Arnold Palmer's 80th birthday on Thursday has prompted many people to share stories about The King, and I've got a couple of my own that convey just how special Arnie is. Before I get to those, he had a way of making everyone feel important, and one thing that made him special was he seldom turned down an invitation from people wanting to share some of his time. He attended the 50th anniversary of the Golf Writers Association of America's Championship as a guest speaker at a banquet at The Dunes Club in April 2003, and he attended his induction into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame in Pinehurst in 2007, even though that is obviously not one of the more prestigious halls he's been inducted into and he had to travel quite a ways to do so. Now to the stories.
He attended the grand opening of his design at Rivers Edge Golf Club in Shallotte in October 2000, and came via helicopter. He played and walked nine holes, had a press conference and a bit to eat, then was whisked back to the helicopter already running on the driving range to head back to his home in Bay Hill, Fla. In keeping with a ridiculously busy schedule at the age of 71, he was headed the next morning to Carlsbad, Calif., for a business meeting with Callaway executives. So you'd figure he was in a hurry. I waited for him to eat before approaching him for questions, but by then he was on his way to the helicopter. Though his security/cronies were stepping between us to give Arnie an out, he invited me to walk with him to ask questions. I asked him several questions under the loud spinning blades, and he answered each one with some thought, including one on how he had been coping with the loss of his longtime wife, Winnie, who had died less than a year before. Few legends would have been so courteous to a young (I was relatively young then) reporter he had never met.
The other story has more to do with Billy Glisson than me, but it exemplifies Arnie more than anything else I could write. Glisson was an Andrews native who was living in Pawleys Island when he died in March 2008 at the age of 61 from injuries suffered in an accident.
Palmer evidently remembered Glisson from his short 1 1/2 years on the PGA Tour nearly three decades ago in 1981 and '82, and from playing with him nearly a decade prior to his death in the 1999 U.S. Senior Open in West Des Moines, Iowa. So on perhaps his busiest week of the year during the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando, Palmer contacted Glisson's widow, Paulette. He offered his condolences to both Paulette and Glisson's 17-year-old son over the phone and faxed a letter to be read at Glisson's funeral service. It read, in part: ``It was a pleasure to have known him and I certainly enjoyed playing with him in the Senior Open a few years ago in Des Moines. He was a fine player. I extend my deepest sympathy to you at this sad time. Sincerely, Arnold Palmer.''
Now that, maybe more than his incredible golf record, is why they call him The King, and why he's worthy of the title.
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