And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Arnold palm certificate with us for this hour. He is a legend who came out of the hills of pennsylvania with his fathers hard driving lessons deep in his soul. He had the strength of a linebacker and the magazine tism of a movie star. All of that and he could hit a golf ball a mile and then roll it into a small hole with the touch of a master. He won four masters, one u. S. Open, two british opens and 62 pga tour events but never, never the pga, although he came close coming in second three times. He was once chosen athlete of the decade, not just in his sport, in all sports. Golf has never been the same. It is bigger, better and more popular in every dimension. He changed the game. Every one that followed is indebted to him. No one has had an army like arnies army. No one has been so courtedded by president s from eisenhower to obama. No one has had so much respect from his peers. He and Jack Nicholas defined great rivalry like Magic Johnson and larry bird, like john mcenroe and bjorn boring, like the red sox and yankees, like duke in north carolina. When jack kennedy was in power. Arnold palmer was winning everything. He was the best, so good that the president wanted arnie to look at his swing and come play a round. Arnold palmer is a pilot and hugely successful businessman. He and the late macmckorm ak showed us what endorsements were all about. He was most of all a competitor and a gentleman. And he still is as he approaches his 82nd 82nd birthday. We visited his home in pennsylvania. He still live there and also in florida with his second wife during the winter. Right across from the golf course his father helped build. Nearby is an office with enough awards to fill a museum. We began with a tour of so many memories. And then a conversation about so many experiences. This is a Norman Rockwell. Well, i will tell you a little more about that, with this, it was done a number of years ago. Yeah. Is obviously. When i first saw it you said do i recognize this guy. Well, i wasnt, you know, sure everybody would recognize who it was. Rose Norman Rockwell painted your picture. Yep. Rose not bad, not bad. This is a number of times. Rose that is you and sam. Yep. We played in the world cup a couple of times together. And we won both times we played. Rose you and jack . Yep, same thing. Rose a unique concept of gulf, first of a five part series. Sportsman of the year. Sports illustrated. Yeah. Rose here is. Billy kasper. Thats one we talk about every once in a while. Rose it is the toughest one to win or the masters . Well, you won more masters. Of course i hung out at the masters. That was sort of pie i loved it. Rose that is your favorite. It had to be. Rose you cant ignore the open. Its still. Rose because st of america. Thats one, thats it. Rose the american championship. Right. Rose here, this is when you turned 40. This was 40 years ago. Yep. Rose 40 years ago. See how much you have changed. This is you and the famous winnie. Yep. Rose again, thats that 1967. There are you. Lets look at that swing. Out of the water. Rose yeah. There is you and jack and gary. Yep. Rose u. S. Open. You and jack again. Golf kings must be selfish. Do you think you have to be selfish . Well, i dont think so. I done think he is selfish and i dont think i am. Rose and what is this . Those are my buddies. That is the blue angels. Rose tell me about flying for you. Oh, i love it. Rose a second passion. Yeah. You know, i started by being scared. When i was an amateur i played a couple tournaments and i had to fly and got into weather and stuff and it scared me. And i decided that will not work. I had to learn to fly. I had to find out what airplanes andary nautical engineering and what it was all about. Rose you stopped flying now. Just. I still have my license and the only thing that keeps me from flying is going through recurrent training which i havent done. If i wanted to fly again i would have to go back. Rose your license lapses if you dont go back. Well, in the airplane im flying. Rose did you fly all those famous jets you had, the citation ten and the other jets. I am going to show them to you before we finish this tour. Rose so this is your office. Yes, sir. Rose pictures of family. Family, everything. Rose does your dad speak. Yeah. His given name was deacon. Milford jerome. Now you know why he is called deek. Rose exactly there is the guy. Yep. And he was he was a great guy, he was a strong dude. And not a real big guy but very strong. Rose but the time after the amateur and by the time you began to be who you were and are, he fully appreciated it. It was great. He was great. This is my first tournament, the canadian open. Rose that was in what, what year . 1955. Rose three years when i started really killing it. And then im now as you know approaching 82. And i have never shot four rounds in an official tournament lower than that. Rose 265 for four rounds. Right. Rose wow. 64, 67, 64, 70. Pretty good. Do you think if you were today playing today and back with the same age and skill that played in 5862. So when you won the most major tournaments, when you won all your major grand slams, if you were playing today, would you be number one . I cant answer that. Rose but if you had the will to win . Clubs are different . You would be stronger. You would like to give it a shot, wouldnt you. Yours damn right, i would like to give it a go. Well, wake forest. Have i spoken twice at commencement there. Rose yeah. That say picture of the school in winston salem. Kettle beach which im a partner in. Thats the hole i drove to cherry holes. Rose when you actually reach that green, you were so infused by the fact of what had been said to you. Yeah. The determination and the things that we talked about, they were. Rose first and fore most in your mind. Everybody believed that if you had wanted to be you could have been governor of pennsylvania. Did you think about it . Well, i had no choice. You know, people pushed, pushed for me, tom ridge is one of my good friends. Rose the future governor. Yep. And so that was something that i wasnt a politician. Rose did you but you are also an american, and a citizen. I love it. I loved it. Rose but you just didnt want to do it. I didnt want