Ike Steals The Show From Arnold Palmer
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower shows off his golf skills in an exhibition match with Arnold Palmer
The PGA TOUR is off until the Sentry Tournament of Champions when we’ll pick back up our historical coverage of the events each week. Until then, please enjoy our historical tidbits about the PGA TOUR players of the 1960s and 1970s. This week we explore exhibitions and one exhibition in particular that featured a former President of the United States. The year was 1964.
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Ike Puts on Show in Exhibition With Palmer
During the early years of the PGA Tour, purses were small, and players augmented their incomes by playing in exhibition matches. These exhibition matches provided guaranteed money and were often played in smaller towns that the tour did not visit, providing a chance for many golf fans to see players they would otherwise know only through press accounts.
At the peak of his career, Walter Hagen played up to nine exhibitions in a week, and was paid the princely sum of $1,000 per exhibition. On one tour of Western Canada in the 1920s, he pocketed $3,000. He then celebrated his good fortune by throwing a party in a hotel in Winnipeg that cost him $3,400.
During World War II, exhibitions helped raise funds to help war causes. Those pros who did not serve in the military could still contribute to the fight.
By the early 1960s Arnold Palmer, with his exciting style of play and magnetic personality, elevated the PGA Tour and the purses offered in tournaments. Still, exhibitions continued to offer golf fans the opportunity to watch tour pros play while offering players a source of income. Often, these exhibitions would be fund raising efforts for local causes.
On May 26, 1964, a charity exhibition match at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, PA, pitted the team of Arnold Palmer and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower against Jimmy Demeret and actor Ray Bolger. The former President stole the show.
The format of the match was modified Chapman where both players tee off, they then hit their partner’s ball and then selected the best one to finish out the hole alternate shot. Ike never missed a fairway, and his short game was spot on.
“This is certainly a terrific man,” Palmer said after the match. “I thought he played superbly all day. It was a pleasure being his partner.”
“He really is fantastic,” Demeret added. “I don’t think he missed more than a couple of shots all day. And he turned in some beauties.”
The limited crowd of 700—200 who paid $100 each and 500 who contributed $50 to the Heart Association of Western Pennsylvania, were totally won over by the golf played by Ike. One of the highlights of the round occurred on the eighth hole where Ike, playing the drive that Palmer boomed off the tee to just off the green leaving a downhill chip shot from heavy rough. Ike played the chip shot to within two feet of the cup.
Eisenhower was pleased with his round and said modestly, “I played some good shots and some bad ones. But I really enjoyed it. I don’t know what I would do without this game. I really love it.”
Palmer and Eisenhower won the match 3 and 2 and when officials asked Palmer if they would like to play the last two holes, Palmer responded, “It’s up to the General.” Despite the advice of an aide (Ike had a speaking engagement and dinner at the Valley Forge Military Academy) that it would be better to leave, Eisenhower said, “Ah, let’s go on and play it out.” He then sank a 40-foot putt for birdie on the 17th hole to the spectator’s delight.
Quite the comparison to today’s exhibitions played for a television audience that, in at least one case, went the grand total of 12 holes.
Arnold Plmer (l) and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower (r)
Check out the bonus fact below for more about exhibitions.
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Bonus Story
Tony Lema played in many exhibitions often donating a portion, or the entirety, of the fee paid him to charities. He played in an exhibition with Arnold Palmer in Dallas just a week prior to Palmer’s exhibition with Eisenhower. The exhibition in Dallas followed the Oklahoma City Open which Palmer won. Lema performed so poorly on the green that week he lost his temper and broke his putter.
At the exhibition, Lema took notice of the putter in Palmer’s bag. He pulled the flat stick out of the bag and took a few practice strokes with it and liked the feel of it. Palmer then generously gave the putter to Lema who used the putter to go and win the Thunderbird Classic, the Buick Open, The Cleveland Open, The Open Championship and the World Series of Golf.
Palmer, who didn’t play in The Open Championship, suggested that Lema use his regular caddy in the UK, Tip Anderson. After winning the Claret Jug, Lema credited Anderson for much of his success. Upon arrival back in the states, Lema was being interviewed by the press. The interview was interrupted when Lema was informed that he had a phone call from Arnold Palmer. He excused himself from the reporters and took the phone call.
“Arnie, first I borrowed your putter and won three tournaments,” Lema began, “and last week I borrowed your caddy at St. Andrews and won The Open. What else have you got that I can borrow? . . . Like your bank book?”
Bonus Story II
When Tony Lema played exhibitions he would always find out what the course record was. If the host pro held the course record and Lema had a chance to beat it, or match it, he would tank a shot on one of the last few holes. He never wanted to upstage the host pro.
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