“We enjoyed talking about the weekend golf activities, for sure,” Giffin said. “And I gather that it meant something to the players who got those letters. He did over the years get a lot of ‘thank you’ notes from those who received a letter and appreciated it.”
In Gee Chun winning a major on the LPGA? A letter from Palmer. Mark O’Meara starring in the 1996 Presidents Cup with Palmer serving as his captain? A letter.
Wesley Bryan winning a third title on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2016, earning a battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour? Palmer sent him a letter. His letters weren’t solely for winners, either. If a player did something special, Palmer took notice.
As much as Palmer won, and he won some big events (his 62 PGA Tour titles included seven major championships), he lost some real heartbreakers, too. So any player who lost a championship at the wire might be a candidate for a comforting message from The King.
“From time to time, when somebody had a disappointment and didn’t win, some unusual circumstance, he would occasionally write to someone sympathetic that he didn’t win the tournament,” Giffin said.
When then-rising University of Michigan sophomore Nick Carlson made a spirited run at the 2016 U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills outside Detroit, advancing all the way to the semifinals, Palmer, who’d won the 1954 U.S. Amateur champion at nearby Country Club of Detroit, recognized the accomplishment. The U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills had been contested about a month before Palmer’s death, and the letter Carlson would receive was one of the final ones mailed out from the Palmer Enterprises office.
“To get the letter, read it, and get goosebumps reading it, almost kind of in tears, you’re so shocked and humbled that someone like that would take the time to reach out to you,” Carlson said.
Jordan Spieth figures he received close to 15 letters from Palmer. He keeps them all together, and vows to frame a few of his favorites to display in his home in Texas.
“I think the first one I got was the first John Deere,” Spieth said of his first Tour win, in 2013. “It was so cool. It’s personalized and signed. But…it wasn’t just this special feeling that this letter was coming to me; it was knowing that he took the time to do that each week, and not even just to winners on our tour that week. It’s awesome.”
Palmer’s impeccably neat letters — with a familiar Arnold Palmer, P.O. Box 52, Youngstown, Pa., in the bold header — were sent through the U.S. mail, though once Palmer started sending letters to winners on the LPGA, a PDF would be attached into an email and sent. With email at our fingertips daily, a letter of any kind has become a lost art. Palmer loved to create, sign and send them.
“That was just his nature,” Giffin said.
Palmer and Jack Nicklaus frequently were characterized as heated rivals on the course, but they became great friends. Nicklaus said Palmer took him under his wing as a young player and taught him a great deal about what it took to be a professional. It was Palmer who convinced Nicklaus to write a note to a tournament sponsor at the end of an event. Nicklaus began writing those notes as a PGA Tour rookie and continued the tradition into his days on what was then the PGA Senior Tour.
“It’s a nice touch that Arnold taught me,” Nicklaus said, “and I appreciated that very much.”
Following Palmer’s lead, Nicklaus sends a handwritten note to the four major winners each season, something he has done for more than 40 years. Did Jack ever receive a letter from his pal Arnold? He couldn’t remember one, though on the occasion of winning his sixth Masters in 1986 at age 46, Nicklaus did receive a Western Union telegram from Palmer.
Palmer, who was 10 years older than Nicklaus, first congratulated Nicklaus on winning his 18th major. And forever the optimist, Palmer concluded with this: “Might you think there’s a chance for a 56-year-old?”
Palmer’s history of writing letters dated to his playing days, when he’d take the time to thank sponsors after each tournament he’d play. As for the notes to players, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2013, he discussed how he and Giffin, his assistant, would get together on Mondays or Tuesdays, talk about the week’s winners, and send off a personalized message of congratulations. Palmer even confided that beyond being a great habit to continue, there existed a little extra incentive to correspond with the PGA Tour winners.
“It’s something that reminds them that we have a tournament also,” Palmer said, “and that we’d like them to show up here (to Bay Hill).”
Many times, though, there were no strings. The letters simply served as a gracious gesture to congratulate a player on a job well done. Golf is a lonely game that doles out far more disappointments than triumphant moments, and winning isn’t easy. People should take notice. Palmer always did.
English pro Paul Broadhurst sorted through mail he’d received in late September 2016 while he’d returned home from the U.S. to the tiny village of Fenny Dreyton, outside Nuneaton. There
were the usual bills, and there was one piece of correspondence that immediately caught his attention.
“It’s funny, actually,” Broadhurst said, “I thought it might be an invite to the Bay Hill Classic (Arnold Palmer Invitational), that’s what I thought. It had ‘Arnold Palmer’ on the envelope, and I thought to myself, ‘Right, I’ve just won the British Seniors, I’ve just won at Pebble Beach, it may be an invite to play.’ That was my initial reaction.”
Broadhurst, who’d won the PGA Tour Champions’ Nature Valley First Tee Pebble Beach Open nine days earlier, finally opened the envelope and received a surprise that trumped any tourney invite: There was a nicely written congratulatory letter signed from Mr. Palmer — received two days after Palmer’s death.
Broadhurst’s special keepsake is one of the last three letters Palmer mailed from his Pennsylvania office. In Gee Chun and Michael Thompson, who on Sept. 18, 2016, won events on the LPGA and Web.com Tour, respectively, also received letters from Palmer dated Sept. 19, less than a week before his death. (The PGA Tour was off the week of Sept. 15-18.)
On his home walls, Broadhurst has framed photos of him competing in the Ryder Cup, a picture of him playing alongside Spanish great Seve Ballesteros, and a photo from his amateur days at the British Open, when he was paired with Jack Nicklaus.
Broadhurst regrets that he never had the chance to meet Palmer in person; he had his letter framed to occupy a place of prominence in his home.
“It’s obviously very special,” Broadhurst said. “The way he wrote it, even though he was ill, he was watching the end of the golf, or he wouldn’t have known how I did play the 18th and the delay we had playing that hole.
“I’m going to find a nice space for it on my wall.”
