John Shearer: Several Chattanoogans Crossed Paths With Arnold Palmer

When Scott Probasco III was a young Baylor School student in the late 1960s, he was walking up the driveway with his schoolbooks after being let off near his house in Edgewood Circle in Riverview.
 
By chance, his father – the well-known Chattanooga banker and civic leader Scott “Scotty” Probasco Jr. – was coming up the driveway, too, in his car. With him in the vehicle was another man.
 
It was none other than the famous golfer Arnold Palmer.
 
“I dropped my books and he runs over to me and he says, ‘Hi, I’m Arnold Palmer,’ ” Mr.

Probasco recalled.
 
While Mr. Palmer had already started the Chattanooga-based Arnold Palmer Golf Co. club and accessories manufacturer, Mr. Probasco believes the golfing great was just making a social visit with his parents.
 
It was a friendship that dated back to when Mr. Palmer was at Wake Forest and played some winter golf down in Florida while Betty Probasco, Scott III’s mother and an accomplished women’s golfer from Lexington, Ky., was at Rollins College.
 
With the news of Mr. Palmer’s death on Sept. 24 at the age of 87, tributes have been pouring in for this golfer who did not have a picture-perfect swing, but whose competitive spirit and charisma meshed perfectly with his masses of fans.
 
And in Chattanooga, he had not only fans, but also friends such as the Probascos and a number of others.
 
The younger Mr. Probasco recalled that Mr. Palmer visited at their home for awhile that day and even gave him a quick golf tip after being asked.
 
“He said, ‘Just grip it and swing as hard as you can,” Mr. Probasco said with a laugh.
 
He would see “the king” again a few times over the years, including when Mr. Probasco and Lewis Card had their picture taken with the golfer while he was hitting some range balls from No. 10 tee at the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club and trying out some of his locally made clubs.
 
He also ran into Mr. Palmer a couple of years ago at the Seminole Golf Club in South Florida, where the Probasco family has been members for years, and asked how “Bett” was doing.
 
“He still had that glint in his eyes,” Mr. Probasco said of Mr. Palmer’s zest for life.
 
Another Chattanooga contemporary of Mr. Palmer was longtime insurance agent Wes Brown, the 1948 Tennessee Amateur champion, who played golf at Washington and Lee while Mr. Palmer was at Wake Forest.
 
They were paired together in the 1948 and 1949 Southern Conference golf tournaments at Old Town Club in Winston-Salem, N.C., Mr. Brown recalled. But at the time, Mr. Brown did not realize Mr. Palmer would go on to become such a legendary and beloved sports figure.
 
“He was just another college golfer to me,” Mr. Brown recalled. “(Future pros) Harvey Ward and Art Wall played also.”
 
Mr. Brown, a former multi-sport athlete at McCallie, remembered that Mr. Palmer beat him both times. However, Mr. Brown did give him a little golf lesson by example by passing along his technique for hitting challenging long irons.
 
“I did show him how to hit a long iron,” Mr. Brown remembered fondly. “To friends who later asked him if he knew me, his reply was: ‘he hit his long irons as well as anyone.’ ”
 
Mr. Brown also knew Mr. Palmer’s college roommate, Buddy Worsham, the brother of Lew Worsham, dating back to when they played in the Jaycee National Junior Golf Tournament in Illinois. As has been documented in the media in recent days, Buddy Worsham died in an automobile accident in college, and Mr. Palmer became so distraught he dropped out of Wake Forest for his senior year and joined the Coast Guard.
 
Another Chattanoogan who knew him well was Ed Brantly. Mr. Brantly, whose decorated golfing accomplishments have included winning the Southern Amateur in 1957 and finishing as low amateur at the U.S. Open in 1961, was one of the first employees hired with the Arnold Palmer Golf Co. manufacturing firm. He signed on in 1962 as the assistant to general manager Bob Robinson, who had also hired a secretary.
 
Mr. Palmer’s company had become affiliated with the local Professional Golf Co. after company head Jack Harkins used his salesmanship abilities to get the golfer involved. The Professional Golf Co. – which years later became Pro Group -- also made and sold the First Flight line from a now-razed facility located next to what is now Coolidge Park in North Chattanooga.
 
Despite his busy golf schedule, Mr. Palmer tried to stay connected with the Chattanooga business and would visit regularly. As a result, Mr. Brantly became well acquainted with him.
 
“I was around him a lot when he came to Chattanooga every three or four months for board meetings,” Mr. Brantly recalled over the phone. “I was a designated driver for him. He had a car like a truck that would haul his golf clubs. He spent most of the time at the offices looking things over.”
 
He added that during the tours of the plant, Mr. Palmer would walk through the factory and make suggestion of what he wanted in a golf club and would pass them along to Mr. Brantly.
 
Occasionally, a trip to the golf course by Mr. Palmer was also in order. “We played some,” said Mr. Brantly. “We would go out to the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club if he wanted to hit balls. He would have clubs made up and tried them out.
 
“One time he came by the week before the Masters and wanted to pick up his clubs. We went to the Country Club and hit balls and he said, ‘Let’s play,’ ” he added.
 
While some criticized his swing as a little unusual, Mr. Brantly said the only aspect about it that was unorthodox was the follow through. “He hated a hook,” Mr. Brantly said of the reason for his unusual finish. “But he was a great driver.”
 
