Invictus (2009)

Invictus is a 2009 biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted in that country following the dismantling of apartheid. Freeman and Damon play, respectively, South African President Nelson Mandela and François Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby union team the Springboks. Invictus was released in the United States on December 11, 2009. The title Invictus may be translated from the Latin as "undefeated" or "unconquered", and is the title of a poem by English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). The film was met with positive critical reviews, with praise for both Freeman's and Damon's performances: Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Nelson Mandela was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and Matt Damon was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
On 2 February, 1990, Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison after 27 years spent in jail. Four years later, Mandela is elected to be the first black President of South Africa. His presidency faces enormous challenges in the post-Apartheid era, including rampant poverty and crime. Mandela is particularly concerned about racial divisions between black and white South Africans, which could lead to violence. The ill will which both groups hold towards each other is seen even in his own security detail where relations between the established white officers, who had guarded Mandela's predecessors, and the black ANC additions to the security detail, are frosty and marked by mutual distrust.
While attending a game of the Springboks, the country's rugby union team, Mandela recognizes that the blacks in the stadium cheer against their home squad, as the Springboks represent prejudice and apartheid in their minds. He remarks that he did the same while imprisoned on Robben Island. Knowing that South Africa is set to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup in one year's time, Mandela convinces a meeting of the newly-black-dominated South African Sports Committee to support the Springboks. He then meets with the captain of the Springboks rugby team, François Pienaar (Matt Damon), and implies that a Springboks victory in the World Cup will unite and inspire the nation. Mandela also shares with Pienaar a poem, "Invictus", that had inspired him during his time in prison.
Pienaar and his teammates train. Many South Africans, both white and black, doubt that rugby will unite a nation torn apart by some 50 years of racial tensions. For many non-whites, especially the radicals, the Springboks symbolised white supremacy. However, both Mandela and Pienaar stand firmly behind their theory that the game can successfully unite the South African country.
Things begin to change as the players interact with the locals and start friendship with them. During the opening games, support for the Springboks begins to grow among the non-white population. By the second game, citizens of all races attend to support the Springboks and Mandela's efforts. Mandela's security team also grows closer as the various officers come to respect their comrades professionalism and dedication.
The Springboks surpass all expectations and qualify for the final match against New Zealand All Blacks—the most successful rugby team in the world then and now. Prior to the game, the Springbok team visits Robben Island, where Mandela spent 27 years in jail. There Piennar is inspired by Mandela's will and his idea of self-mastery in the poem Invictus. Pienaar mentions his amazement that Mandela "could spend thirty years in a tiny cell, and come out ready to forgive the people who put [him] there".
Supported by a large home crowd of both whites and blacks, Pienaar motivates his team. Mandela's security detail receives a scare when, just before the match, a jumbo jet buzzes the stadium, but it is not an assassination attempt but a demonstration of patriotism. The Springboks win the match on a last-minute long drop-kick from fly-half Joel Stransky (Scott Eastwood), with a score of 15–12. Mandela and Pienaar meet on the field together to celebrate the improbable and unexpected victory. Mandela's car is then seen driving away in the traffic-jammed streets leaving the stadium. As Mandela watches the South Africans celebrating together in the car, Morgan Freeman's voice is heard reciting the poem, "Invictus".

Cast

• Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela
• Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar
• Tony Kgoroge as Jason Tshabalala
• Julian Lewis Jones as Etienne Feyder^[4]
• Adjoa Andoh as Brenda Mazibuko
• Patrick Mofokeng as Linga Moonsamy
• Matt Stern as Hendrick Booyens
• Marguerite Wheatley as Nerine Winter
• Leleti Khumalo as Mary
• McNiel Hendriks as Chester Williams, the only black player in the Springbok team
• Scott Eastwood as Joel Stransky
• Zak Feaunati as Jonah Lomu
• Grant L. Roberts as Ruben Kruger
• Rolf E. Fitschen as Naka Drotske
• Vaughn Thompson as Rudolph Straeuli
• Charl Engelbrecht as Garry Pagel
• Graham Lindemann as Kobus Wiese
• Sean Cameron Michael as Springbok Equipment Manager

Success 2012: Chester Williams aka "The Black Pearl". He was the first non-white player to be included in the Springboks squad. Star winger of the South Africa national Springbok team that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup

Chester Mornay Williams (born 8 August 1970 in Paarl, Western Province, South Africa) is a former South African rugby union rugby player. He played as a winger for the Springboks from 1993 to 2000. Williams also played rugby for the Western Province in the Currie Cup.
Williams is best known as the star winger of the South Africa national Springbok team that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup against New Zealand and was nicknamed "The Black Pearl". Williams was selected in the initial squad, but had withdrew due to injury. He was later called back into the squad and first played in the quarter final, scoring 4 tries.
Nelson Mandela used South Africa's win in the World Cup to his advantage in progressing political and racial harmony in the country. Clint Eastwood directed Invictus, which is about the 1995 Rugby World Cup and how it helped South Africa heal after years of apartheid. It features many scenes involving Chester, including his face on the side of an SAA airplane and several scenes showing how black children in South Africa idolized him. Chester Williams is listed as one of the film's Rugby Coaches in the end credits. He is portrayed by McNeil Hendricks in the film.

