Palmer Prefers To Slip Away Unnoticed Golfing’s Biggest Name Remains True To The Game

When the day comes, the general of “Arnie’s Army” will pull a Douglas MacArthur.

There won’t be any retirement announcements. No final victory tours. No dramatic last hole in front of teary-eyed fans.

Slowly, he will whittle down his playing schedule, playing less and less. Then one day, he won’t be playing at all.

MacArthur’s farewell, with a twist, will apply to Arnold Palmer too: “Old golfers don’t die, they just fade away.”

He wants to do it his way. When a hospitality group for this week’s U.S. Senior Open at Olympia Fields Country Club suggested in promotional materials that this would be Palmer’s last appearance in Chicago, he wrote a scathing letter. He said he had never made any statements to that effect. Even if it were the case, Palmer wouldn’t say so anyway.

Finality just isn’t his game.

“I just want to fade off the scene,” Palmer, 67, said. “That’s exactly how I will do it. Then I’ll go back to Latrobe (Pa.) and play with Doc Giffen (his longtime assistant).”

The future always is uncertain. Palmer, recovering from prostate cancer, knows that all too well this year.

But this much is certain: Palmer teed off Thursday for the first round of the U.S. Senior Open, and whether it is his last time in Chicago or not, the troops will be out in full force again for “Arnie’s Army.”

The Chicago area will be the capital of golf for the next two weeks. First up has been the U.S. Senior Open at storied Olympia Fields Country Club, a terrific venue. Then the younger set gets its turn at the Motorola Western Open at Cog Hill over Fourth of July weekend.

It will be Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Ray Floyd and Hale Irwin playing in the biggest Senior Tour event of the year, followed by the new prince of golf, Tiger Woods, making his first appearance as a pro in Chicago.

But it wouldn’t be complete without the King. Nicklaus is a god on the fairways, and Woods’ power is awe-inspiring, but only one golfer is revered, and his name is Palmer.

Floyd, a legend in his own right, says whenever he gets aggravated, “My buzz word is Arnold. What would Arnold do?”

A few weeks ago, Palmer was opening a new golf course in West Virginia when an old reporter friend posed this question: “You haven’t won a tournament since (1988); does it ever make you wonder why we’re grilling you?”

“I got to thinking,” Palmer said. “I asked my wife (Winnie) about it. She had an answer for me. I’m not going to say what she said, but it was a nice answer.”

Palmer’s fellow pros know the answer.

“If we all had to give 25 percent of our purse to Arnie, we’d still come out ahead,” Floyd said. “He made this game.”

If Woods is leading the second golf explosion, it was Palmer who sparked the first. He was the first television golfer, coming into the nation’s homes every week with his unique swing - a slashing, parts-flying-all-over-the-place, all-out attack at the ball that was more working class than country club. Palmer’s go-for-broke mentality had golf fans living on the edge and loving every minute of it.

The love affair lives on 42 years after Palmer won his first pro tournament. There now are more bogeys than birdies with only one top-10 finish in the last four years. He has played only three Senior Tour events this year, pocketing $5,555 in prize money, barely enough to fuel his plane.

The youthful handsome looks also have become worn and leathery, like a comfortable loafer. But the fans see the same old Palmer. They still swoon, even if they are grandmothers.

“Last year, I was paired with Arnie in Pensacola, (Fla.) and he was really down,” said Chi Chi Rodriguez. “He just made an 11-footer to save a three-putt. He said, ‘Chi Chi, I think my best days are behind me. I’m thinking of packing it up.’

“I said, ‘Arnold, look around this green. Do you think these people care about what you shoot? They’re here to see you and shake your hand.’ He said thanks.”

Palmer does thrive on the fans, but he also cares about the kind of golf he plays. He grumbles that he doesn’t hit the ball as long and it hurts more when he sees the “young guys out there so far.”

After shooting a 72 during a tournament in May, a friend complimented him on his game, thinking the score wasn’t bad for a 67-year-old man recovering from cancer surgery.

“I played terrible,” Palmer growled.

“My game, it’s better,” Palmer said. “It’s not of the quality I would like. I’m hitting the ball well, but I’m not scoring. Still, it’s much better than it was.”

Palmer will take playing over the alternative. He discovered the alternative in January when he was told he had cancer.

The news stunned the golf world, but Palmer’s reaction didn’t. Instead of taking the conservative approach, Palmer played it aggressively, electing to have surgery immediately.

Palmer was back at his desk within days, but golf was out of the question. Not for six weeks, the doctors said.

For the first time in his life, Palmer had to stay away from the game he loved. He still rode a cart around his home course, Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla., to be with the boys, but his friends saw how hard it was on him.

“Sure, it was tough on him,” said longtime friend Sam DiGiovanni. “This isn’t a man used to being down. But he had no choice. The doctor said don’t play golf. He didn’t play golf.”

Through it all, DiGiovanni said Palmer stayed positive. Palmer acknowledges being “scared” when he learned of his cancer, but DiGiovanni maintains Palmer’s wife “wouldn’t let him get down.”

Sure enough, on Day 42, six weeks after the surgery, Palmer was on the course.

Palmer managed to play in his own tournament at Bay Hill in mid-March, but his main goal was to compete in The Masters, a tournament he won four times between 1958 and 1964.

With only two competitive rounds under his belt, Palmer set off for Augusta National. But it was too much for him. One of the greatest ever to walk those greens shot 89-87.

Palmer said he was “embarrassed,” and his friends expressed concern that he was trying to come back too soon.

“He played too early,” said Gary Player, 61, who had surgery for a hernia in May. “With my operation, which was nowhere near as serious as his, it’s been tough. Anytime you go under, it’s hard on the body. He should have waited four months to play. He’s 67. He’s no youngster.”

Palmer acknowledges that Player and the others probably were right. But to not play would have been to concede defeat to cancer. When you’ve been winning all your life, losing, especially to cancer, isn’t an option.

“I did probably play too early,” Palmer said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have done it. But those were commitments I made to myself. I’d do it again right now. It was important for me, and it was important for people who get sick to show that you can get back on your feet. It was something I had to do.”

However, Palmer is making concessions, giving himself a chance to recover. The U.S. Senior Open is his first tournament since mid-May.

This isn’t to say that Palmer is sitting back in his recliner. He is jetting around the country designing golf courses, with almost 200 in the fold. He has his own line of clubs, many endorsements and numerous other business activities.

“I’m having a leisurely day today,” Palmer said with the phones ringing off the hook in the background at his office.

Arnold Palmer slow down? That’s a notion as ridiculous as Palmer laying up at a par 5.