Two bridges across Rae’s Creek were dedicated in honor of Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. A young pro named Arnold Palmer won the tournament for the first time.
And Amen Corner was born.
Actually, the famous stretch of holes — Nos. 11, 12 and 13 — had been in existence for 25 years, but a catchy nickname didn’t exist until Sports Illustrated golf writer Herbert Warren Wind came up with the term in 1958.
The three holes where Rae’s Creek meets the National played a vital role in the early years of the Masters.
The Nelson Bridge commemorates Nelson’s charge of a birdie at No. 12 and an eagle at No. 13 to win in 1937. The Hogan Bridge honors Hogan’s score of 274 in 1953, then the lowest 72-hole score in Masters history.
The 1958 tournament proved to be equally important.
The headline of the Augusta Chronicle highlight’s Arnold Palmer’s victory. (USA Today Network)
After playing two balls on the 12th hole amid a rules controversy and making eagle on the par-5 13th during the final round, Palmer claimed the first of four Masters wins by one shot over Doug Ford and Fred Hawkins.
Wind, a veteran golf writer who also was a jazz buff, decided to combine his interests to describe the Sunday action.
Arnold Palmer, center standing, argues a rules point at the 12th hole after his ball became embedded in the mud during final round of the Masters Golf Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in August, Ga., April 6, 1958. The final ruling gave the 28-year-old Palmer, of Latrobe, Pa., a three on the hole and a 73 round for a 284 total.
He took the name from a jazz recording, “Shoutin’ in That Amen Corner.” (Wind wrote that the album was recorded by Milton Mezzrow, but research has shown Mezzrow did not make a record by that name.)
The nickname became part of the tournament’s lore. Wind died in 2005 at age 88, but his lengthy essays and many books are still popular reading for golf fans.
“Herbert Warren Wind was one of the greatest golf writers that ever lived,” former Augusta National and Masters Chairman Hootie Johnson said. “For many years, he wrote wonderful stories about the Masters and the players that competed in the tournament.”
(Editor’s note: This story originally ran on the Augusta Chronicle’s former Masters site.)
The hole claimed another player on Saturday: recent PGA Tour winner Jake Knapp.
The smooth-swinging Knapp stepped to the tee and blasted his first two balls in the water, and his third didn’t find the water but was still too far right and went out of bounds. On his fourth tee shot, he finally put one in play, but it took him three more shots to get on the green.
Jake Knapp’s shot tracer on the par-5 sixth hole at Bay Hill. (Photo: PGA Tour)
Knapp went from even on the day to 7 over in the span of one hole. Fortunately for Knapp, his 12 isn’t even close to the highest score on the hole. John Daly famously had an 18 in 1998.
One year after his U.S. Amateur win, Palmer won his first Tour title and began to usher in golf’s new era.
(Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the May 9, 2014 issue of Golfweek)
ORLANDO – He was a 24-year-old paint salesman living in Cleveland, just seven months removed from a three-year stint in the Coast Guard. This was before his army of adoring fans, before his patented charges, and before he made golf cool.
Arnold Palmer, the son of a greenkeeper, entered the national sporting consciousness at the 1954 U.S. Amateur by defeating Robert Sweeny, 1 up, at the Country Club of Detroit.
Ask him to recount his earliest glory days and Palmer has been known to reach for a black hardcover copy of a 64-page book detailing the significance of this triumph. The cursive lettering of the title, written in gold-leaf, says it all: “The Turning Point.”
“That’s what it was in my life,” Palmer says all these years later seated in his office above the locker room at Bay Hill Club. “It gave me the confidence that I was ready to turn professional and play the PGA Tour.”
One year later, Palmer won the first of his 62 Tour titles and began to usher in golf’s modern era. But at the 54th U.S. Amateur, Palmer, who was as slender as wire and strong as cable, was a dark horse among the 1,278 entries that included Billy Jo Patton, Frank Stranahan, and Harvie Ward. Even that week, Palmer injected excitement into the championship with his high-wire act. Jimmy Gill, Palmer’s 16-year-old caddie, recalled the stir of fascination that Palmer’s go-for-broke style caused.
“If he missed the shot, he knew he would make it up later,” Gill said. “He had something about him. That walk of his, the way he attacked the ball.”