to spend i wanted to play golf. Rose and you dont have to be in politics to make a contribution to the country. These are all commencements i speak at. And various universities around the country. This is one that i just got last summer, that im very pleased about. Its st. Andrews. Rose oh, indeed. My degree from st. Andrews. Well, come on, well show you some more. Rose great. So tell me what i am going to see here, because this is legendary where you come down here and hide and. Thats it i love it. I come in here to work on golf clubs. And a lot of people say i destroy more than a build. Rose are you convinced that what you do in here to a club fits it better to your swing. I always said that if i had the perfect club, i should play the perfect game. Thats what i tried to achieve here. Rose and you would grind and you build and you get the parts sent in to you. Can i do anything. I put them together. Take them apart. Most people say i am very good at taking them apart. Rose what kind of club do you play with today. Kalaway. Kal away. Rose of course you do. Yes, sir. Rose can we talk to you a moment about president eisenhower. Uhhuh. Rose your 37th birthday. Uhhuh. Rose he shows up at the front door of your house. Yes, sir. Rose hes come with his wife to pay tribute to your birthday. This was the president you had the deepest relationship with . Oh, yes. I played golf with him the day after i won the masters in 1958 at his request. We became ever lasting friends. I was with him a day before he died at walter reed. And thats very familiar because they are closing walter reed. We just became very close friends. And even we played golf together. We played hard exhibitions. We did all that kind of stuff. And then when the doctor told him that he really should not play golf any more, so he used to call. He would spend his winters in palm springs. And he would call me and he would say arnie, what are you doing. I said well im going to go play golf, i think. He said oh, he says if you get time, stop at the house and well have a beer. Well, i wouldnt play golf. I would go over and sit with him and wed just talk about golf and business and military and the whole thing, country. Rose you have passion for that, that is what made it possible lar. You can say that in spades. Rose then there was jfk. Uhhuh. Rose who also sought you out. Yeah. Rose i want to you look at his swing. Right. Rose because he was a guy who loved winners. He was a good golfer. Rose when you saw his swing you said, you know, he is supposed to have played better and had a more fluid swing than any of his president s. Right. Rose and you said that you could have worked with him. That never happened. Rose what didnt happen. Well, actually, i was on my way to palm beach to play. Rose this was 63. Early. Rose was it 63ee . Well, it was yes, it was, 63y. Rose he died in november of 63y. And we were going to play some golf and the white house called me and said arnie, forget it. And i said why. I want to go do it and they said well, he hurt his back and hes going to take some time off. I dont think hes going to pay golf for awhile. That was the end of it. Rose so this is the famous shop. This is the shop. Im going to show you. Rose a place Arnold Palmer esquire makes them and breaks them, handles anything, no house calls. Yeah, were going to go right here. Back to the right now. Rose all right. Youve always had a very Good Relationship with the press. I enjoy the press. I understand their business. Rose right. And doc has helped me with that. But the guys from the press are guys that, you know, i could get with. I could talk to them. Part of what made the arnie armey so famous was that there was a sense that you were this guy who could, you know, play to win. But there was a sense that you were of them. Buddies. Yeah. Rose they were buddies. We have a beer together. Rose oh my god. These are big time medals. This is the president ial medal of freedom, United States of america. Rose that is the highest award that the United States can give to a civilian. Right. This is the one from portugal. Highest civilian award. I build a golf course there and the president and i became friends. This belt is the hicock belt. And in 1960 i won that for the professional athlete of the year. Rose you also won it for the professional athlete of the decade. Yes, sir, yes, sir. Thats what this relates to. Rose this is a picture, it looks like president bush. Right. Rose that is a great honor. Yes, it is. Rose what is this . That is the national amateur. Rose so that is the 54y. Yep. Rose that stands pretty high up. Oh, thats major. Go over here, well wind it up. This is charlie, this is my president ial corner. This is the things that happened with my various president s that i have associated with and spent some time with. Rose just talk about them. Over there is richard nixon. Did he play golf. Yeah, he did, yeah. Jz and gerald ford here. Right. Rose good athlete. And he was a great guy. Rose loved golf. You can tell by the laugh. This is a conference and nixon called of all his friends to talk about how to negotiate the war. And. Rose you were considered among a friend. Kissinger, the whole crowd. Rose to negotiate the end of the vietnam war. Yeah. Rose wow. This is george bush 41. Hes a great guy. He played a bunch of golf. Very, yeah. Rose here is ronald reagan. These are Like White House dinners. Rose here again with the bushes. Here again who is the lady in white . She happens to be the queen. Here we go with various ryder cup, open championship. Rose tell us about the ryder cup. Well, it is a Great International competition. Rose more enthusiasm for it than. Well, we hope so. I have always been a big thinker that the more, Even National competition we can create through sports, the better relationships will have with countries. Rose the more Common Ground we can find, the better off were going to be when push cometo shove. Thats right,s that the the name of the game. Rose here are you with bill clinton. Clinton here, clinton here. Now he loves golf. He is a great guy. Whatever you. Rose what is his golf. Well, the ball just didnt have a zip code on it. Rose he was driving the ball t wasnt necessarily the same zip code. Thats right. This is a letter he and i were