Something to Go Home About

"Attitude means everything in golf," says Arnold Palmer, 32. "It's the only thing that keeps you from quitting when things are going bad." Last week Arnie's own attitude was something to go home about. "I feel lousy," he complained. He tried to withdraw from the Colonial National Invitation golf tournament after two rounds, then changed his mind, and wound up 20 strokes behind Winner Julius Boros--his worst showing in eight years on the pro tour. At that, Palmer picked up and headed for the family homestead in Latrobe, Pa., to think about something else besides golf for a spell.

True, Palmer had won three tournaments and $31,545 so far this season. But for the "King of the Fairways," who won a record $81,448 in 1962, that was tantamount to abdication. Palmer's 1963 money winnings ranked him a lowly fourth on the list headed by Jack Nicklaus, who already had $56,215 in the bank. He lost the Masters to Nicklaus by five strokes, the Las Vegas Tournament of Champions to Nicklaus by five strokes--and he had not won a tournament at all in more than two months.

What was wrong? Financial problems, Fellow Professional Doug Sanders suggested facetiously: "Arnie ought to take a week off just to count his money." Too many irons in the fire, said Palmer's father: "He's got to decide whether he wants to play golf or make television films with Bob Hope." Illness, guessed sportswriters, who reported that Palmer had undergone surgery in Texas for a "painful cyst" on his back.

Hogwash, said Arnie Palmer. There had been no operation; the cyst was nothing more than a little wen, and it was on his backside, not his back. "I'm just bushed," he said. He thinks he will feel better in about a month, and then he will return to the tour--in time for New York's $100,000 Thunderbird Classic Invitational and the U.S. Open.

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