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Arnold Palmer set a high standard

Few people become synonymous by name with their chosen sport.

Arnold Palmer was golf. The man from Latrobe, Pa., transcended generations, not because he was the greatest golfer in history, but because he was simply a good man.

The son of a greenskeeper, Arnold Palmer, unorthodox swing and all, never forgot who he was. The fact that he is still referred to as Arnold Palmer of Latrobe, Pa., defines the character of the man.

As the tributes poured in after his death Sunday at the age of 87 in a Pittsburgh hospital where he was awaiting a heart procedure, what was striking was that they weren’t all about golf. They were about a great man of humility, common sense and, most of all, a sense about how to treat people with civility.

A golf course designer, a record-setting aviator, a pitchman for a variety of products to the end, Arnold Palmer was, right on display for all to see, just Arnold Palmer from Latrobe, Pa.

A good-looking, rich man who built country clubs and businesses while jetting around to play a sport that most play for fun could easily morph into a caricature of the spoiled rich man. Not Arnold Palmer.

He rejected that title, “King of Golf,” because he didn’t act royal.

Instead, beyond golf, he practiced what mattered. He kept his autograph legible, because his father told him people would want his autograph someday.

And he signed his name  countless times whenever he was in public, for anyone who asked.

His website says his total professional golf earnings from the regular PGA and senior tours and foreign, international and non-tour games from 1955 through 2011, including 92 victories, were $6.9 million. Some sources peg his personal net worth at more than $600 million.

The difference between the golf course earnings and the personal worth includes not only personal appearance fees and investments and real estate, but the value of the man himself. Because far too often nowadays, the personal wealth builds for professional athletes, but their monetary worth is destroyed because of a decline in their personal value as a decent human being.

Sports figures often build their “brand” only to see the sponsors drift away when some horrid personal foible surfaces. In Palmer’s case, the man given credit in part for making sports marketing a big business was not just building brand. He was being Arnold Palmer. That meant he invested in communities around the globe and in Latrobe, he flew his Cessna jets until he let his medical clearance slip away at age 81, he popularized the two-thirds iced tea one-third lemonade drink he loved, and he honored his countless fans, his fellow golfers, people who worked for him, his friends and his associates.

The tales are countless of advice he gave fellow golfers and simple human kindness to people who crossed his path.

Palmer set a standard without setting out to do so for all professional athletes. It just was what happened, because it was how he behaved. Be aware of who you are, never lose sight that it’s the “Arnie’s Army” behind you that make your life possible, and the business takes care of itself.

He loved his sport. And he recognized that life is a constant effort, saying as only one from Western Pennsylvania could, “The road to success is always under construction.”

And the game goes on — his family was well aware he wouldn’t want his funeral to interrupt the Ryder Cup tournament — but the standard he set remains something for all, golfers, athletes and the rest of us, to strive for in our lives.

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