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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Last teardrop falls for Arnie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Well, there he goes, off into the sunset of his glorious career, with a tear in his eye. Coincidentally, Arnie departs tournament golf as Freddie Fender departs life, leaving behind his mournful melody “Before The Next Teardrop Falls.”
For most of his life, “Arnie” was all that was needed to identify Arnold Palmer. He won 62 PGA Tour events and many more tournaments on one continent or another, but his career is more entwined with the Masters than any other, for it was at Augusta National that in 1960 the two rose to glory hand in hand. Significantly, or peculiarly, the course on which he struck his last official shot is named Augusta Pines, located in a Houston municipal appendage named Spring. It was on the fourth tee in the Administaff Small Business event, and after two shots found water, Arnie made his official departure from tournament golf with this benediction:
“I’ve been doing this for a long time, and to stand out here and not be able to make something happen is very traumatic. The people want to see a good shot, and when you can’t give them that, that’s when it’s time.” But he played on and finished the round with John Mahaffey and Lee Trevino, with a “WD” by his name.
Frankly, it has been time for a long time, but Arnie loves to play. He loves the galleries, the cozy relationship he has bonded with them since the evolution of “Arnie’s Army” at Augusta; the cheers, the adulation, the occasional pars, which were to become more occasional as his game receded.
Let’s see, the last time he won a tournament was in 1988, the Crestar Classic, on the Senior Tour before it became Champions. The last time he won on the PGA Tour was in 1973, the Bob Hope Classic, but he later won three times outside these borders. The last time he finished in the top 25 was 1996, but he played on, though he manage to collect only pocket change, mainly just for being there. Obviously, money was not hard to come by, for by that time he was in high demand by advertisers — remember Pennzoil and that old tractor? — and in golf-course design, with his partner, Ed Seay.
This was Palmer’s very, very last farewell to competition, for he had gone through this before at the Masters in 2004. Chairman Hootie Johnson had bent the age rule and invited him back for a curtain call, and each green became a stage, and after the round, emotionally frayed, Arnie said, “I’m through. I’ve had it. Cooked. Washed up. Finished, whatever you want to call it.”
In Spring, Texas, of all places, it was all of that. The finale. “I made every move in the bag today, and it wasn’t very successful,” and then, the last teardrop fell.
Arnie was not the first Palmer on tour, and I bring this up because the original passed away almost a month ago to the day. Johnny Palmer came from Badin, N.C., where the biggest thing in town is a huge hydroelectric dam. He was quiet by nature, mainly self-taught, and his dossier is quite impressive for any era. He won the Canadian Open, the Western Open, the Colonial, and in 1949, when he won the World Championship, a George S. May production, his check was for $10,000, largest winning prize on tour at the time. (I should have pointed out that for all those tournaments Arnold won on the PGA Tour, he collected just $1,861,857, not a lot more than the winner of the Players Championship collects.) Johnny was runner-up to Sam Snead in the PGA Championship in 1949, fourth in the Masters the same year, when he also made the Ryder Cup team, and led at Augusta after the first round in 1952. After it was all done, he went back home to Badin and became the local club pro. You don’t see a lot of his kind any more. He was 88 at death.
I might add that the Tour is now down to one Palmer again, Ryan, a 30-year-old from Texas. Under that name, he bears a heavy load.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Golf
Shame on Tyson, “The U.” and the Yankees
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The Tuesday Countdown…
10: Bad news: Former Cane thug Lamar Thomas was fired for seemingly endorsing the brawl between Miami and FIU players during a broadcast. Good news: He was promoted to athletics director.
9: Seriously, I’m so glad to see that school president Donna Shalala is taking this seriously. So explain to me why FIU has dismissed more players than Miami (2-1) and given far more indefinite suspensions (16-1)?
8: This should be a real bonus for recruiting at “The U.” Turns out that the game at the Orange Bowl was “Salute to Florida High School Football” day, with thousands of players attending for free.
7: By the way, I heard Jeb Bush was really upset with the Miami Herald’s treatment of the Canes.
6: The Mike Tyson “I’m A Freaking Nut Job” World Tour kicks off Friday in Youngstown, Ohio. Tyson says he will fight a series of “exhibitions,” which I guess means he’s added two elephants and a clown to the act we’ve been seeing. Tyson also says he will fight a woman, Ann Wolfe. But please don’t think less of him. I mean, if he can knock out his ex-wife, Robin Givens, he certainly can punch a perfect stranger. What a yutz.
5: Spoke to Dan Reeves the other day. Said it looks to him like Michael Vick doesn’t have a lot of confidence in his receivers. “[Brian] Finneran and Mike are comfortable with each other. Why is that? And there’s a confidence between he and Alge [Crumpler]. It must be because they catch the ball and get open. If there’s not a No. 1 receiver on the team he has confidence in, what makes him want to throw it?”
4: Reeves, who is doing radio commentary for Westwood One, refrained from criticism of the Falcons and their coaches, saying with a laugh, “That’s your job.” He added: “I’ll say this — it’s a lot easier sitting in the press box. I see guys getting open all the time and I think, ‘Why can’t the quarterback see that?’”
3: So, I mean, who didn’t know Georgia Tech would be the shining light of Atlanta football this fall?
2: Cubs general manager Jim Hendry called Lou Piniella “absolutely the perfect choice as we move forward.” Was it the 285 losses in three years in Tampa Bay that confirmed his perfection?
1: The Yankees fail to reach the World Series again but keep Joe Torre. The A’s fail to reach the World Series again and fire Ken Macha. Must be the higher standards mandated by the Oakland media.
Permalink | Comments (31) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
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