Sam Saunders spoke on the phone with Arnold Palmer on Sunday afternoon, not realizing it would be the last time he talked to his grandfather, the iconic golfer who spent his life in Latrobe.
“I told him I loved him, and he said he loved me back, and if you know him, he was pretty tough,” Saunders, a professional golfer, said on Monday. “We all know the story of his dad, and how tough they were on one another, and to say ‘I love you’ to him, it wasn’t something that we did a lot. But to have that moment happen yesterday, I’ll remember that for the rest of my life.”
That private moment soon gave way to public grief after Palmer, 87, died Sunday at UPMC Shadyside of “an aggregation of cardiological issues,” according to his longtime agent, Alastair Johnston.
A public commemoration for Palmer will take place at Saint Vincent College at 11 a.m. Oct. 4, Johnston and Saunders announced Monday at Latrobe Country Club. A private funeral and cremation will take place on Thursday. The schedule will allow the Ryder Cup to go ahead this weekend without interruption, Johnston said.
Johnston also encouraged members of the public wishing to commemorate Palmer's life to bring flowers, messages and other tributes to the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve, named for the golfer’s late wife. The reserve, one of several Western Pennsylvania institutions that have benefited from the couple’s philanthropy, is on the Saint Vincent campus.
Palmer’s representatives were still arranging details about the public ceremony, but Johnston hoped no member of “Arnie’s Army” would be turned away.
“There were no small people to him,” Saunders said in an interview. “That’s an expression used: ‘Don’t forget the small people.’ He didn’t recognize that. There were no small people to him. Everyone mattered.”
Palmer had been dealing with health problems for the past seven or eight months, Johnston said, and his declining health prevented him from hitting a ceremonial first tee shot, along with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, at the Masters in April.
“I think that was the first view that the world had really of his infirmity,” Johnston said. “You knew, if you knew Arnold Palmer, how he so much wanted to be hitting a ball with Gary and Jack.”
Palmer had made arrangements to have surgery on Monday and was admitted to UPMC Presbyterian for tests and pre-surgery procedures on Thursday, but he died before the surgery took place.
His death has prompted an outpouring of reactions from the golfing world and beyond, as athletes, media and fans took stock of his lasting impact on the sport. With his Hollywood good looks and blue-collar background, Palmer attracted throngs of fans wherever he played. In a statement, President Barack Obama said Palmer “had swagger before we had a name for it.”
He also used his celebrity to launch successful business ventures and make philanthropic contributions.
“The magnetism that he brought to the game, that was an era where the game really kind of popped and grew and became significant,” said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle, who had met Palmer on a few occasions. “One of the great ones. Another one of the great ones that has passed away and gone and should always be remembered. You talk about aggressive, attacking, I don’t think he had any other gear on a golf course”
Palmer embodied the values and work ethic that were especially important to the U.S. in the decades after World War II, Johnston said.
“A lot of people won a lot more golf tournaments than he did,” Johnston said. “But I think there was a sense that people actually — ordinary people — could relate to him. Maybe he was much more somebody that was perceived as being successful, somebody that had dragged himself up from a background of not a great deal of wealth or privilege.”
Even with his larger-than-life persona, Palmer maintained his humble, authentic persona and always made an excuse to bring up his hometown of Latrobe.
“It’s very rare to see someone achieve great wealth or great fame and remain the individual that they are,” Saunders said. “I think he liked it here because people didn’t treat him differently, so he was able to be himself and he was able to become the man that he was and become the celebrity and the philanthropist and just the overall individual because of the down-to-earth feeling that Latrobe has.”
Elizabeth Bloom: ebloom@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1750 and Twitter: @BloomPG. Bill Brink contributed.
First Published: September 26, 2016, 5:46 p.m.