He was also unique in appeal and approachability. “He was very friendly and easy to talk to,” Mr. Brantly said. “He was very complimentary about the employees. Everybody loved him.”
 
Former Chattanoogans Mike Malarkey and Mickey Mabry also played golf with Arnold Palmer in exhibitions. Mr. Malarkey’s opportunity came in 1964 at the Valleybrook Country Club when he was 18 years old, and Mr. Mabry’s in 1972 at Fox Den Country Club in Knoxville when he was the senior captain of the University of Tennessee team.
 
Both events drew about 5,000 people – and some butterflies for the two local competitors.
 
“I was really nervous, very nervous,” Mr. Malarkey recalled with a laugh last week from his Knoxville home. “I got off to a tough start. I didn’t take my time putting. I threw some shots away.”
 
Added Mr. Mabry about his experience, “I got on the first hole and saw all these people, and I said, ‘Don’t duck hook it and hit all these people. I was really nervous on the first tee.”
 
Mr. Malarkey said that he was chosen to play with Palmer in the Aug. 11, 1964, exhibition at the Hixson course in an unusual way. Club pros often played with the touring pros during the exhibitions that were popular in those days, and Chattanooga pros Marvin Jones and Bill Vach were selected.
 
Don Malarkey, the pro at Signal Mountain Country Club, was also asked, but recommended his son, Mike, instead. Mike already had a distinguished golf resume that included winning the prestigious Southern Amateur in 1963, so he was certainly a worthy recipient of the invitation.
 
Mike Malarkey said that the Valleybrook course had and still has several dogleg holes surrounded by woods, but Mr. Palmer that day enhanced his “go for broke” reputation by successfully cutting off the turns with his high drives over the trees.
 
Mr. Palmer finished the day with an even-par 71 after not missing many shots from tee to green, but not making any significant putts. He birdied Nos. 2 and 5, and bogeyed holes 7 and 10.
 
Eddie Davidson wrote in the next day’s Chattanooga Times that the viewers were entertained thoroughly. “The new recruits in Arnie’s Army were treated to one thrill after another by the game’s all-time leading money winner,” he wrote.
 
Mr. Malarkey had a 74, which he felt good about considering all the distractions.
 
“I did manage to make five birdies,” said Mr. Malarkey, who still has the souvenir program from the exhibition. “That was pretty good for a very nervous 18-year-old.”
 
Mr. Malarkey said that Mr. Palmer was swarmed with fans that day between shots due to the fact that no course ropes were being used. As a result, he did not get to talk with the legendary golfer a whole lot between shots, in part due to his own concentration. But they did have a little banter back and forth, he added.
 
On the second hole, Mr. Malarkey recalled that a crowd was lined up dangerously close along the edges of the fairway, and he was a little afraid to hit his tee shot, even though he had honors. He said that Mr. Palmer likely wanted to get finished with the exhibition as quickly as possible and get back home to Pennsylvania in his plane, so he volunteered to hit first to speed things up.
 
Mr. Malarkey – who played golf at Memphis and later led UT to SEC team golf titles in 1980 and 1990 while coaching from 1977-98 -- remembered that Mr. Palmer hit a shot that likely caused the crowd to scatter, because it came so close to where they were.
 
The exhibition was considered quite a historic golf event in Chattanooga up until that time, according to writer Mr. Davidson. He said that the nearly 5,000 fans were described by veteran observers as being the largest group ever to watch a golf match of any kind in Chattanooga.
 
Mr. Palmer also acquired two Valleybrook lots at 109 Masters Road near No. 6 tee as part of his visit and held on to the land for years before selling it.
 
Mr. Mabry recalled that his exhibition round with Mr. Palmer at Fox Den was played on a cold and rainy day. Posing a sharp contrast to the weather, though, was the warm manner of Mr. Palmer.
 
“He was such a nice guy and he helped me relax,” Mr. Mabry said.
 
Due in part to Mr. Palmer’s encouragement, Mr. Mabry eventually settled down after the first couple of holes, he said. He finished with a 75 to Palmer’s 71.
 
Mr. Mabry, the SEC individual golf champion in 1972 and now a commercial general contractor in Panama City Beach, Fla., recalled being contacted by then-UT golf coach Sid Hatfield a few weeks before about playing. Also in the group was pro Mason Rudolph.
 
Despite the chance opportunity, that was not Mr. Mabry’s last meeting with Palmer. After college, Mr. Mabry was trying to get on the regular pro tour. Through mutual acquaintance J.D. Burkett, who designed clubs for Arnold Palmer at the Chattanooga facility, Mr. Mabry was able to get a job at Palmer’s Bay Hill course in Florida.
 
There, he was able to work part-time but also have enough time to focus on his golf game. It was a gesture Mr. Mabry never forgot, even though he later became a club pro and builder.
 
“He was just a prince,” Mr. Mabry said of Palmer. “He was the nicest guy you would want to meet.”
 
Mr. Malarkey was also impressed with him and what he did for golf.
 
“I think he was the person who brought the most players to the game,” he said. “In more recent times, Tiger Woods did the same thing. But Arnold Palmer had the charisma in front of a television camera. He and golf on television arrived at the same time, and golf just flourished.”
 
To hear a brief audio interview with Mike Malarkey about Arnold Palmer, Click here.

Jcshearer2@comcast.net