overton's dad, Ron, came closest to the pin on No. 9 in his group.
Bubba Watson decided to help out the group behind him by tending the flag ... while they were teeing off. His confidence wasn't justified. None of them hit a hole-in-one ... or him. "First hole I got really close," Rickie Fowler said. "Aiming right at him. And I was trying to make it. But Bubba gave me a bad read."

Best quotes

When asked if he was trying not to win, so as to avoid the par-3 curse, Padraig Harrington said, "Of course not. I've won it twice. I like to prove everybody wrong."
D.A. Points' mother, Mary Jo, caddied for him. She didn't want the day to end. "He wouldn't play another nine. I begged him to play another nine."
Tennis great Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champ, carried the bag for Zach Johnson. Roddick came to the tournament with some friends and said, "Wouldn't it be cool if I could caddie for someone?" Through mutual friends, Roddick ended up holding the bag for the 2007 Masters champ, which he called "pretty awesome." Roddick took up the game a couple years ago and said he plays whenever he can. "There's a lot of parallels [with Wimbledon], with the tradition and the pride that everyone takes just being here."

http://www.ajc.com/sports/palmer-plays-to-the-901094.html


Mickelson suits well as the Arnold Palmer of this generation

The smile. The interactions with fans. The empathetic looks given and returned from the galleries. The roller coaster ride.

It’s these characteristics that allowed Arnold Palmer to put golf into the national sporting conversation, drive people to watch and take up the game in droves and to serve as the foundation for an enormously successful playing career.

Palmer came of age in the 60s, setting the world on fire by starting the decade with a Masters win and an Open Championship triumph which rejuvenated the then beleaguered third major.

Some 30 years later, the same story began unfolding in golf, but on a different scale.

Phil Mickelson was the hot name in the game, ever since winning as a 20-year-old amateur at the PGA Tour’s Tucson stop, but major championships eluded him. It wasn’t until another fourteen years later that the more fully developed saga of Phil Mickelson began to truly mirror the arc of the legend of the original people’s champion, Arnold Palmer.

Palmer defined how golf was broadcast on TV – a central figure used by the likes of legendary executive producer Frank Chirkinian to use a new medium to transform how the story of the game was told.

And, eventually, as quickly as his personality and swashbuckling style of play captivated the nation, an Ohio State kid named Jack Nicklaus supplanted Palmer as the best player in the world. Palmer’s run as the best player was over, but he never – to this day, even – lost the moniker of the best American ambassador for the game in its history.

(Gary Player would have an awful lot to claim about being the best global ambassador.)

Mickelson was not near the peak of his performance as a golfer, or a public figure, when Tiger Woods burst on the scene at the ’97 Masters. His dozen-stroke victory ushered in a different revolution and a new direction for the game. It went more global, more quickly. Golf became more commercial, seeking to capitalize upon the transcendence the Woods story offered a game pigeon-holed in the public consciousness as for stuffy, rich white guys.

Not only was Woods young, but he was extremely successful. He won on a torrid clip, nearing three in every ten starts for a while. Sometimes, Woods won in long strings which challenged even the most sacred of records held in the many volumes of the sport.

Meanwhile, Mickelson was no doubt successful, but certainly not on Woods’ scale, or even holding a candle to the enormous expectations that had been placed on Mickelson from day one. A sport begging for its next Nicklaus had identified him. It wasn’t Mickelson. But who would be the foil to the new Jack? Nicklaus caught and passed Palmer rather quickly, moving onto the likes of Tom Watson – a young kid who evolved into perhaps Jack’s greatest opponent.

It turned out Woods would get his competition for the hearts and minds of a generation of fans after seven years of domination. When Woods was at his worst – at least to that point in his career – Mickelson broke through. A magical charge on the Sunday back nine in 2004, including a final birdie accompanied by a miniature leap, allowed him to surpass Ernie Els with the final putt and be a major winner.

The question was whether Mickelson would continue to spin forward in majors, if the break through one wall would not lead to another.

Mickelson answered, with the ’05 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. He then cruised to the ’06 Masters, giving him consecutive majors and conjuring thoughts of the Mickelslam – the naturally named rival to the Tiger Slam, which Woods achieved in 2000-01.

And then came Winged Foot. Phil was a self-admitted idiot at the 72nd hole of the ’06 US Open, which cost him a third straight major and, finally, a win in the national Open. At the time, and for three years after, Mickelson seemed to go into a major tailspin. He finished second in the US Open for a record fifth time, finished fifth in the Masters in ’08 and ’09, but held no trophies in the four biggest events of the year.

Then, in the face of everything in life that should have worked against him and his family, Mickelson thrived last April at Augusta. Amid the backdrop of a family in trouble – that of Tiger Woods – Mickelson humbly and honestly did his best to help his family through dual diagnoses of breast cancer for his wife and mother.

In the shot that defined Mickelson’s career, his approach shot from the pine straw of the par-5 13th cleared the trees, and the water, and within a handful of feet for an eagle. It was a shot that made people jump out of their chairs, or their shoes.

Just as defining was that Mickelson missed the putt. He can pull off the risks, but doesn’t always reap the full reward.

He won anyway, with a dramatic closing birdie to punctuate a fourth major and a third Masters win. Unlike any player without the surname Woods, Mickelson had mastered the new Augusta National. It is his home. He took the story of the major born in sleepy Augusta, Ga., and single-handedly authored its next chapter in the way Arnold Palmer did.

Now, he stands just another win away from tying Woods’ count of green jackets. One more Masters victory and Mickelson matches the iconic Palmer who won four times in alternating years from 1958 through 1964. Mickelson would have won his four in an eight year span – not quite as good as the original King, but maybe good enough for a prince.

Mickelson is no spring chicken, so the junior monarch in waiting seems like a long-retired potential comparison. But Mickelson truly came of age in his 30s, and could still be a threat well into his 40s. Palmer never won another major after the ager of 35. That’s a little more than one year ahead of when Mickelson first won a green jacket, but he hardly appears on a trajectory to the ground, which Palmer has done with his flying career after a half-century of flight as a pilot.

Though the story has been told in a different order, all of the themes familiar to the fans of the story of Arnold Palmer come through in that of Phil Mickelson. Their personalities shine through in their professional dealings, and humanity become apparent in the smallest gestures. Both were passed in terms of achievements by a more talented rival, but each holds a bigger place in the hearts of golf fans.

Yes, Mickelson still has a trio of majors to go before equaling the tally of Palmer, but even if time is not on his side, Mickelson can truly stake a claim as the best pure package – human and competitor – the sport has seen in this generation.

http://progolftalk.nbcsports.com/2011/04/03/mickelson-suits-well-as-the-arnold-palmer-of-this-generation/


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