Arnie: The Life of Arnold Palmer Paperback – Big Book, 11 August 2023

I was expecting a full biography but it seemed more like a series of anecdotes strung round important dates in the golfer's career, with some comments thrown in from current golfers.The anecdotes are often entertaining and insightful. Palmer was one of my golfing heroes as a boy but by the end of the book I was not convinced that he was a very interesting man and the personal edge between him and Nicklaus was a bit grating. I also did not realise he was such a womaniserThere are some good character sketches of some of the other players of the period. An easy read I enjoyed it but was unsatisfied by it.

Published shortly after his death in September 2016, Arnie: The Life of Arnold Palmer is a breezy account of his life, based on snippets of his career.It's not your typical biography (more of a 20,000-foot view), so I wouldn't recommend it unless you have read other biographies of Arnold Palmer. Of course, most Palmer fans have probably consumed the earlier works. This book does, however, include 15 pages of tributes to the golf great.Here are some things I learned from the book:▪ Arnie's father, Deacon, never gave him compliments and he spent his life trying to please his father (to no avail). "I prayed for compliments from Dad, but they never came," he says. "In a way it was good. I never got satisfied."▪ Winning the US Amateur in 1954 was his proudest achievement in golf.▪ Ben Hogan disliked Palmer, refusing to call him by name. Hogan had no respect for him.▪ Palmer made $40 million a year in his mid-80s without hitting a single golf shot that counted.▪ Palmer won major tournaments for just six years, while Jack Nicklaus won majors for 25 years and Gary Player for 20 years.▪ Palmer was not really a family man; he preferred to be on the golf course. He was a womanizer.▪ Fans loved Arnie because he was charismatic and he liked people, and they knew it. He had the same persona in public as in private.▪ When television first embraced golf, it had a swashbuckling hero in Palmer as the face of the game.Callahan writes that "all players should thank Palmer for what he did to grow the game, popularize it and the foundation he created."Without Arnold Palmer, Callahan says there would still be a PBA Tour, just not the same.A 60-page appendix, compiled by Cliff Schrock, lists all of his victories, year-by-year professional results for every tournament Palmer competed in, every score he shot and money earned.

Great Book on Arnie’s Golf with precision personal instruction and the essential mental aspects in playing the game of Golf!!Five ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ all the way!!

Wonderfully written very informative and provides the reader a genuine account of one of the greatest golfers that has ever played the game. Would recommend to anyone who loves the game

I bought this for my husband who is a HUGE Arnold Palmer fan. I often caught him with tears in his eyes as he read, and he said it was so good it didn't want it to end.