Lee Ross: How did your relationship with Arnold Palmer start and how did it evolve over the years?

 

Doc Giffin: I was a newspaperman in Pittsburgh. In 1962, I went on the golf tour as press secretary and worked on that job for five years, handling the tournaments from week to week on the road. During this time Arnold was winning a lot of tournaments and was a tremendous star at that time. And I had known him from back here in western Pennsylvania from my newspaper days. In any event, in 1966 at the Florida Citrus Open in Orlando, he approached me and asked me if I wanted to leave the tour and go to work for him. So that was in early 1966. But I didn't start to work for him until late summer and worked for him from then on for 50 years plus.

 

Lee Ross: And how did that relationship evolve over those 50 years?

 

Doc Giffin: Well, we were very close, of course, and I got very close to him and his family. His first wife, Winnie, and after she passed away and Kit came along, got along very well with Kit as well.

 

Lee Ross: For many years, the tour started each season with the L.A. Open at Rancho Park. What was that week like?

 

Doc Giffin: Well, it was always interesting to see the guys after the break. In those years when I was press secretary. I was at Rancho for four years, '63 to '66 in that role as press secretary. Those four years were always enjoyable to see the players again after the end of the year break. And the tournament always attracted a pretty good field because it was the start of the season.

 

Lee Ross: Now, Arnold won the L.A. Open at Rancho three times. In '63 he made a final round charge. In '66 he shot a course-record 62.

 

Doc Giffin: That, by the way, was his personal all-time low record on tour. He shot 62 there and a couple of years earlier in Palm Springs, he shot a 62. He never got lower than 62. Still pretty good.

 

Lee Ross: And then in 67, he won by five. So what memories of those wins stick out most to you?

 

Doc Giffin: Well, '67 sticks out to me.  In '67, his company made a deal with a company out there in California, I think in L.A. I think the name of the company was LeFiell. And they came up with aluminum shafted golf clubs. And so that year, Arnold had a contract and he started the season at the L.A. Open with aluminum shafted clubs that were very innovative at that time. And he won that tournament. And a few weeks later, he won the Tucson Open with those aluminum shafted clubs. But even those two wins didn't give him enough confidence in the clubs. And by the time he played in the Masters, he was back to his steel shafts.

 

Lee Ross: The three wins that Mr. Palmer had at Rancho would certainly seem worthy of a monument. Yet, behind the 18th tee is a marker noting a 12 that he made on that hole in 1961 -- including four shots hit out of bounds. Now, I've heard that Mr. Palmer wasn't too keen on that marker, but in quotes of his that I've read, he seemed rather matter-of-fact about it. Saying all he wanted to do on that hole was make an eagle. And that's what he was swinging hard to do. It's a very popular marker. What do you think about it? And what did Arnold really think about it?

 

Doc Giffin: Oh, he was fine with it. Really. He never was upset. They decided to put the marker in. In fact, in a book he wrote several years later called "Go for Broke," he did a chapter [“Three Plaques”] and that was one of the three that he wrote about.

 

Lee Ross: I will note that Arnold won the very next week in San Diego and, as we discussed, had great success at Rancho.

 

Doc Giffin: Right, he always did well at Rancho.

 

Lee Ross: As you noted, you were the press agent for the tour. So you got to know many of the players of that era very well. I'd like to ask you about some of the others who won at Rancho. In 1960, the L.A. Open was won by Dow Finsterwald.

 

Doc Giffin: He was probably Arnold's closest friend in golf.

 

Lee Ross: What else should we know about him?

 

Doc Giffin:  Dow just passed away recently. (2022) He was a good guy. Very, very meticulous. Not flashy. Very orderly. His game was very orderly and neat and he was very consistent. He for many years held the record for the most cuts made -- consecutive cuts.

 

Lee Ross: And what about the friendship that he had with Mr. Palmer? What made them such good buds?

 

Doc Giffin: Oh, I don't know. They just seemed to gel. They were about the same age. They played college against each other in college and got to know each other that way pretty well. And what kept them really close, I don't know. But the two of them did a lot of things together.

