Arnold Palmer Dead At 87

Arnold Palmer died in Pittsburgh, Pa. today, according to Golfweek. He was 87.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Palmer had been hospitalized since Thursday, undergoing tests on his heart.

Palmer won seven majors in his career: The Masters in 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1964; the British Open in 1961 and 1962; and the U.S. Open in 1960. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974 and was, in his era, one of the Big Three, along with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

Aside from his achievements as a golfer, though, Palmer was also significant as one of the first recognizably modern sports personalities, a television star who parlayed his fame and winning persona into big money as an endorser and transcended his sport as few have. Even those who knew little about his golfing accomplishments knew his name due, if nothing else, to the drink named after him. (The mixture of iced tea and lemonade has never had a confirmed origin, but according to Palmer, the beverage earned its nickname after a woman overheard the golfer placing an order to a waitress in the late 1960s.) It was just a small blip in a long life, but its ubiquity is a perfect example of how his personality not only dominated golf, but moved, in time, far beyond it.