#3: Every Time Arnie Helped a Child
There are few environments as thrilling as Pebble Beach Golf Links in the midst of a tournament, but for a young Roger Maltbie the crowds proved too much—until Arnold Palmer stepped in.
In the early 1960s a 10-year-old Roger went to a tournament at the famed California course and become separated from his parents. He was standing behind the second tee looking worried when, as he explained to Golf Digest years later, Arnold Palmer looked over and saw him. Palmer, who was playing in the event, asked Roger if he was OK. Maltbie explained that he’d lost his parents and was scared, and Palmer took him by the hand and said, “Come with me. They’ll see you with me.” They did, and Maltbie treasures the memory of his mother yelling “ROGER!” from the gallery as he walked down the fairway with a legend. Maltbie eventually became a five-time winner on the PGA TOUR and a golf announcer, and when he recounted the “lost” story to Arnold many years later, he said Palmer had no recollection of the event. “I think it says a lot about the man,” Maltibie said. “He’d done the same thing for other kids.”
[quotes from Golf Digest “Life of the Party” by Craig Bestrom, June 4, 2008]
