Golfer

Born: September 10, 1929;

Died: September 25, 2016

ARNOLD Palmer, who has died aged 87, was a legend of golf who did more than any other player to popularise the game and take it beyond the clubhouse to big audiences.

His hard-charging style may have made some purists cringe, but his charisma made him a hugely popular player (his fans were known as Arnie’s Army) and later a massively successful businessman and entrepreneur. After playing in St Andrews for the centenary Open in 1960, he also help restore the tournament to its supreme status.

At ease with both presidents and the golfing public and on a first-name basis with both, Palmer ranked among the most important figures in golf history, and it went well beyond his seven major championships and 62 PGA Tour wins.

His good looks, devilish grin and go-for-broke, daredevil manner made the elite sport appealing to one and all. And it helped that he arrived about the same time as television moved into most households, a perfect fit that sent golf to unprecedented popularity.

Beyond his golf, Palmer was also pioneer in sports marketing, paving the way for scores of other athletes to reap in millions from endorsements. Some four decades after his last PGA Tour win, he ranked among the highest earners in golf.

On the golf course, he was an icon not for how often he won, but the way he did it. He would hitch up his trousers, drop a cigarette and attack the flags. With powerful hands wrapped around the golf club, he would slash at the ball with all of his might, then twist his muscular neck and squint to see where it went.

He soon attracted loyal fans who came to be known as Arnie's Army. It began at Augusta National with a small group of soldiers from nearby Fort Hood, and grew to include a legion of fans from every corner of the world.

It was Palmer who gave golf the modern version of the Grand Slam - winning all four professional majors in one year. He came up with the idea after winning the Masters and US Open in 1960.

He was runner-up at the Open, later calling it one of the biggest disappointments of his career. But his appearance alone invigorated the tournament, which Americans had been ignoring for years.

Palmer’s decline was partly due to his age and partly due to the rise of Jack Nicklaus, but he carried on playing on the seniors circuit. He stopped playing the Masters in 2004 and hit the ceremonial tee shot every year until 2016, when age began to take a toll and he struggled with his balance.

He never like being referred to as the King, but the name stuck. "It was back in the early 60s,” he said. “I was playing pretty good, winning a lot of tournaments, and someone gave a speech and referred to me as the King. I don't bask in it. I don't relish it. I tried for a long time to stop that and there was no point."

He was equally successful with golf course design, a wine collection, and apparel that included his famous logo of an umbrella. He bought the Bay Hill Club and Lodge upon making his winter home in Orlando, Florida, and in 2007 the PGA Tour changed the name of the tournament to the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The combination of iced tea and lemonade is known as an Arnold Palmer.

Palmer was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the oldest of four children. His father Deacon became the greenkeeper at Latrobe Country Club in 1921 and the club pro in 1933.

He had two loves as a boy - strapping on his holster with toy guns to play cowboys and Indians, and playing golf. It was on the golf course that Palmer grew to become so strong, with barrel arms and hands of iron.

"When I was six years old, my father put me on a steel-wheeled tractor," he recalled. "I had to stand up to turn the wheel. That's one thing that made me strong. The other thing was I pushed mowers. In those days, there were no motors on anything except the tractor. The mowers to cut greens with, you pushed."

At school, he started to win amateur championships but it took him some time to turn professional. Initially, he worked for the US Coast Guard and stayed there for three years, but after winning the US Amateur Championship in 1954, he had the courage to go full-time and the following year won the Canadian Open. He played his final Open in St Andrews in 1995 and was offered honorary membership.

Away from golf, Palmer made a fortune with his business interests and there was a time when his image was everywhere, from motor oil to ketchup to financial services companies.

Even as late as 2011, nearly 40 years after his last PGA Tour win, he was number three on Golf Digest's list of top earners at £27.7million a year, trailing only Woods and Phil Mickelson. His interests included a company that made golfing equipment and two country clubs.

Palmer's other love was aviation. He piloted his first aircraft in 1956, and 10 years later had a licence to fly jets that now are the standard mode of transport for many leading players, even though the majority of them are merely passengers.

He set a record in 1976 when he circumnavigated the globe in 57 hours, 25 minutes and 42 seconds in a Lear 36. He continued flying his Cessna Citation 10 until he failed to renew his licence at 81, just short of 20,000 hours in the cockpit.

Palmer wrote three books on golf, Go for Broke in 1973, 54 Best Golf Holes in 1977 and Play Great Golf in 1987 and believed that success in the game depended less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character. He put it another way: "Golf is a game of inches. The most important are the six inches between your ears."

"Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated,” he said. “It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented."

Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the Royal & Ancient, said Palmer was a true gentleman, one of the greatest ever to play the game and a truly iconic figure in sport. Mr Slumbers said his contribution to The Open Championship was, and remains, immeasurable.

Jack Nicklaus, a great rival of Palmer, said: "He was one of my best friends, closest friends, and he was for a long, long time.

"Arnold transcended the game of golf. He was more than a golfer or even great golfer. He was an icon. He was a legend. Arnold was someone who was a pioneer in his sport.

"We were great competitors, who loved competing against each other, but we were always great friends along the way. Arnold always had my back, and I had his. We were always there for each other. That never changed. He was the king of our sport and always will be."

Alastair Johnson, CEO of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, said Palmer died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of complications from heart problems. Mr Johnson said Palmer was admitted to hospital for cardiovascular work and had weakened over the last few days.

Palmer's first wife, Winning, died in 1999. They had two daughters, and their grandson Sam Saunders plays on the PGA Tour. Palmer married Kathleen (Kit) Gawthrop in 2005. She and his daughters survive him.