A Golfer's Life (Hardcover)

by Arnold Palmer (Author), James Dodson (Author) "I sometimes think it's odd, and in no small part revealing, what you manage not to forget..." (more)
Key Phrases: tour rookie, major golf tournament, golf career, Arnold Palmer, Bay Hill, British Open (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
From his first steps onto the public stage, this true icon of sport exuded an aura more inviting than off-putting, and his substantial record--92 titles worldwide, four Masters championships, a U.S. Open crown, and back-to-back British Open victories--speaks for itself. So does his autobiography. It is friendly, chatty, honest, passionate, long on spirit, and deft with the anecdotes it shares. As a storyteller, Palmer is as down the middle with the failures and hard times as he is with the remarkable triumphs. He writes thrillingly about golf at its most competitive; probingly about his rivals, particularly Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus; revealingly about the extended slump that followed the '64 Masters, his last win in a major; fairly and nobly about his own legendary status; emotionally about his family and his complex relationship with his father; and quite movingly about both his and his wife's battles with cancer: "The very word...used in the same sentence as Winnie's name struck cold terror in my heart."

If A Golfing Life sometimes finds itself ankle-deep in the rough of its own sentimentality--"I'm damned proud of my efforts"--it also surprises with unflinching candor and self-awareness: "Walking down the fairway, shaken to the core," he concedes of his titanic collapse in the final round of the 1966 U.S. Open, "I doubt if I have ever felt as alone or as devastated on the golf course. I know what a train wreck the world is witnessing." In the end, the volume's real appeal isn't just the charismatic persona of Palmer himself--it's his ability to take aim at the birdies and bogeys of a full life on and off the course and assess them with clarity, charm, equanimity, and wit. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly
While his peak playing time was some 30-plus years ago, Palmer, who has been battling prostate cancer since early 1997, remains a beloved figure and a symbol of the grace of golf. Palmer grew up poor in Youngstown, Pa., where his father eventually became course superintendent and head pro at the Latrobe Country Club. From the time he could hold an iron, Palmer spent as much time as possible playing the game with his "Pap," a hot-tempered disciplinarian, but he remained outside of club culture. On seeing Babe Didrikson Zaharias play, Palmer realized "how great it would be to make lots of peopleAcomplete strangers at thatAooh and aah over a golf shot." After attending Wake Forest on scholarship (where his roommate was killed in a car accident) and spending some time in the Coast Guard, Palmer went on the amateur circuit, barely stopping for a honeymoon with Winnie, his wife of nearly 50 years. In animated detail, his autobiography chronicles these events and the subsequent ups and downs of his career and personal life, including his first victories on the tour, his relationship with rival Jack Nicklaus, his friendship with Dwight Eisenhower, the decline of his game in the mid-1960s, his forays into the endorsement arena, his flying lessons and more. Palmer appears intelligent and artless when discussing the problem of "whites only" clubs as he recalls the 1965 PGA Championship he hosted, barred from California because of its exclusionary policies: "it wasn't in my nature to openly attack the organization." Most thrilling to fans will be his shot-by-shot perspective on legendary golf matches, such as the 1960 U.S. Open, where Palmer, Hogan and Nicklaus converged. While not quite a hole in one, this memoir shoots belowA that is, better thanApar. Major ad/promo; first serial to Golf magazine; Literary Guild selection.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 420 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Edition edition (March 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345414810
• ISBN-13: 978-0345414816
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #500,666 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly candid but needing perspective, May 31, 2000

By	Howard Wexler (Riverdale, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arnie's charisma and bold game put golf on the map., August 9, 1999

By	Gery Sasko "Gery Sasko" (Chester Springs, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Arnie's book is well-written, entertaining, and great reading. It unveils the nuances that enabled Arnie to be the man who hoisted TV golf on his shoulders and elevated the game to the status it enjoys today. The book is well-balanced in that it reveals Arnie's roots, both golf-wise and developmental, growing-up in Latrobe PA and his conflicted relationship w/his father, Deacon Palmer. Arnold's love of life, fierce competitiveness,and his charsimatic personality are all thoroughly revealed in this terrific book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book by the foremost gentleman of golf, August 30, 1999

By A Customer

Arnold candidly describes his life-long love affair with golf and its great traditions. Even a non-golfer will enjoy his lessons about sportsmanship and life in general. I especially savored the stories about his friendships with the U.S. presidents since Ike. His aviation adventures are surprisingly hair-raising at times. The book shows us why he was named "Sportsman of the Decade" in the 1960s.