Arnie and Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry by Ian O'Connor

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Their names are not uncommon, but for tens of millions of golf enthusiasts, "Arnie & Jack" can refer only to Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, the greatest rivals in the sport's history. Their decades-long fairway competition not only dominated the sport (between them they won 25 majors); it transformed golf into a truly national spectator and participant sport. Drawing on more than 200 new interviews, Ian O'Connor's intertwined portrait of these two links warriors offers new perspectives on a golden age of golf.

From the Publisher

Alternating from the golf course to the boardroom, the first account of the fifty-year duel that helped push golf to the heights and popularity it enjoys today.

Surprisingly, one of sport's most contentious, complex, and defining clashes played itself out not in the ring or at the scrimmage line but on the genteel green fairways of this country's finest courses. Arnie and Jack. Palmer and Nicklaus. Their decades-long rivalry propelled each to the status of American icon and helped transform a gentleman's game into a major American sport with a dedicated following.

Ian O'Connor explores the heated professional and personal battle between Palmer and Nicklaus in fascinating, intimate, and revelatory detail. Drawing on unique access to both players and having conducted more than 200 new interviews with everyone from family to fellow players to business associates right down to the caddies and clubhouse attendants, O'Connor illuminates their extreme differences and sprawling influences through mini-dramas, such as the 1962 U.S. Open, their years of alternating major victories like cards in a deck, their early involvement with marketing and a small agency called IMG, and their intense competition for golf course designs. By the end of this page-turning narrative that spans fifty remarkable years, we see that in the end each wanted what the other had: Arnold had the adoring fans but wanted the trophies. Jack had the trophies but wanted the love.We also learn that despite being bitter rivals they were also dear friends.

The Washington Post - Colman McCarthy

Like the golfers he describes, Ian O'Connor did his legwork. His 200-plus interviews ranged from the families of the two legends to tour players whose names only fans with long memories will recall: Al Besselink, Jack Fleck, Mason Rudolph. He had full access to Palmer and Nicklaus, now both multimillionaires well settled in retirement and happy to dispense tales of the glory days. What emerges in Arnie & Jack is 24 chapters of workable prose that offers a detailed account of two unique and driven athletes similar in their passion for dominance but starkly different in background, temperament and judgment.

The New York Times - Charles McGrath

O'Connor, who had help from both the Palmer and Nicklaus families, hits it pretty squarely down the middle here…[he] very wisely lets the story tell itself, often in the words of the principals and their friends and families, without a lot of theorizing or interpretation. He is particularly informative about Jack and Arnie's business rivalry, which was even fiercer (and at times more childish) than the one on the course.

Publishers Weekly

In this lengthy and occasionally slow-going read, sports columnist O'Connor documents the decades-long rivalry between Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. The two men couldn't have been more different, both on the field and off. Palmer, several years Nicklaus's senior, was an effortlessly charming man, a self-made champion from humble Pennsylvania roots who bashed line drives with astounding force. Nicklaus, meanwhile, was more introverted and endured endless taunting from those who saw him as a cheerless striver caring only about winning. The two men rode their rivalry as golf grew from a sleepy amateur-only sport through its postwar boom into one of America's leading pastimes. Along the way, the men (whose wives became fast friends, and who themselves got along reasonably well) also accrued massive fortunes through an endless string of endorsements, business deals and golf-course building. As rivalries go, Nicklaus and Palmer's is more interesting than some, and O'Connor's account will likely appeal to hardcore golf fans. (Apr.)

Steven Silkunas - Library Journal

Sports columnist O'Connor (The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the High Stakes Business of High School Ball) examines what may be the longest-running rivalry in sports history. While both Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus have retired from competitive golf, they still appear on the same money list. Nicklaus has the edge in on-course winnings; Palmer, in off-course winnings, with Palmer having the overall edge. Each has written autobiographies; Howard Sounes wrote about them both in The Wicked Game, but O'Connor goes one step further by detailing how each pushed the other, examining their relationship off the course, and showing how their spouses interacted. At the end, O'Connor shows how a bond can be forged between two divergent personalities, fire and ice, passion and dispassion. In truth, much of what O'Connor presents can be garnered from different sources, but he has done a considerable amount of original research. Recommended because there will be demand.

Kirkus Reviews

How two dissimilar men with identical competitive drives made golf a national pastime-long before Tiger Woods was born. When Arnold "the King" Palmer, son of a country-club groundskeeper, joined the professional tour in 1955, the world of golf was considerably different. It was a time when players, invariably white, puffed on cigarettes between shots, flicking butts to the ground between putts. Sportswriter O'Connor (The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the High Stakes Business of High School Ball, 2006) conducted hundreds of interviews to recreate that bygone era, which was irrevocably altered by the magnetic presence of the charismatic Palmer. The King's herculean drives, leading-man looks and fan-friendly approach spurred an exponential increase in the sport's popularity, but it wasn't until the arrival of Jack Nicklaus, ten years his junior, that golf became a juggernaut. From a social standpoint, the Golden Bear was everything Palmer was not: overweight, overbearing and unwilling to pander to fans. He was Palmer's equal as a competitor, however, and his talent was even more prodigious. Though Nicklaus came to dominate golf, Palmer managed to steal the spotlight on more than one occasion. Their rivalry extended into business; Arnie's broad appeal secured him unprecedented success as a pitchman, while Jack's obsessive attention to detail made him the premier course designer. Inextricably linked by virtue of their obvious differences and undeniable talent, the two adopted a complex, quasi-sibling rivalry, with Arnie attempting to foil the upstart Jack's attempts to dethrone him. Nicklaus was unquestionably the superior player, but the court of public opinion often favored Palmer. O'Connoroffers thrillingly dramatic depictions of each on-course encounter, and his comprehensive interviews humanize the two legends while contextualizing their roles in the game's history. Obviously an admirer of both subjects, the author hesitates to probe too deeply into their less admirable traits, but that's a minor flaw in this exemplary sports history. Agent: David Black/David Black Literary Agency

Product Details

• ISBN: 0618754466
  
• ISBN-13: 9780618754465
• Format: Hardcover, 368pp
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
• Pub. Date: April 2008
• Sales Rank: 2,076