Few people have transformed any sport – perhaps any human activity – the way Arnold Palmer, who died on Sunday, transformed golf. Before he came along in the 1950s, golf on both sides of the Atlantic was snobby, reactionary and made little effort to broaden its appeal. Though some vestiges of the old exclusiveness still cling on, Mr Palmer threw most of golf’s gates wide open, with lasting consequences. From a modest Pennsylvania background, he played aggressively and, young and good-looking, he pulled in the crowds and rode the wave of the television age. He treated all four “majors” seriously, travelling regularly to Britain and lifting our sometimes parochial Open championship on to the world stage. He spotted the financial potential of image rights; even this year he was still golf’s fifth-highest lifetime earner, though he last won a major in 1964. The working-class, racially diverse, male and female golf champions of the modern world are his legacy. Golf is loved and loathed as few sports. But it was Arnold Palmer, with his skill and his sportsmanship, who made it what is loved and loathed today.
