Editor’s note: The following is the first of three stories on the USGA Museum in Far Hills, NJ.
FAR HILLS, NJ – We’ve all seen the footage, and if you haven’t, they have it – and now they have the visor, too. Arnold Palmer flung his red visor high into the air and never gave it a second thought after his final putt dropped on the final day to win his only U.S. Open at Cherry Hills Country Club in 1960.

Palmer, who turned 80 September 10th, shot a final round 65 that day in Colorado to erase a seven-stroke deficit. It was, and still is, the greatest comeback in U.S. Open history. Palmer made the three-foot put and, when he tossed his visor in the air, it wound up near a rope line.

As everyone walked away, an 11-year old boy named Skip was urged to grab it. Skip had a good spot to watch history, he was the nephew of Cherry Hills club pro Ralph “Rip” Arnold.

When Palmer emerged from the scorer’s tent, there was Skip waiting, and receiving, an autograph on the visor. Some aren’t even sure Palmer knew it was his. Fred “Skip” Manning III had kept it ever since but when he learned that the USGA Museum was renovating and naming a large portion of the building in honor of Palmer, he called the USGA and told them the visor story.

The USGA flew Manning to Latrobe to meet Arnold Palmer. Now, that visor is in the museum, under glass, and Manning can visit it anytime he wants, for free.

“He said Arnold walked off and that was it and they said ‘go get it, go get it’ and he was the kid with all the adults and he went and picked it up,” said Beth Murrison, the USGA’s Manager of Education and Outreach, who guided our tour. She holds a B.A. in Journalism from The Ohio State University, the alma mater of one Jack Nicklaus.

That’s just some of what you’ll see if you take a drive into central New Jersey, off I-287, to what was a private mansion built in 1919 on 62 acres. The main building was designed by architect John Russell Pope, who designed the National Archives and the Jefferson Memorial.

Today, it is home to the USGA Museum and Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History, plus the official Testing Center, where all the big decisions and measurements on the rules of the game are made and where you can see many historic artifacts. It’s worth a trip for any golf enthusiast, or if you just want to play a round of miniature golf – without the windmills.

“We can keep you busy for 45 minutes or all day,” Murrison said

MUSEUM ON-TIME, UNDER-BUDGET

The USGA first housed some paperwork and artifacts in a flat in New York City in 1936.
Either the flat got to small or the collection got too cumbersome so they found a new spot and moved across the Hudson River in 1972.

The museum closed to the public on March 31, 2005. Arnold Palmer, the honorary chairperson for the project, came for the official groundbreaking ceremony on November 17, 2005. The updated facility reopened June 2, 2008, on-time and under budget of about $19 million.

Fittingly, when you first walk in the main door, the Arnold Palmer Room is to your right. You are greeted by a big screen of what appears to be a sketch of “The King” but when you look closer, it is much more. It is a 22,000 word project that took artist James David Chase 14 years to complete. It is Palmer’s face and every contour, wrinkle and hair is comprised of tiny written words that are relevant to Palmer. Victories. Quotes. Names of his golf courses around the world.

“He used his eyes for things that he saw, particularly with his first wife [Winnie],” Murrison described. “Just an amazing job.”

Chase would do about six words per minute and trained himself like a professional athlete so his hand would not shake, she said.

“Just a massive undertaking so when we saw this we thought…that’s something that really spoke to how people felt about Arnold and the impact that he has on the game and the people who play it,” she said.

Surrounding the video touch-screen sketch are a number of items Palmer donated.

“Apparently, Mr. Palmer is quite a pack rat which worked out quite well in our favor,” Murrison said.

There’s a child’s wooden train of letters that spell his name, a Wheaties box, an action figure, golf cards and the bag from his final competitive round at The Masters.

“He has just this vast trove of wonderful things like that that he was very generous with us and really gave us a lot of things to play with,” Murrison said.

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