Stenson, McDowell discuss Arnold Palmer as a role model, golf pioneer

Arnold Palmer brought the sport to the everyman and was a great role model for young golfers

BAY HILL, Fla. -- You can pick from a whole host of qualities of which to consider one Arnold Palmer’s greatest. Palmer was kind, fun-loving, gregarious, clever, compelling and generally larger than life. He changed golf. His total major championships won (seven) and total PGA Tour event titles (62) belie his importance to the sport and the PGA Tour.

Palmer passed away last fall, and this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational will be the first without him in attendance.

“Obviously we’ll have a lot on our minds in regards to what Arnold’s done for the game and what he’s created here, and I’m sure it will be well-supported and it will be a fun week,” said one of the tournament hosts Graeme McDowell on Tuesday. “I think that he would like us, he would probably would wish us all to be celebrating rather than commiserating this week, and I think it will be a celebration and hopefully some great golf played ...”

On Tuesday, I asked McDowell and Henrik Stenson, both of whom have real ties to Palmer’s tournament, what Palmer’s lasting impact will be. Stenson, who has finished in the top eight in four straight events at Bay Hill, gave a nod to how Palmer brought an game for the elites to the common man.

“He just made it a very popular sport among the average guy out there,” said Stenson. “I think he brought golf to the masses and made it a very popular game. ...

“You could always argue his achievements on the golf course or his achievements off the golf course, given how involved in charity and Arnie’s Army and everything that’s been done outside the golf course. So, there’s a lot of things to choose from, but I’ll stick to that first one.”

I was not even a thought when Palmer won his first (and hell, last) major championship, but it is fascinating to hear the stories told about how unfailingly cool Palmer was to a country that embraced and lionized cool. He took a British game and made it American.

McDowell said on Tuesday that Palmer not only made the game more popular, he made the men who play it better.

“I think that he treated people and carried himself on so many different levels the way that we all aspire to,” said McDowell. “From his signature on every autograph that he ever signed to just the way he touched people and the way he gave back and really just as the most one of the most rounded athletes that we can think of. 

“His personality was bigger than his golf in so many ways, and like I say, he was as great a role model as we can think of in the game of golf ... There’s just so many intangibles that as young players we can’t really grasp because the world has changed so much in the last 20 years. But he laid down the foundations for a lot of the things that we know and feel today.”

That foundation includes more exposure, more money and greater fame. It’s the American Dream. With that, McDowell said, comes great responsibility. 

“That role model aspect, I think, is something that we all could learn a huge amount from, and I certainly try to carry myself like him and treat people the way I would want to be treated by Arnold Palmer if I would have met him when I was a kid.”