Arnold Palmer Design: Latest News

Kingdom: The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard has been meticulously prepared as ever. Have you made many changes over the last 12 months to the layout or appearance of Bay Hill this year as this will be the tournament’s 30th anniversary?
Arnold Palmer: We have rebuilt a couple of tees and built a couple of new tees, on No’s 3 and 14 basically, and that’s about it for any changes at all in the golf course. The course will be about the same length with those two exceptions, No 3 is a little longer but 14 is not. It’s just a second tee in the same general position as the first. Regarding the field, we never know who’s going to play until the final moment. We certainly expect a good field and some years we have had an excellent field. I can’t predict how many of the top 20 or 10 , or what have you, will play, but I’m hoping it’s going to be good. We’re very fortunate that we traditionally have one of the strongest fields on the PGA Tour.

K: The USGA’s new Center for Golf History, which is named after you, opens shortly. When did you last visit and what can you tell us about the Center?
AP: It will open on June 3rd and we just had a President’s Council meeting here at Bay Hill. That went very well and the report to the board was very favorable and quite interesting. I’m excited to go back for the opening to see what has been done since the original dedication in November of 2005.

K: General Motors Corporation is a new sponsor of the Arnold Palmer Invitational this year. You have obviously had a long-standing relationship with GM — how did this relationship come about and are there any plans to expand on this relationship?
AP: I’ve always had some relationship with General Motors. I have been a dealer for many, many years and am still a dealer. Of course, they have been very helpful through the Pontiac division, providing us with tournament courtesy cars for the players and they will be doing that again this year.

K: With the Masters Tournament soon upon us, are you planning to attend and have you been asked once again to be the honorary starter?
AP: I have agreed to that request, but won’t stay the duration of the tournament. I plan to leave at some point on Thursday after the tournament begins. As for playing in the Par-Three tournament [which takes place on the Wednesday before the start of the tournament], I’m looking at that but haven’t made a decision yet.

K: During the winter months, how do you keep in shape -- by playing regular social golf and/or making regular visits to the gym?
AP: I work out every morning, first thing. When I play golf it’s mostly social, but I’m always working on my game. I used to do a lot of swimming, but haven’t done much in recent years. So, I work out, come to the office here and do my paperwork then I go to practice, hit a few balls and play golf. We have a Shoot-Out here every day at Bay Hill and it’s very exciting. It’s fun golf and you don’t have to make your own game -- you just put your name on the list and the pro shop makes the foursomes or fivesomes. Every day we do that. It’s a regular gang we have here. On New Year’s Eve we had 125 in our Shoot-Out and it was really competitive. There are no handicaps, everybody plays from scratch. They try to pair A, B, C, D and E players.

K: Lorena Ochoa won the LPGA Tour money list by a huge margin. What sort of long-term impact do you feel she can have on the game worldwide? Also, can you comment on her conduct on and off the course and obvious rapport with the galleries?
AP: Well I think she’s doing very well. I don’t know her personally, but I read about her and watch her at tournaments and she is obviously quite a star and quite a player. I suspect there’s an opportunity for the LPGA to generate some real interest in the competition between her and Annika Sorenstam, which will in turn will create some additional interest in the Tour.

K: It seems that the LPGA is a much more competitive and successful Tour these days?
AP: Yes, the players are getting better, [chuckles] and prettier too. They’re very attractive and they’re good players which I think is a great asset to the LPGA.

K: Which young players on the PGA Tour would you pinpoint as stars of the future, potential Ryder Cup participants and even possible major winners?
AP: Well there’s Daniel Chopra. Certainly in the last six months, he’s become quite a figure on the PGA Tour. He’s won two tournaments and his golf, I would say, has been outstanding. He’s a good player and he’s been playing here at Bay Hill for about a year. I’ve gotten to know him well and he’s a nice young man.

K: Have any American players caught your eye?
AP: Hunter Mahan played well in the British Open. Brandt Snedecker is a pretty good player and Joe Durant has done well recently. Then there’s Steve Stricker; he’s really come on. He used to work for me at Palmer Golf. He had a spell in the doldrums, but he’s back now. Of the guys we know who are coming to Bay Hill this year, there’s [Rory] Sabbatini, [Geoff] Ogilvy, Woody Austin, Aaron Baddeley and Stewart Cink. Jason Day, an Australian, is another boy to watch.

K: How is the budding career of your grandson Sam Saunders going?
AP: I can tell you one thing, I’m very proud of my grandson. The other day the coach invited him to an outing at Clemson and he was the only one on the golf team invited. The reason was that he had the highest grade points average of anybody on the team, and the lowest scoring average. And he shot 66 at that outing which was very nice.

K: The [British] Open is returning this year to Royal Birkdale, the scene of your first Claret Jug in 1961. What are your recollections of that victory and how do you rate the course in comparison with the other venues for this championship?
AP: For me that was a great week. There were a lot of things happening. I hit a lot of good shots and it was my first British Open win. That shot I hit at 16 in the last round out of a bush was interesting. I didn’t make the putt, but it gave me the opportunity to win. It’s a great golf course and I enjoyed the hell out of it. The conditions on the final day were the toughest we had played. And I played my best golf the day the weather was really bad in the last round.