 

Lee Ross: A fellow by the name of Paul Harney from Massachusetts won back-to-back years at Rancho '64 and '65 and then was runner-up to Arnold in '66. What are your memories of him?

 

Doc Giffin: Oh, Paul was a really nice man. He had a large family. He didn't play a full schedule because he wanted to be home with his family. He was a very soft-spoken guy. He was one that always moved quickly. The thing I most remember about Paul, other than the fact we got along very well together -- and had a lot of nice conversations. But the one thing I remember was that one of my little chores as press secretary was to send a paragraph or two back to the Worcester Telegram in Massachusetts, which was his hometown newspaper. So they could have a little piece about Paul in their paper every day that he was playing in a tournament. And it was always a challenge to catch Paul when he finished because he was 18th green to his car and gone pretty quickly. And I missed him many times. I always had to be alert when he finished.

 

Lee Ross: In 1968, Arnold's attempt at a third consecutive L.A. Open came up short of Billy Casper. Now, that was the only year the event was held at Brookside next to the Rose Bowl. But in 1970, back at Rancho Park, Casper beat a very young Hale Irwin in a playoff. And of course, there was the famous playoff for the U.S. Open between Casper and Palmer up in San Francisco. What did Arnold think of Casper's game?

 

Doc Giffin: Oh, he knew Casper was good. He particularly knew how good a putter he was. He was particularly impressed with Casper's putting. And he always agreed with the people that would say in that era when Arnold, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player were called the Big Three, that Casper was right up with them through that same period.

 

Lee Ross: The LPGA played three events at Rancho in the late 70’s two won by Nancy Lopez and the other by JoAnne Carner. Tom Callahan's biography of Mr. Palmer includes some very warm words from Lopez, saying she first played with Arnold when she was 15 and that she adored him. And there's also a story about an exhibition in which Mr. Palmer was walking down a fairway and went past a couple of balls, assuming his was the longest drive, and then sheepishly doubling back when he realized that it was Carner's ball that was the long one. What did Arnold think of his two fellow Hall of Famers?

 

Doc Giffin: He thought the world of Nancy. They weren't close friends or anything like that. But Arnold had a great admiration for Nancy, not only as a golfer but as an individual. And I had the pleasure of knowing Nancy as well. And she is a very warm and very nice lady.

 

Lee Ross: As the years rolled by, Arnold stopped playing in the L.A. Open. But in 1983, the event returned to Rancho and he did too. A tournament preview by UPI said it would be unlikely that Arnold, then age 53 and a decade from his last win on tour, would find the leaderboard. And yet, after rounds of 66, 69, 68, and a hot start in the final round, he was in the lead. But a poor back nine dropped him back to a share of 10th place. His final top ten on tour. Press accounts at the time said there were thousands of people following Arnold, his Army if you will, and very few watching the final group and eventual winner Gil Morgan. What are your memories of that week?

 

Doc Giffin: I'm sorry. That's one, I don't remember much about that at all. I was not with him at that tournament. And that's interesting to hear what you've just told me about it, because I, quite frankly, my fading 94-year-old memory, doesn't click very much on that tournament, I'm sorry to say.

 

Lee Ross: Well, that's more than understandable. The record shows that well into his fifties, Arnold was as competitive as could be and put himself in a position to win, even if it didn't happen. Tell me about his competitiveness.

 

Doc Giffin: Well, he played in fact, in his 50's. He played well when he played on the senior tour. He had a lot to do with getting the senior tour started and with its subsequent success. And he had considerable success himself as a player.

 

Lee Ross: When you think about Arnold and his ties to Los Angeles, what particular ties, if any, to anyone in Hollywood stick out in your memory?

 

Doc Giffin: When you talk about Southern California, he was quite close to Bob Hope. He and Hope played a lot of golf together. And then, of course, he won Bob's tournament in Palm Springs five times. And I would say that of all the celebrities that he knew, Bob Hope was one of his closest friends.