Palmer survived a daunting gantlet of foes on a par-70 course that had been stretched for the competition to 6,875 yards by Robert Trent Jones Sr. Palmer kidded USGA officials that they must have wanted him out of the tournament early. He edged Frank Strafaci, a seven-time Met (N.Y.) amateur champion, and John Veghte, a Florida State golfer, 1 up, in the first two rounds. Then in the fifth round, just to reach the quarterfinals, Palmer faced Stranahan. “Nemesis is a good word to describe our relationship on the course,” Palmer said.
Indeed, Stranahan, 32, had Palmer’s number. Previously, he smoked Palmer 12 and 11, in the 36-hole semifinal at the North and South Amateur and at the 1950 Amateur by a 4- and-3 margin. This time Palmer settled things, 3 and 1. As the golfers walked off the green, Stranahan said to Palmer, “That’s it. I’m turning pro tomorrow.”
Next, Palmer faced Don Cherry, the 1953 Canadian Amateur champ and a crooner, who had performed the night before at the nearby Dakota Inn. As Jimmy Demaret once said to him, “Don, the golfers say you’re a singer and the singers say you’re a golfer. So what the hell are you?” On this occasion, he was another tough out for Palmer. Cherry held a 2-up lead with seven holes to go but lost his rhythm and the match, 1 up. Afterward, Palmer phoned his parents in Latrobe, Pa., to tell them he had reached the 36-hole semifinal. They hopped into their car and drove eight hours to be there.
“That meant more to me than you can imagine,” Palmer said.
Arnold Palmer holds a picture of himself from the 1954 U.S. Amateur. (Photo by Tracy Wilcox/Golfweek)
His parents arrived in time to see the longest semifinal match in the history of the Amateur at the time. Palmer had defeated Ed Meister, a 38-year-old magazine publisher, in the Ohio Amateur just a few weeks earlier. The rematch was a seesaw affair in which Meister and Palmer traded the lead on seven occasions. All square on the 36th hole, Palmer overshot the green and faced looming disaster. Never fear because Palmer floated a sand wedge that halted within 5 feet of the hole. How good was it? The club placed a plaque on the spot where the ball lay buried and Palmer called it “the shot of my tournament.” Still, he crouched over a touchy, downhill slider in his pigeon-toed stance needing to make the putt to force extra holes.
“If I had missed it, I’d be gone,” Palmer said. “Who knows what would have happened in my life? I probably would have continued on playing amateur golf, and then I don’t know.”
But Palmer sank the putt, and the match continued at the first hole, where Meister had a 4-foot putt for victory. Did Palmer think his run was over?
“I never think that way,” Palmer said. “If he had had me, we wouldn’t be talking here now.”
On the third extra hole, Palmer closed out the match, muscling a 300-yard drive, reaching the par 5 in two and making birdie. That set up Palmer against Sweeny, the 1937 British Amateur champion, in the final.
“To look at us side by side,” Palmer wrote in “A Golfer’s Life,” “you might well have thought we hailed from different galaxies.”
Sweeny, 43, was a millionaire investment banker, the quintessential American playboy splitting time between Palm Beach, Florida, New York, and London. As a member at Seminole Golf Club, Sweeny played matches with Ben Hogan each winter as the future Hall of Famer tuned up for the Masters, and famously offered Hogan a stroke per side.
Thanks to a red-hot putter, Sweeny jumped out to an early 3-up lead on Palmer. As they departed the fourth green, Sweeny threw an arm around Palmer’s shoulder and, attempting to lighten the mood, said to him, “You can be sure of one thing: I can’t go on like this much longer.”
Arnold Palmer watches the flight of his tee shot on the first hole at The Country Club during the 1963 U.S. Open. (AP Photo)
Palmer pulled ahead at the 32nd hole, stretched the lead to 2 up a hole later but 3-putted the 35th hole to prolong the match. When Sweeny’s drive at the last disappeared into the trees and thick rough right, he couldn’t recover and conceded the match on the green. Moments later, James D. Standish Jr., the tournament’s general chairman, gave the signal and a 12-piece brass band located on the clubhouse terrace played “Hail to the Chief.”
Tears streamed down the face of Palmer’s mother, Doris, and he hugged her. “Where’s Pap?” Palmer asked. Deacon Palmer was lingering by the scoreboard. Six decades later, Palmer still remembers his father’s long level gaze and the way his voice went soft as he mouthed these words: “You did pretty good, boy.”
Palmer’s victory set a chain of events in motion. Instead of returning to selling paint – “That might have ruined my life if I had been any good at it,” he said – Palmer played the next week in bandleader Fred Waring’s invitational, the Waite Memorial, in Shawnee-on-the-Delaware, Pennsylvania. His boss gave him time off to play the tournament only because he’d won the Amateur. There, Palmer met Winifred Walzer, who would become his wife of 45 years until her death in 1999.
