Arnold Palmer Timeline
The Arnold Palmer timeline is a historical journey over the career and life of
Arnold Palmer. From the section below you can pick a date from the calendar
below to view a particular moment in Arnie's life.
 | MAR
 | 1955 -- After a cross-country drive from Phoenix to St. Petersburg, Florida, Palmer decides it’s time to have his old car looked over at a local service station. “When they hoisted it up, the left-front wheel fell off. I had been driving very fast with a trailer on the back just prior to that.” His good luck and timing doesn’t extend to the St. Petersburg tournament. He finishes 17th and claims no prize money. | | MAR
 | 1958 -- Palmer is distracted by a loudly squalling baby as he lines up the crucial 4-foot putt he needs to win the St. Petersburg Open at Pasadena Golf Club. “I was thinking, ‘That sounds like our Peggy.' I figured any kid that could yell that loud had to be okay.” He sinks the putt and wins the $2,000 first prize. During the prize ceremony, Palmer asks Winnie, “What did you bring Peggy out here for?” She replies, “Did I know the child would start howling the second you had to make that putt?” Everyone laughs. | | MAR
 | 1957 -- Palmer storms the field at the Cape Fear C.C. near Wilmington, N.C., to win the 1957 Azalea Open and $1,700. | | MAR
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1958 -- A missed two-foot putt cost Palmer a shot at winning the Baton Rouge Open. His second place check is for $1,350. Years later, the memory of the missed putt still stings as Palmer tells reporters, “I won’t say I was angry, but they never did find that putter.”
| MAR
 | 1958 -- Palmer finishes third at the Greater New Orleans Open; earns $1,300.
| MAR
 | 1958 -- Patrons pay $2 each to watch Palmer and others practice for
the 22nd Masters Tournament at Augusta. Entrance fees for the first two
rounds are $3, with tickets for Saturday and Sunday costing $5 and
$7.50 respectively. | MAR
| Loses First Playoff to Texan Howie Johnson | | MAR
 | 1959 -- Palmer is asked if he’s ever fretful about the outcome of an unlikely shot: “When I take a shot that seems bold, it never occurs to me that I might miss it. And when I do, I’m surprised as hell. I just can’t believe it.”
| MAR
| 1959 -- Golf Magazine anticipates the rise of the next great golfer
in an article headlined, “The Super Player.” The Charles Price feature
asks the question: Is Masters champ Arnold Palmer the first of a new
breed of playing pros? “The one who comes closest to looking like the
super player of the future is the pugnacious looking
29-year-old named Arnold Palmer, the current Masters champion, who
drives like a ballplayer going for the fences and putts like a man
shooting the eyes out of a squirrel.”
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