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Notebook: Palmer is gallery favorite Associated Press July 8 6:46pm ET | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- Arnold Palmer walked to the tee box, not yet announced. He was warmly cheered anyway.
Spectators laughed when Chi Chi Rodriguez performed his swashbuckler routine after his first drive. Hale Irwin popped an approach shot at the pin on the ninth hole, prompting a roar from a packed gallery. The fans who have overrun the Des Moines Golf and Country Club all week went full-blown wild on Thursday. Their love affair with the big names of the Senior PGA Tour intensified during the first round. "It comes down to two things," said Bernie Pizinger, 51, a postmaster in Des Moines. "First, there are a lot of golfers in Des Moines and in Iowa. Second, we're kind of in the sticks and we get very excited about an event like this." The most beloved was Palmer. He drew a gallery of hundreds, a giddy swarm of humanity that at times looked like a giant pack of puppies running home for dinner. "Is Arnie up there?" a woman asked before Palmer teed off, standing on her toes and craning to see through the eight- to 10-deep gallery. All the good vibes couldn't help Palmer. He shot a 9-over 81, his highest round in the Senior Open since a third-round 82 in 1989. "The crowds were great," the dejected Palmer said. "You can't say anything bad about that. They gave me all the inspiration I needed to play a little better, but I didn't." Palmer hit third in his group, after Dewitt Weaver and Joel Hirsch. When his introduction finally came, it was followed by a 15-second standing ovation as he smiled and waved. With Palmer hitting, spectators packed the grandstand and lined the first fairway virtually to the green. Others seated in adjacent grandstands, at the ninth and 18th holes, turned to watch his drive. Bodies filled a hillside and faces poked over the clubhouse veranda. "He's the only reason I'm out here," Pizinger said. "Arnold Palmer is the greatest living golfer, either him or Jack Nicklaus." This week, there is no Nicklaus. He passed up the Senior Open as he continues to recover from hip replacement surgery. Nicklaus or not, it didn't deter the 35,000 spectators who came out Thursday after practice rounds had attracted crowds of 25,000, 27,000 and 29,000 earlier in the week. "The galleries are superb," said Irwin, the defending champion who created a frenzy when his approach to the ninth green plopped about three feet from the pin with barely a roll. "Everybody in the locker room is amazed," Irwin said.
Then, from 40 feet, he used a 4-wood to make a birdie putt. "All you have to do, you putt the ball," he said. "The wood just takes it right out of there and rolls it up to the hole." Summerhays said he'll use his pitching wedge if the grass is standing up and the ball is higher. If the ball is more than three feet off the fringe, the 4-wood is not advised. "It is an easy way to hit those little shots when it's down in the grass right near the green," Summerhays said. "You can't use it too far off because it's got to roll through stuff."
One woman claimed her house was burglarized. The only missing items were two tickets for Wednesday's practice round. Another tale came from a man and woman who went out to dinner but left their tickets on the table. "I don't know why people would take their Senior Open tickets to dinner," Konrad said. "But a dog hasn't eaten a ticket yet and a kid hasn't flushed them down the toilet."
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