North Shore Golf Fall 2016

Tedesco’s Green enlists
in Arnie’s Army
Imagine you’re teamed up with Arnold Palmer at a
PGA Senior tournament.
You’re a club pro. He’s the five-star general of Arnie’s Army.
And you’re walking 18 holes with him, trading stories and
drinking in the aura that made Palmer, who died Sept. 24,
such a charismatic, transcendent figure in golf.
That’s how Bob Green felt in August of 2000 when,
after receiving a sponsor’s exemption to play in a senior
tournament at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord, he
found himself paired with Palmer in the first round.
“It was kind of a regular stop for him,” said Green. “His
financial adviser (Dick Connolly) is from up this way, and
he’d come up to see him and golf in the tournament, which
was one of the regular stops on the senior tour — which is
now called the Champions Tour.”
Green, longtime club pro at Tedesco, said it was the
highlight of his professional life.
“If you were to ask me, from the time I was 12 years
old right on up through yesterday, who’s the one guy I’d
like to play a round of golf with, someone who wasn’t
family, the answer would be Arnold Palmer, and I got
that opportunity.”
And, said Green, he got to see Palmer at his best, not only
on the course, but in his dealings with the people he was
playing with and the fans.
What impressed Green, who had received a sponsor’s
exemption to compete, the most is how Palmer related to
his son, Brian, who caddied for him.
“My son grew up in a generation when Arnold was past his
prime,” Green said. “But to be able to spend five hours with
him in a competitive situation was really an incredible
experience, both for Brian and for me.”
Green said the day he played with Palmer was during a
stretch where “he was really struggling.” “But he shot a
68 that day. It was one of the most incredible things I’ve
ever seen.”
What made the round so memorable for Green is that on
the 14th hole, he’d three-putted and said to his caddie, ‘we
have to make that up.’”
Green said there had to be 10,000 people on the course by
the time they hit the back nine, and the buzz was electric.
“On the 15th,” Green said, “he holed a 9-iron shot for an
eagle, and the noise from the crowd was deafening.”
The crowd grew from there, Green said.
“We were walking from the 16th green to the 17th hole,
which was up a little hill, and on both sides there were fans
cheering and screaming. We got up onto the tee and looked
By STEVE KRAUSE
out, and there were bleachers all around us. The place just
exploded. I turned to my son and said this must be what
it’s like to play in the Rose Bowl.”
Green said Palmer’s skills as a golfer were only part of his
appeal. The rest had to do with the flair with which he
played, the risks he took and his uncanny way of connecting
with his fans.
Palmer is credited with having golf being strictly a countryclub
activity to being a full-fledged spectator sport suitable
for television. Green agrees with that.
“He did so many things for golf,” Green said. “Just by his
personality, and his charisma, and his incredible talent.
“And the way he played!” Green said. “He had that
swashbuckling, risk-taking competitive fire. He’d flash that
smile, and that personality.”
And it was all on display the day they played together,
Green said.
“He had a way of making eye contact with the fans in the
gallery,” Green said. “He interacted. It was unbelievable.
That’s not an act. That was him. Nobody could act that way
for 50 years if it was an act.”
Green said Palmer also had good timing in that he came
along just when television was coming into its own.
“Here was this personality that was bigger than life,” he
said. “And he had an incredible game. He wasn’t the
standard-issue golf pro of the era. He was Arnold Palmer,
hitching up those pants, with the cigarette, slashing the ball
and hitting it all over the place.”
Both on the course and off, Palmer “was as regular a guy
as you could get,” Green said. “He was a very good
conversationalist. You know, he tried to put me at ease too
because I was as nervous as I’ve ever been on a golf course.
He was great with Brian during the round, and he treated
me as if I was a longtime veteran on the PGA tour. It was
really a thrill.”
Green said it was very unusual to be paired with someone
of Palmer’s caliber. A year later, he qualified for the
U.S. Senior Open and played in a group with an amateur
from Florida and a driving range pro from the Northwest.
“(Palmer) was a real gentleman,” said Green. “I tell
everyone that he was even better than advertised.
“I think that day was one of the last really good rounds
he had,” Green said. “He was just about to turn 71 at the
time. He struggled a lot more going forward, but for me,
it was such a thrill to golf with him, and to be there to
see him have such a great round.” l
NORTH SHORE GOLF