K: [Pointing to a picture on the desk] Is that the latest addition to the Palmer Family?
AP: Yes that is my new great grandson -- Samuel James Schneider. He lives in New York.

K: The PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach has recently been renovated. What can you say about the freshening-up work that has been done on the course you originally designed there?
AP: It’s very good. As a matter of fact I’m going down there later this month to take another look and maybe hit a few shots on the reconditioned golf course.

K: What Arnold Palmer Design Company courses are under construction at present
and which ones are taking up most of your time?
AP: We’re doing one called Seven Falls in North Carolina, near Asheville, which is really very good. It’s in the mountains but isn’t a hilly golf course because it sits in a valley. The setting is beautiful and the project is shaping up to be one of our first Palmer Premier golf courses. We’re doing all kinds of things there like putting in practice ranges and a short course in addition to the 18-hole championship course. There’s going to be a pre-opening there in June but the official grand opening for the course will not be until 2009. We’ve got another course up in the Florida Panhandle called Owl’s Head which is shaping up rather rapidly and we’ve got North Carolina State University in Raleigh which is also coming along. We’re doing some repairs to Matanzas Woods which is on the Palm Coast. The Federal Club up in Richmond, Virginia is just finishing up and they’re playing golf there right now -- it’s a very nice course.

K: You also currently a number of courses under construction in the Far East. Do you see the Far East as the next big growth area for golf?
AP: We’re working on a course in Beijing. Currently we’re not doing anything in Japan but we’ve got some stuff on the go in the Philippines and we’re looking at doing something in the Bahamas, which is very popular with golfers at the moment. As far as the growth of golf in the Far East is concerned, it’s growing as fast as we’re building them. It’s a real hot spot for golf that will continue to be an ongoing place to build golf courses without question. Asia
generally is going to continue to be very popular.

K: We have an article in this issue with Babe Krinock, the man who taught you to fly. Did you ever think of teaching him how to play golf?
AP: [Laughing] What are you doing with Babe? He plays golf, and actually he’s a pretty good golfer. I’ve given him tips and I’ve played with him once or twice. He’s 84 years old and he taught me to fly in 1955 – so you can figure that out. And he’s still playing golf and instructing at the Arnold Palmer Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

K: What charity work are you currently devoting some of your time to?
AP: I am very involved in the Arnold Palmer Medical Center which is right here in Orlando and that consists of the Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital, the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies. The Arnold Palmer Medical Center has 3,124 employees including 501 physicians and as of January 7, 2008 more than $10 million had been raised for this cause by our tournament. There were 13,898 births at the center in 2007 compared with 12,552 in 2006. Due to the construction of new units to deal with cancer and kidney disease, we are currently operating 136 beds in the Arnold Palmer Hospital. But when that work is completed, we will be licensed for 158.

K: Are you currently involved in any project with the First Tee program?
AP: I’m very involved. It’s a shame Doc Giffin isn’t here because he would tell you that when we closed the Arnold Palmer Golf Company a couple of years ago I bought back all the inventory that was left. Shortly we will be giving all of that inventory to the First Tee program, which amounts to a couple of hundred sets of clubs -- irons and woods.

K: We understand you have an experimental green here at Bay Hill. What is that all about?
AP: It’s already in and growing. It’s an experimental grass green that we are doing with SubAir and their new Hydronics System. It’s got L93, A1 and G2 bent grass on half. Then I have Sea Island Supreme, Miniverde and Champion Bermuda on the other half. We will know what works and what doesn’t in maybe a year.

K: What memories do you have of the singer and entertainer Don Cherry, an old
golfing adversary of yours both at amateur and professional level?
AP: He is a good friend of mine and lives in Las Vegas. He’s done a lot of albums and still does a lot of cabaret. He turned professional and played as a pro for a while, but it was too tough for him to maintain that career along with his singing. He did a million-selling record called ‘Band of Gold’ in 1955 and re-recorded it for his album ‘There Goes My Everything’ in 1968. I see him once a year out in Las Vegas.

K: You have recently received the Golf Coaches’ Association of America’s lifetime
achievement award. What does this mean to you?
AP: I’ve always been pretty big on college golf and young amateurs coming along, particularly at school age. Good coaching is something that goes along with that, like the Palmer Cup, which is an inter-collegiate event between the U.S.A. and Europe. Coaches are very important to continuing that program and making it successful and international. It’s not just about America.

K: You must be pleased with the way the Golf Channel has developed during the dozen or so years that have passed since it launched?
AP: I think it’s been fantastic. It’s very good and I think will continue to become more of a dominant part of the game of golf as more tournaments come within reach of the cameras.

K: If you were granted one wish for the game of golf in 2008, what would it be?
AP: At my age I can’t even wish that I will win the Masters or the Open, so I can’t get into that. I suppose I would like to see golf continue to make the progress that it has made over the last 50 years. I think international golf is now becoming a key to the golf world and suppose that I would like to see the progress they’re making overseas continue here too.

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