Dow Finsterwald called me “guy” as in “you know what I mean, guy?”
Everybody else was just a “fella” when we spoke, as in “that fella out there can swing it”, he’d tell us as we walked Bay Hill during the Arnold Palmer Invitational to see the pros in action.
Finsterwald , who was 93, died Friday. He was a true sweetheart and a great fella.
I wrote a story about Palmer’s friendship that lasted seven decades. We sat together in Palmer’s Bay Hill office, as Palmer scanned through our mail. He held a copy the Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover in his hand and said to Finsterwald, the 1958 PGA champion and me: “Look who’s going be here.”
Palmer’s face lit up when he revealed that Kate Upton, a model, would be attending his March Tournament. They also discussed plans to collaborate on a commercial supporting Arizona Iced Tea’s Arnold Palmer.
Finsterwald intervened and said, “No offense Arnold, but she’s going sell a lot of tea than you.”
The transcript of the interview I did with him is a treasure trove of wisdom. He was a major winner on the PGA Tour, Ryder Cup captain, Masters champion, USGA official, PGA board member and director of golf at The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs. He was also a pal to Palmer. When I asked him to tell me some stories about his time on the road with The King, he replied that he wasn’t sure if he could. It was good, clean fun.
