Charlie Rose Interviews Arnold Palmer

Charlie Rose interviews Arnold Palmer

Fortunately I was channel surfing when I came upon Charlie Rose’s interview with Arnold Palmer on his PBS TV show August 3, an excellent program that should be rebroadcast and archived on the internet.

An hour with Arnold Palmer from Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11823

http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/7220
40:40

Here's an excerpt:

Charlie Rose: 18 majors makes him (Jack Nicklaus) the greatest golfer of all time?

Arnold Palmer: Until somebody shows me a better game, it makes him the best.

CR: Do you believe Tiger will break his record?
AP: No. But I shouldn’t say that. I think Tiger is as close to it as anyone has ever been.
CR: Jack has 18, Tiger has 14 you have 7. In between there’s three or four others.
AP Yea, and Tiger still has a shot at it, but…
CR: You’ve got to believe that if somebody has a game as good as he has, you can recapture it?
AP: No.
CR: Why not? 41:28
AP: I’m not sure about that. You know, once you, once you vary, then you lose that – thing that you were talking about earlier. What is it? Sometimes it’s hard to put in place. What is it? I’m not sure I know. I’m not sure Jack knows. I know what he did, and I know how good he was. But to have him describe to you or to anyone, what it was, what was that thing that you grab? I know that his concentration was so good, that he could play, and play the way it was, but I seen it wander, even with Nicklaus, as good as he was. And now when you have a disturbance in your life that’s major, can you get it back? Can you get that thing that you can’t put your finger on, and get a hold of it and choke it. I seen it in every sport – baseball players, football players. I seen them so good, and then all of a sudden something happens. It could be a psychological thing. You say, well, “I’ve done it,” and then that’s it. Then you say, “I want to do it again,” but it isn’t there, you can’t find it, you can’t grasp it. You can’t hold it.
CR: Some call that an X factor.
AP: Exactly.
CR: You don’t know what it is. You can’t define it, but you know when it’s there. You had it. Jack had it.
AP: A lot of people. Hogan. Nelson.
CR: Byron Nelson had it. Sam Snead?
AP: Sam Snead was probably a little further from what we are talking about, and had an ability that was more natural than anybody that I knew in golf. Snead was as close to a natural player as anything that ever happened. But you know, here’s a guy who says I never won the PGA, well Snead never won the Open. My goodness, if aybody, you think about it, if anybody should have won the Open it was Snead, but didn’t. Why? That X factor...