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Why Arnold Palmer’s personalized letters meant so much to so many

Brandt Snedeker had but a few hours at home in Franklin, Tenn., on the day that Arnold Palmer died September of 2016. Snedeker had just completed the Tour Championship in Atlanta and had a quick turnaround before he ventured to Minneapolis to play in the Ryder Cup.

Trying somehow, as so many golfers were, to absorb the shock and impact that golf’s one and only king was gone, Snedeker sat down in his home study and began to pull out some letters that Palmer had written to him through the years.

There was probably 15 of them, he said. As he read each one, studying them for their thoughtfulness and personalization, he was struck by the magnitude of Palmer’s warmth, generosity and overflowing kindness.

“I’m there looking at all the stuff that he had sent me, and thinking about the time he spent on me . . . I was a no-name guy when he started writing me letters, and I realize he’s done that for a countless number of people,” Snedeker said. “It kind of hit me, the time he put into everybody else but himself. That’s going to be something you can’t replace.”

When Snedeker made the U.S. Palmer Cup team after finishing his career at Vanderbilt in 2003, Palmer mailed a letter to him. A year earlier, when Snedeker was named an NCAA Div. 1 All-American, Palmer had mailed him a note and a picture, signing it “Best Wishes, Arnold Palmer.”

“It’s pretty cool to have all that stuff at home and go through it and realize that I’m one of probably 10,000 people that he did that for in his life. That’s pretty special.”

Ten thousand? Snedeker’s estimate could be high.

Truthfully, maybe it isn’t. Palmer sure made a lot of golfers happy.

When did it all start? His longtime assistant and office confidante, Doc Giffin, said Palmer, an old-school gentleman for whom he worked 51 years, wrote letters to tournament winners

for as long as he can remember.

Giffin was a newspaper man from Pittsburgh, in Palmer’s backyard, who first went to work for the PGA Tour and later became Palmer’s personal assistant in 1966. The two had quite a run together. Palmer won 62 times on the PGA Tour. He knew winning anywhere, on any tour, was a special accomplishment in a career. Many Monday mornings in the office across the street from Palmer’s beloved Latrobe Country Club were saved for discussions between Palmer and Giffin on what had gone on across tournaments on several tours over the weekend, such as who’d won, and how they’d earned victory.

What had started decades ago as Palmer writing handwritten congratulatory notes to winners and friends morphed into a more expansive tradition in later years. Palmer would dictate personalized letters for winners each week on the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions, LPGA and even what is now called the Korn Ferry Tour. The letters would be typed up neatly, and Palmer would then affix his famous signature to them.

“We enjoyed talking about the weekend golf activities, for sure,” Giffin said. “And I gather that it meant something to the players who got those letters. He did over the years get a lot of ‘thank you’ notes from those who received a letter and appreciated it.”

In Gee Chun winning a major on the LPGA? A letter from Palmer. Mark O’Meara starring in the 1996 Presidents Cup with Palmer serving as his captain? A letter.