Arnie by Tom Callahan

Author:Tom Callahan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-02-22T05:00:00+00:00

14

1976

“I’m going to try to be your best friend from now on.”

AMERICA, ESPECIALLY AMERICAN TELEVISION, sees only American golf. Network announcers might calculate a Sergio García or Rory McIlroy victory “drought” in terms of years, even if it had been only weeks. By their count, poor Els won just 19 tournaments, never mind the 50-some world victories he rang up away from the PGA Tour. Even Palmer performed notable feats outside the country that barely registered on home radar.

In 1975, after a fallow couple of seasons, Arnold won the Spanish Open in April, a worthy tournament, and the British PGA in May, a big tournament, to almost no notice. Scottish journalist Renton Laidlaw was with him in Spain. “It meant so much to him,” Laidlaw said. “Right after the awards ceremony, I went down with him at La Manga to his condominium right on the course. He ran to the telephone to call Winnie in the States. It was almost as if he had won his first golf tournament. ‘Winnie! Winnie! I won the tournament!’ he shouted. ‘I’ve won again!’ He was so delighted, so elated. Like a young boy, like a twenty-one-year-old boy who had just lifted his first trophy. It was lovely to see. So natural. He was a superstar who was so completely normal. I wrote about that the next day in the paper.”

A year later, Palmer shot 64 in Palm Springs and seemed to be on his way to winning again in America, what would have been a sixth Bob Hope. But then something happened and he had to withdraw.

Doc Giffin’s best friend since childhood was an insurance salesman, a fellow Craftonite named Bill Finegan. One of Pittsburgh’s smokiest bedroom communities was Crafton, the suburb that shaped former Steelers coach Bill Cowher, known for making a sideline face (like a half-chewed caramel) that was a common expression in Crafton.

Finegan married into the Flanagan family; the Flanagans’ home served as headquarters and clubhouse for all the neighborhood boys. Bill and Doc (so named, by the way, because his father worked in a drugstore) played golf together growing up and as young adults pooled their modest resources to go in on a partners’ membership at an affordable course in Aliquippa.

In 1976 the friends planned a vacation together in Orlando to play Bay Hill. But, riding in the private jet of his richest customer, Finegan disappeared in a storm over West Virginia. The plane was missing for 10 days. Then pieces of it were found in the mountains.

“After the memorial service for Bill,” Doc said, “Arnold told me, ‘Go take your vacation now, Doc. Go to Bay Hill.’” Deacon came to Giffin and asked, “Would you mind if I tagged along?” “I was surprised,” Doc said, “but grateful for the company. ‘I’d love that,’ I told him.”

During the flight to Orlando, they played gin rummy. “He wasn’t a man of many words,” Doc said. “It was mostly nods and grunts.” But then he stopped dealing the cards, set them down on the tray, and looked Doc straight in the eye.

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