{"id":792,"date":"2014-04-07T04:01:36","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T04:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=792"},"modified":"2015-01-09T15:53:16","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T20:53:16","slug":"arnold-palmer-at-oakmont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/04\/07\/arnold-palmer-at-oakmont\/","title":{"rendered":"Arnold Palmer at Oakmont"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Arnold <\/a>
Arnold in 1947. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Deacon <\/a>
Deacon and Arnold Palmer in Pinehurst, N.C., in 1963. (Photo credit: Unknown) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Arnold <\/a>
Arnold in the driveway of his home in 1958. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Arnold <\/a>
Arnold at the Caddie Invitational Tournament in Oakmont in 1963. (Harry Coughanour\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Sept. 28, 1960:<\/strong>\u00a0Arnold Palmer was born in September 1929. A month later, Wall Street imploded and times got tough. For Arnold\u2019s father, Milfred \u201cDeacon\u201d Palmer, that meant taking on two jobs at the Latrobe Country Club \u2014 greenskeeper and golf pro.<\/p>\n

Young Arnold rode on the tractor his dad drove on the country club\u2019s golf course. Deacon couldn\u2019t afford fancy toys, so when Arnold played, it was on the links, whacking a ball with a club cut down to his size. He was pretty good at it.<\/p>\n

By age 8, Arnold was hanging out at the water hole, waiting for struggling golfers warily eyeing the ditch 120 yards up the fairway. For a nickel, Arnold would hit the ball over for them.<\/p>\n

As a freshman at Latrobe High School, Arnold wanted to play football but he was too small \u2014 no uniform would fit him. He went home to tell his dad. By then World War II was raging. Deacon had taken a third job, working nights in the melt shop of the Latrobe Steel Co. Deacon came home at night exhausted and bearing scars that would stay with him until his death. Arnold would later recall his dad coming up the steps at home after a shift. \u201cHe couldn\u2019t walk,\u201d Arnold said. \u201cHe crawled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deacon didn\u2019t want to hear his son complain about football uniforms or limitations. \u201cQuit bellyaching,\u201d Deacon said. \u201cPlay it as it lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Arnold focused on golf. And he was remarkable. He won the Western Pennsylvania junior title three times.<\/p>\n

At the country club, though, he was still the son of a club employee. That meant Arnold couldn\u2019t swim in the club pool or enter the locker room without his father.<\/p>\n

Sometimes Arnold played golf with guys who worked with his dad in the melt shop. These were men with names like Scootch Goodman and Pickles Vilk. Years later, he\u2019d have other golf buddies with names like Dwight Eisenhower and Bob Hope.<\/p>\n

Arnold turned pro and transformed golf in the way that Babe Ruth transformed baseball. He played the game with what seemed like great ease and gusto and was superb. He was cool and comfortable and relaxed and confident. He had fun.<\/p>\n

Crowds loved him and followed him around the course. To them, he was not just a man struggling to put a tiny ball into a small hole. He was somebody they recognized.<\/p>\n

Bob Drum, a Pittsburgh Press writer who followed Arnold through his peak years, put it like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cArnold looked like he just came from the mill. Now, the masses had somebody to root for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golf would never be the same.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arnold focused on golf. And he was remarkable. He won the Western Pennsylvania junior title three times.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesArnold Palmer at Oakmont<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[944],"tags":[978,1238,1057,1035,1239],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/tumblr_n3ix0vNp731rr5swxo3_1280.jpg?fit=864%2C649&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":761,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/04\/16\/officer-baby-face-palmer-and-the-hill-district\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":0},"title":"Officer ‘Baby Face’ Palmer and the Hill District","date":"April 16, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"In the course of doing his job, he was shot, stabbed, stoned and beaten.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/tumblr_n430v7IhPt1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C880&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6280,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2016\/01\/06\/striking-twice-with-a-lightning-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":1},"title":"Striking twice with a lightning story","date":"January 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember our story about the trolley that was hit by a bolt in 1950? Alda Grazer Arnold was aboard that car and she told us her story.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Digs.20160104smTrolly002.jpg?fit=1200%2C754&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1157,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/12\/06\/whatever-happened-to-santo-bazzano\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":2},"title":"Whatever happened to Santo Bazzano?","date":"December 6, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Santo Bazzano disappeared from the news until 1935.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-17-at-12.02.01-AM.png?fit=1052%2C532&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1494,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/08\/16\/steelers-and-their-fans-throughout-the-years-at-the-training-camp-in-latrobe\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":3},"title":"Steelers and their fans throughout the years at the training camp in Latrobe","date":"August 16, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"As usual, several thousand fans will be there to see off the team.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/tumblr_mrle9de95j1rr5swxo3_r1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C875&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1764,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/05\/22\/mourning-the-bloody-end-of-a-racketeer-husband\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":4},"title":"Mourning the bloody end of a racketeer husband","date":"May 22, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"All Rose Bazzano knew was that her husband John was on a business trip to New York.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/tumblr_mn5vg18pGO1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C723&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1518,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/08\/09\/having-a-drink-with-the-steelers\/","url_meta":{"origin":792,"position":5},"title":"Having a drink with the Steelers","date":"August 9, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Normal people would call them water breaks.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/tumblr_mr8hpg258T1rr5swxo4_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C864&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4004,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions\/4004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}