Palmer Dispute Is Old News to Some

The 12th hole at the Masters is unlike any other at Augusta National. There is no gallery, except at the tee. When the players walk across the Hogan Bridge that spans Rae’s Creek and reach the oblong green, they are alone, except for their clubs and their caddies.

As it turns out, they are not without controversy. A dispute that lay dormant for nearly 46 years is being quickly revived in a book soon to be published. At issue: Did Arnold Palmer cheat, or break the rules, in winning the 1958 Masters?

According to author Ken Venturi in excerpts from his book, “Getting Up & Down: My 60 Years in Golf,” Palmer at least bent the rules in an incident on the 12th hole during the last round of the Masters, April 6, 1958.

Doug Ford, who finished second to Palmer that day, has another question:

Does it matter now?

“It’s been 50 years, for crying out loud,” the 81-year-old Ford said about Palmer.

“The man is the most honest man you ever want to meet. His integrity should not be [put through] what they’re trying to do. If he thought he was right, then I would never question it.”

The incident occurred on the famed 155-yard par-three hole, the middle portion of Augusta National’s famed Amen Corner. Playing with Venturi and nursing a one-shot lead, Palmer hit a four-iron, the ball flying over the green and lodging in a bank about a foot from the bunker.

Palmer asked for relief, but rules official Arthur Lacey turned him down. Palmer made a double bogey playing the embedded ball, then returned to the spot where the ball had been, took a drop and played a second ball, believing he was entitled to relief and that the rules officials eventually would agree. He parred the hole.

In excerpts from his book, printed in the April issue of Golf magazine, Venturi said Palmer had not immediately announced his intention to play a second ball, but chose to do so only after he’d made double bogey.

“I firmly believe that he did wrong and that he knows he did wrong,” Venturi said in the excerpts.

Tournament officials reached Palmer and Venturi at the 15th hole and told Palmer that he had indeed been entitled to relief at the 12th hole and that his par-three score would count instead of his double-bogey five.

Palmer wound up beating Ford, the 1957 Masters champion, by one shot.

“I didn’t make any protest or anything,” Ford said. “I go by the rules and the Masters Committee is always right in my book. I guess Ken, playing with him, saw it. It’s a tough call. If [Venturi] said he disregarded how to do the rule, I don’t know. I just know Arnold and I like Arnold.”

In the excerpts, Venturi wrote that he’d told Palmer in the scoring tent that he was signing an incorrect scorecard. However, Venturi also signed the card, saying he didn’t want to further damage his image, which took a beating in 1956 when he shot 80 in the last round when he had a chance to win.

Venturi, who wrote that he never got over the incident at the 12th hole in 1958, went on to win the 1964 U.S. Open and was a broadcaster for CBS for 35 years. He said he maintained his silence about the 12th hole because he wanted to protect the network’s association with the Masters. Venturi retired in 2002.

He also said that Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts, who founded Augusta National for the first Masters in 1934, had told him later that the ruling favoring Palmer had been incorrect.

Billy Casper, who tied with Byron Nelson for 20th in the 1958 Masters, said that Jones and Roberts would have made an issue out of such an injustice.

“They were pretty pure,” Casper, 72, said Tuesday.

Nelson, 92, said Tuesday he was aware of the book’s allegations, but that the incident at the 12th hole was old news.

“I haven’t heard anything about that in years, so I’m going to leave it at that.”

In the Associated Press report of Palmer’s victory, his first major title, the incident at the 12th hole was mentioned prominently, with six paragraphs devoted to the situation. No mention was made of a dispute over whether Palmer’s actions were incorrect.

The hometown Augusta Chronicle didn’t report the 12th-hole drama until Page 11, in the 19th paragraph of its story. However, famed golf writer Herbert Warren Wind, in Sports Illustrated, framed his coverage of the tournament within the circumstances of the 12th hole Sunday.

Wind wrote that it was fortunate that the rules question neither affected the play of the contenders nor the winning or losing of the tournament.

Palmer has written about the incident twice in his books “A Golfer’s Life” and “Playing by the Rules.” He wrote that he had declared he would play two balls and that he followed the rules in letter and spirit.

Venturi, in a statement in Tuesday’s editions of the New York Times, said he would never call Palmer a cheater. He apologized for any “misunderstanding” that might arise from the excerpts of his book. Venturi said Palmer did not know the rule and did not declare his second ball at the proper time.

“This does not make Arnold Palmer a cheat,” Venturi said in the statement.

Venturi will not be available for interviews until after the book has been released, March 17, the day before the start of Palmer’s Bay Hill tournament, which Palmer will play for the 26th consecutive year.