“I thought she was a rich socialite and that if I married her, I’d just be able to play golf all the time. She thought I was a rich, young executive that could give her the lifestyle she wanted. We were both wrong,” Palmer wrote in “The Turning Point.”
Soon, the young couple were engaged. Almost three months after the championship on Nov. 17, 1954, Palmer announced his intentions to turn pro. “I can’t overlook my life ambition to follow in the footsteps of my father,” Palmer wrote to the USGA. “We both have counted on this since I first started playing golf 14 years ago. My good fortune in competition this year indicates it is time to turn to my chosen profession.”
A day later, he signed an endorsement contract with Wilson Sporting Goods for $5,000 plus a $2,000 signing bonus. Palmer heeded the advice of his father. “Go and play the way you know how and you’ll be all right,” he said.
The next spring, Palmer made his debut at the Masters, where soldiers from Fort Gordon in Augusta discovered an American original, and golf would never be the same.
To borrow a phrase from Stuart Scott, Arnold Palmer was cooler than the other side of the pillow.
ORLANDO — To borrow a phrase from the late ESPN host Stuart Scott, Arnold Palmer was cooler than the other side of the pillow. So is the gear on sale at this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational in the merchandise shop as well as the club’s permanent pro shop at Bay Hill Club & Lodge.
Palmer’s multi-color logo is ever-present and used to great effect. Kudos go to Puma, who have delivered another unique line for tournament week, from shirts to hats to shoes.
But there’s a great mix of Ahead and Imperial hats and the pro shop features everything from Peter Millar to Johnny-O and women’s favorite, Ibkul. High marks across the board but nothing tops the head covers in my book. Here’s some of the best stuff available at the API merchandise shop and Bay Hill pro shop.
StrackaLine offers a hole-by-hole course guide to Bay Hill and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.
Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, site of the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard on the PGA Tour, opened in 1961 with a design by Dick Wilson. Arnold Palmer took over the property on lease in 1970, bought it in 1975 and made adjustments to the course multiple times over the following decades.
Bay Hill will play to 7,466 yards with a par of 72. The layout is one of the toughest on the PGA Tour each year.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week at Bay Hill.
Harvard-trained architect Brandon Johnson hangs out his own shingle with new design firm.
Golf course architect Brandon Johnson has made it official: After 17 years working for Arnold Palmer Design Company, he is hanging out his own shingle with today’s introduction of Brandon Johnson Golf Course Design.
The Harvard-educated Johnson joined Palmer Design in 2006 when that firm moved to Orlando. Johnson and Thad Layton were the design leads in recent years for Palmer, which wound down operations late in 2023. Layton announced the formation of his own firm in September.
Johnson has worked on several dozen courses around the world for Palmer involving everything from renovations to new courses.
“I’m excited, and as I’ve explained it to people, it feels like I’m graduating college again,” said Johnson, who interned for the PGA Tour as a course designer in the mid-1990s before taking a job out of college with The First Tee. “There are a lot of opportunities, and there’s a lot of excitement.”
Palmer Design built more than 300 courses in 37 states and 27 countries, including many listed on Golfweek’s Best ranking of top modern courses in the U.S. and the state-by-state rankings of public and private layouts. The company really took off in the 1980s and has been one of the most recognized brands in course architecture ever since. But business, especially in constructing new courses, slowed for the company following Palmer’s death in 2016. Layton and Johnson had mostly worked on renovations since.
Brandon Johnson led the renovation to Old Tabby Links in Okatie, S.C., which was originally created by Arnold Palmer Design Company. It was one of many jobs Johnson undertook as one of the lead designers for Palmer Design. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
“I’m a very seasoned professional, but you know, I’m still young in the business,” said the 50-year-old Johnson, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina who did his undergrad in design at North Carolina State before attending Harvard for graduate school. “I had a professor in my junior year that said it’s going to take you 25 years to master this profession of landscape architecture. I think that we’re always learning and we’re always growing, so now I have this incredible kind of background in my career that I’m able to apply to my own firm.”
Johnson is busy lining up jobs and plans several announcements of renovations and possibly new courses in the coming months. He intends to spend as much time as possible in the field working with course shapers – generally speaking, shapers are the highly skilled heavy equipment operators who turn an architect’s plans into reality.
