Memories, mementoes highlight 2009 Golf Hall of Fame
BY LAMAR THAMES
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA. — Dwight Eisenhower is the first (and most favorite) president that I remember and Arnold Palmer has always been one of my favorite golfers. The two came together on Nov. 2, 2009, at the World Golf Village’s Hall of Fame inductions.
The ageless 80-year-old Palmer was there to induct his friend and frequent golfing partner,
Merrill Eisenhower Atwater, left, great grandson of Dwight Eisenhower, with Arnold Palmer at the Golf Hall of Fame induction for the former president. (Photo by Lamar Thames)
“The President, Ike, or the General,” into the hall for his contributions to the game.
“His contributions to golf were immense,” Palmer noted. So much so that the number of golf courses doubled during his eight years in office and the number of golfers competing in the sport rose from about 3 million to more than 6 million during that time.
Also being inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame were Lanny Wadkins (who is a funny, personable guy), Jose Maria Olazabal (who is smaller and younger than he looks on television) and Ireland’s Christy O’Conner (who couldn’t make the ceremony because of his health).
DWIGHT EISENHOWER
The combination of Eisenhower and Palmer was a winning quinella for the game of golf in the 1950s and 1960s. At one time considered an elitist activity because only rich people could afford to play , the game grew under the tutorledge of a military war hero and a broad-shouldered athlete from Western Pennsylvania.
Separately, Eisenhower’s everyman persona and Palmer’s charisma would have been enough to accomplish the trick. Together, they proved to be formidable in bringing golf to the masses.
At a press conference before the nighttime inductions, Palmer revealed how he came to meet President Eisenhower.
“Ike called Cliff Roberts (president of the Masters Tournament) and asked if Roberts could arrange a match between the president and the winner of the tournament,” Palmer said. “Roberts told the president he would ask whoever won the tournament and let him know.
“After I had won and took care of some business, Roberts came over to me and asked if I would be able to play a round with President Eisenhower. I said, ‘Well, if the president can arrange his schedule, I guess I can, too.’
“We played the round and hit it off real well. We were friends from then on and played together on many occasions,” Palmer said. “Later, when Ike was no longer playing because of his health, we would just sit and talk about golf and things. He would talk about some of the things he had done and I would tell him about some of my accomplishments. We just enjoyed talking to each other.”
Once when Palmer’s wife, Winnie, was planning a surprise birthday party for him, she got a call from Mamie, asking if she thought Palmer would mind if the president came to the party. “The day of the party, the door bell rang and here was this general standing at the door, asking me if I could put up an old man for the weekend. That is just the way he was.”
Palmer said he played with every president since Eisenhower except for John Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. Kennedy reportedly was a good golfer and Palmer had a round scheduled with him once, he said, but the late president canceled because of his bad back. Carter didn’t play golf.
LANNY WADKINS
When a reporter spotted a $4 check from Ben Hogan to Wadkins in the Hall of Fame exhibit, he said, “Hey, we got to ask about that.”
Lanny Wadkins (Photo by Lamar Thames)
The question turned into a humorous moment at the press conference. The accompanying video relates the story very well as to how Wadkins came to have the check after a skins game, but after I turned off the camera to save the battery, he continued with the story.
“Hogan’s secretary would call me every couple of months asking when I was going to cash that check,” Wadkins recalled. “Her name was Clara Belll. I told her there was not a chance in hell that I was ever going to cash that check.” It is a good thing he didn’t because now he has a priceless memento from one of the greatest golfers to ever play the game. And a good story to tell, as well.
When asked if there were things he would have done differently during his career, Wadkins said, “I would have taken better care of myself. Probably done more Pilates. We weren’t a cookies-and-milk crowd back then. We had our share of malted beverages and probably stayed out too late at times.”
Wadkins, who won 21 times on the PGA tour, won only one major, the 1977 PGA Championship, which may have kept him from being elected into the Hall years ago. He became eligible 14 years ago and was one year from his name being removed from the regular ballot.
Still, he is glad to be included among the best in professional golf.
“It wasn’t easy to win 20 tournaments back then, the conditions were so much tougher. I am proud to be here. I just should have won more majors.”
He recalled playing with Hogan in the early ’80s. He said Hogan told him, “You hit the ball so well, I don’t know why you don’t win more often.”
That is when he decided, “Well, I need to get after it.” And he did, compiling a record to be among the top 30 percent of pros and building a record-sharing Ryder Cup career, with eight appearances and a 20-11-3 record.
JOSE MARIE OLAZABAL
Like Tiger Woods, Olazabal was introduced to golf at an early age. He was born in the
Jose Maria Olazabal beams while talking to Arnold Palmer. (Photo by Lamar Thames
middle of a 9-hold golf course that was built around the family farm and was given a golf ball and putter to play with at the age of 2, given to him by his grandfather, who got the job as greenskeeper at the new course.
By the time he was 7, Olazabal was winning amateur tournaments and told his parents at 16 that he wanted to become a professional golfer.
“You should have seen their faces,” Olazabal said at the press conference. “They didn’t know anything about golf. They did ask me to finish high school before turning pro, so I did.”
Olazabal, elected on the international ballot with 59 percent of the vote, won 29 times on the professional tour, including two majors, the Masters in 1994 and 1999. He is also the only amateur champion (the British Amateur) to win a professional major since World War II.
He was presented at the Hall via a video-taped introduction from his good friend, Seve Ballesteros, a 1997 Hall inductee who is suffering from brain cancer.
NOTE: The exhibits celebrating each member of the 2009 Golf Hall of Fame class is open to the public at World Golf Village on Interstate 95 north of St. Augustine. The Hall of fame is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $20.50 for adults with discounts for seniors, students, military and groups of 10 or more. Admission for children from 5 to 12 is $10 and children 4 and under is free.
