Golf Legend Arnold Palmer Dies

Golf used to be a niche sport for country club patrons, but Arnold Palmer helped popularize it as a legitimate hobby for people all around the world. He was the original face of golf before Tiger Woods.

His playstyle was distinctively aggressive. It was his persona that championed the sport into a television phenomenon, rivaling the likes of baseball and football. With 62 PGA victories, he is one of the top 5 PGA winners in history. In addition, he has won 4 Masters, one US Open, and one British Open.

He was awarded by George W. Bush the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, for his work and love for the sport he popularized.

Palmer also popularized a cocktail of his own preference, a mix of tea and lemonade, which now uses his namesake. His early life was colored by a fear of flying. To overcome this, he pursued a pilot's license, and has since logged nearly 20,000 hours of flight over the course of 55 years.

He died at the age of 87 on 25 September, 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.