playing golf one day and when you see the date its 65. I can read it . Sure. Its dde which is dwight david eisenhower, gettiesburg. August 14th, 1965, dear arnie, enclosed is payment for my debt. Never was there one more reluctantly paid. Also a tamped is a picture 69 philadelphia enquirer, it indicates deject, please remember that a couple of accidents will not be important a year from now. You will win a lot more tournaments and forget all the roads closed by bridges, locks and complaints about a tree. Love to win, keep hitting them, all the best, keep hitting dde. Very nice and here is 150. The bet was what . The bet was, he bet me i would win the pga championship this year. And i didnt. Rose hell of a life. A lot in it. It was full. Rose its an honor to be here. Well, thank you, its an honor to have you here, charlie. Rose thank you. You once said this about golf it is deceptively simple, endlessly complicated, a child can play it well and a grown man can never master it. Any single round of it is full of unexpected triumphs and perfect shots that end in disaster it is almost a science yet it is a puzzle without an answer it is gratifying and tantalizing. Precise and unpredictable. It requires complete concentration and total relaxation. It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect it is at the same time rewarding and maddening. And it is without doubt the greatest game man kind has ever invented. Thats well said. Well, thank you. Thank you much, that was a long time ago. Rose when did you fall in love with this game . Well, charlie, i have to start at the beginning, i guess. And its right here about 200 yards from where we are sitting. My father started on this golf course at latroaf when he was 16 years old. And he was digging ditches and they were building the golf course. So i was raised right here. Rose you were raised with golf. Thats right. I was raised with him. I played cowboys and indians in the trees. And when i started hitting the golf ball with some clubs that he sawed off. And i was raised with him, really, with my father. Rose did he once tell you hit it as hard as you can and you can work on accuracy later . He did. He said hit it hard, boy, and go find it and hit it again. Rose served you well, didnt it . Well, it did, yes. He was a very tough guy, charlie. He was i was the first son and first child and when my sister came along, well, she was two years younger. And i had to go to the golf course because my mother couldnt handle the whole, all the action going on. So so i came from about the time i was a year and a half old with him to the golf kowrgs and i spent the day with him here. And it just worked in naturally. And it was fun, for me being with my father. And doing the things that were, for a kid to do were just great. Rose and what part of your game today do you look back and say that was because of deek. Every part. Rose really. The whole part, everything. My manners, my, the things, my being was him. I wanted to emulate him. I wanted to be as stuff as he was. I wanted to do the things that he did. He i watched him. And we had some guys that worked on the golf course in those days. This was, when i was born in 29, as you know, that was depression. Rose yeah so the golf course was manned by my father and two guys. They worked with my dad. And they took me with him everywhere they went. And it was fun. And of course pat was a guy that, he had infantile paralysis when he was born, the year after he was born. And so his upper body was very strong. He chinned himself with a straight bar and he could do either arm 10 to 15 times. And he did it every day. And he just through here and his upper body was very, very strong. And i did that too. Many people who have gone on to find the kind of fame and fortune you do dont come back to their hometown but you did and do you and will you till the day you die. Youre right and i will. I lev it. I think you said Something Like this. Your hometown is not where you are from, st who you are. So you think of your father is here, golf was here, the things that molded you. When did you know that you could play this game well . Well, of course that was another thing about my father. That he never let me feel like i was i knew everything or anything. Erode hard and he made me feel very quon shus of the fact that i wasnt very good. And that i had to prove to him that i was good. And that hung with me. I have always wanted to pay golf with him and show him. And he said just dont ever. And he looked at me just like im looking at you. Dont ever tell people how good you are. Show them. Rose every young man wants to prove himself. Every young man wants to say to dad, i did okay, you know. Dont you think . I never dared. When i won the amateur he came from here to detroit to watch me play the final round. And i really barely won. I scraped it out and i beat a guy by the name of bob sweenie. And i was national an actual champion which was one of the i was 24 years old. And my father was there. And i couldnt wait to see him and my mother. And i went up and i was waiting for all the accolades and my mother, of course, was very teary. And my dad looked at me. He says well, boy, you did good. That was it. You have said after that that was the most, the greatest triumph in your life in a sense. It was one that was most important to me. Rose moses important to you because that is when you got your dads approval. Why wake forest . Well, again my father, he you get tired of hearing about my father. Rose no, it defines who you are. I worked for him on the grounds and i was in high school. And i said you know, i wanted to go to college. And he said well, he says you figure it out. He says ill pay for your college but he says youre going to go to st. Vincent. St. Vincent college right here. He says that is about as much as can i afford. He says you work here and you pay for your school, that will be it, right here at home. And i said what if about if i can get somewhere else. He says if you get there its your call. So i played golf, played high school golf, played amateur 2k3w068. And i got a lot of offers. The offers started coming in, because i was playing pretty good. I won amateur tournaments as a junior and the whole thing. And i was playing in the Nat