Former Tour player and longtime CBS golf color commentator Ken Venturi has written a book — “Getting Up and Down: My 60 Years in Golf” (Triumph Books, April 2004) about his life in professional golf. Golf Magazine recently ran an excerpt from the book in which Venturi recalled how Arnold Palmer broke a rule on the historic 12th hole of Augusta National on his way to beating Venturi to win his first Masters Golf Tournament in 1958. Not surprisingly, that was interpreted by some in the golf community as Venturi saying that Palmer had cheated on his way to winning the Masters.
This NY Times article today has Venturi falling over himself publicly apologizing for what he termed a “misunderstanding” over his observation regarding Arnie’s rule-bending. “Arnold played a second ball incorrectly,” Venturi said in the statement. “This was due in part to Arnold not understanding the rule, which stipulates a player must declare playing a second ball prior to the playing of the original ball. This does not make Arnold Palmer a cheat.”
With his second ball, Palmer saved a par-3 that the Masters rules committee upheld on appeal, in contrast to the double-bogey five that he would have had with his embedded ball. Those two strokes turned out to be the difference in Palmer’s winning his first of seven major titles (and first of four Masters).
Note to Venturi — Don’t bash the King.