“It’s interesting, in my early days at the Tour, Pete Dye had a lot of influence,” Johnson said. “He was almost always on-site, and there was always that mentality that even though we might be in the office some, how we thought about projects was the work being done in the field. Even in my time at Palmer, we certainly transitioned when Thad and I were running the company to be much more involved in the field through every step of the process. I think, for me, that’s the way I will be starting out on my own, and it’s always kind of been my mentality.”
Golf has boomed in recent years as more players took up the game during COVID, and there has been a greater interest in course architecture as well. Johnson said it’s a great time to strike out on his own.
“People are seeking out fun, new and interesting architecture,” he said. “To me, what fun means is golf is going to have a lot of variety, and it’s going to allow you to think and maybe execute a shot in several different ways. It’s drawing you in, and it’s going to make you want to get back on the golf course. I think of the feelings that I had as a kid and I just couldn’t wait to get to the golf course. …
“You hope you have the opportunities to show the golfing world what you can do as an architect, and I’m really excited about that opportunity and look forward to working with some really good clients on some unbelievable pieces of property, working with people who are equally as passionate and in love with this game as I am.”
Only one other golfer has won the event three straight years: Arnold Palmer.
SCOTTSDALE Ariz. — Scottie Scheffler won his first PGA Tour stop at the WM Phoenix Open two years ago.
Now he’s in prime position to be the first to win the event three years in a row at TPC Scottsdale.
Scheffler made five straight birdies on Nos. 9 through 13 in the resumption of his third round Sunday morning, the fourth time he’s done that in his career, to zoom up the leaderboard and get to 13 under, one stroke off the lead.
He bogeyed the 14th but then birdied the 16th to stay within a shot of first-round leader Nick Taylor, second-round leader Sahith Theegala and Charley Hoffman.
A few minutes later, he poured in a four-footer for birdie on the driveable par-4 17th to get to 14 under and forge a four-way tie for the lead. But he inexplicably putted off the green from 42 feet and into the bunker at 18 and made bogey to drop two strokes off the lead heading into the final round.
Arnold Palmer turned the hat trick in the ’60s but that was when the tournament was held at Phoenix Country Club.
The final round officially started at 10:15 a.m. local time (12:15 p.m. ET) with the third round still in progress on other parts of the course as tournament organizers decided not to re-order groups for the final round. The last group started their final rounds at about 12:15 p.m. local time.
Play was called due to darkness each of the first three days at 6:07 p.m. local time.
The Super Bowl in Las Vegas kicks off at 4:30 p.m. Arizona time, so the final round is likely to overrun the start of the big game.
Take a look at the Arnold Palmer Golf Facility and Haddock House.
Of course the place where Arnold Palmer played college golf has excellent practice facilities.
The Arnold Palmer Complex opened in 2010, and now features the Haddock House, the Haas Family Range and the Dianne Dailey Golf Learning Center.
The Haddock House, named for former men’s golf coach Jesse Haddock, opened in the spring of 2016. The $4.5 million facility serves as the home for the men’s and women’s golf programs while also showcasing the history and tradition of Wake Forest golf.
The 10,000 square foot Haddock House, situated in the southwest corner of the Arnold Palmer Golf Complex, features coaches’ offices, locker rooms, team meeting areas and a Heritage Room that showcases the history of Wake Forest Golf. The Heritage Room and other adaptable spaces within the building will also be available for use for campus events, gatherings and receptions. Out front is a statue of Palmer himself.
The complex features more than 17 acres of 419 Tif Bermuda grass, five chipping and putting greens and 24 practice bunkers. Practice tees are situated around the entire complex to allow players to hit in any direction.
The 3,500 square-foot Dianne Dailey Golf Learning Center, named for long-time women’s golf coach Dianne Dailey, is equipped with the latest, state-of-the-art technology.
The Learning Center has heated hitting bays, which allow up to five people to hit simultaneously, and includes one bay that is equipped with a state-of-the-art V1 filming system and the newest TrackMan technology. The Learning Center also includes an indoor putting room that utilizes the Tomi video system, as well as a club repair and a club storage room.
“I can’t imagine he wouldn’t be disappointed because I know I am.”
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Growing up as the grandson of Arnold Palmer, Sam Saunders brings a perspective on one of the all-time legends of the game. It was Palmer who was his guiding light in the game and whose words of wisdom still serve as the foundation he goes back to.
