Palmer is still the King

IMG made Palmer incredibly rich, and Palmer helped make IMG a global talent agency, representing clients in sports and entertainment eager to cash in on their fame.

In other words, Palmer made far more money being Arnold Palmer than he did sinking birdies.

Before Palmer, nobody referred to golfers as athletes, nobody spent a perfectly good Sunday afternoon watching the final round of a golf tournament on TV and nobody called golf a sport, never mind a physical game.

If they couldn’t be him, they could at least dress like him and head out to the course wearing clothes with his name, hitting Arnold Palmer balls off an Arnold Palmer tee with an Arnold Palmer club.

Palmer was the right man at the right time for television and for the baby boomers, setting the stage not just for golf but for every major sport that developed through television and made its elite players into household names.

As Palmer aged, he embraced his role as golf legend and ambassador, teeing off each year at the Masters and taking part in various events to promote the game with a new generation of players young enough to be his great-grandchildren.