So, when asked to comment on how he thinks his grandfather, who died in 2016, would have felt about the friction in the game since the launch of LIV Golf, Saunders is quick to say he can’t speak for “The King,” but that doesn’t mean he can’t offer an educated guess.
“It’s not fair to ever assume what anyone would think, period,” he said. “I can’t tell you I think he would think this, but based on my relationship with him and how I feel about the game of golf and how important it is to keep it accessible and fun, I can’t imagine he wouldn’t be disappointed because I know I am.”
Saunders is 36 and after playing in 158 career events on the PGA Tour has dealt with a myriad of injuries the past few years – cyst on his wrist, broken collarbone, broken left leg, just to name a few – but is healthy again and spent the past season on the Korn Ferry Tour trying to work his way back to the Tour that his grandfather helped build. (The players broke away from the PGA of America in 1968.)
“I don’t judge anyone for decisions they make because I’m not walking in their shoes but no one can buy the game of golf, nobody owns the game of golf. It’s a game that should be available for anyone to play. It’s important that everyone remembers that it should be a game that brings people together, not push them apart,” Saunders said. “Personally, I’d love to see the PGA Tour go back to its roots and stick to a little bit more of the tradition of the game. I won’t candy-coat it at all, I’m not a fan of limited-field, no-cut events. That’s not what the game is about. What makes it unique is there is no guaranteed money, it’s a performance-based sport. I felt like we had it pretty solid for a lot of years. I know that the years I played out there I never could have imagined we were playing for that much money. Purses have gone up to a point that I personally don’t feel are sustainable nor necessary.
“How much money does an individual need to make playing a sport? I think it should be performance-based. I hope that all of this will end in a positive way. Right now, I’ll be honest with you, I’m concerned. I know that 90 percent of players and those involved in the game are quite concerned and it’s justified to feel a little confused as to what’s going on. All I can do is hope that something good will prevail.”
Arnold Palmer and Sam Saunders pose for a Golfweek print story. (Photo by Allan Henry)
Saunders said he wasn’t pleased last year when it was initially proposed that the Arnold Palmer Invitational would become a small-field, no-cut signature event. (Later, the Tour reversed the decision and API, the Genesis Invitational and Memorial will all have a small cut.) Saunders, who grew up at the host course, Bay Hill Club & Lodge, and has played in the tournament 10 times, said he met with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan over lunch during the tournament in March and voiced his concerns, while noting, “I didn’t have anything to do in that decision.”
“That was something my grandfather would have been very passionate about, I think he would’ve always wanted to have a competitive event with a cut in it. Personally, I’m disappointed that it is as small a field as it is but I’m glad there is a cut,” Saunders said.
While he needs to take care of business this week at PGA Tour Q-School, which begins Thursday at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course and Sawgrass Country Club with five Tour cards available, Saunders already is targeting getting back into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which he last played in March 2020.
Sam Saunders tees off at the 2015 Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“I don’t want to play in it because it’s a limited field, I want to play in it because it’s a great event,” he said. “I don’t like that we are identifying events as good ones and bad ones. They should all be great events. Every single event on the PGA Tour should be recognized as the best players in the world competing. It really upsets me when they’re limiting fields and not having cuts because we’re no longer identifying the best player, we’re identifying the best player in a limited circumstance, basically.
“I want to get back and play in the API and I’m very pleased that we’re going to have a cut there this year. I’d love to see all of the non-majors on a more equal level. Whether it’s Tiger’s event at the Genesis or Mr. Nicklaus’s event at Muirfield or my granddad’s event or the Colonial, obviously those events hold certain value on Tour but in no way did I think the Arnold Palmer Invitational was better or more important than any other Tour event. It has a certain history to it, it has my granddad’s name to it, which holds value. I wanted our golf course to be as good as it could possibly be and have it be the best test of golf for the players. That’s the only competitive nature I felt with my involvement in the tournament.”
Spoken like the grandson of one of the all-time greats.
Meet all 33 players who have received the Arnold Palmer Award.
The silly season debate on who deserves to be the Rookie of the Year will make for an interesting few weeks during the PGA Tour’s offseason this winter, as both Eric Cole and recent winner Ludvig Aberg are the frontrunners vying for the honor.
The PGA Tour has given the Arnold Palmer Award to its Rookie of the Year annually since Robert Gamez was the inaugural winner in 1990. Many a major champion have earned the honor – including the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler, to name a few – but a few of the winners may surprise you.
Meet all 33 winners of the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year Award.