Williams is only 1.74 metres (5 feet, 8 in) tall with a playing weight of 84 kilograms (185 pounds), a small man by rugby standards. He was the first non-white player to be included in the Springboks squad since Errol Tobias and his uncle Avril Williams in the early 1980s. The selection of non-white players was not common in South Africa before 1992 because of the country's policy of apartheid.^{[citation needed]}
He made his debut for the Springboks at the age of 23 against Argentina on the 13th of November 1993 in Buenos Aires, a game that the Springboks went on to win 52-23 and in which he also scored a try. Williams was on the Springboks team that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, notably scoring four tries against Western Samoa in the quarter finals. His Boks career, hampered by knee injuries in 1996 and 1997, ended with a 23-13 win against Wales on the 26th of November 2000 in Cardiff. In total he played 27 games for the Springboks, scoring 14 tries. His honours included a Currie Cup win in 1999, with the Golden Lions, formally Transvaal Rugby Union, a Tri-Nations title in 1998 albeit he only made two short appearances as substitute and the World Cup win in 1995.

In 2001 Williams was selected as the coach of the South African sevens team that won bronze at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and ended runners up in the World Sevens Series. He remained sevens coach until 2003.
Also in 2002 Williams released his controversial autobiography, simply titled "Chester", in which he claimed that he was shunned by some of his team mates in the 1995 Springbok squad and even called him racist names.
Despite having almost no experience at coaching the fifteen-man code at any senior level, Williams was mentioned as one of the possible successors to Springbok coach Rudolph Straeuli after he resigned in 2003, but when the job was given to Jake White in 2004 he became coach of the Cats Super 12 team instead. He remained coach until July 2005 when he was fired after a series of extremely poor results, when the Cats finished next-to-last in the 2005 super 12, achieving only one victory. However, in 2006, he was brought back into the South African coaching ranks as the head coach of the national "A" side (a developmental side for the Boks).^.
He was named as the new coach of the Pumas, the team representing Mpumalanga in the Currie Cup, on 7 September 2006. He signed a two-year deal with the team, effective 1 October 2006, but resigned as coach in mid-2007.
He was one of the four named candidates to replace Jake White as Springbok coach. On 9 January 2008, Peter de Villiers was appointed as the next coach.^.
He was also one of the few South Africans invited to carry the Olympic torch in 2004 on its way to Athens.

Success 2012: El Fandi, one of the most skilled matadors in the world. Currently, he is ranked number one among all bullfighters in Spain

El Fandi (born David Fandila Marín in Granada, Spain) is statistically one of the most skilled matadors in the world. Currently, he is ranked number one among all bullfighters in Spain.
El Fandi was a member of Spain's national skiing team in his teenage years; however, there was a history of bullfighting in his family, and he had always loved bullfighting. He decided to attend the Jose Antonio Martín Municipal School for Bullfighting in Almería where he learned the skills and technique of bullfighting. He started his career as a picador in Santa Fe, near Granada and debuted as a matador in 2000.

David Fandila Marín was born on June 13, 1981 in Granada, Spain, the son of Trinidad Marín and Juan Fandila, a banderillero, or flagman. David’s mother was in danger during the pregnancy and was encouraged to terminate the pregnancy. However, she decided to ignore the advice and continued with the pregnancy.“It was a battle between David and Goliath,” Trinidad remembers, “that’s the reason I named him David.”
David spent his childhood living in the Albayzín, a Moorish district in Granada. However, his parents soon moved to the Sierra Nevada Mountains where they found a steady job serving as guards in a building. While living in this community, David and his brother, Juan Álvaro, spent time skiing in the mountains. They specialized in Alpine Skiing and Acrobatic Skiing, but were talented in many areas of the sport. The brothers joined the Federación Española de Esquí where they competed in competitions; David left with a national title.

Each bullfight consists of 3 matadors and six bulls; each matador fights 2 bulls. Bullfights consist of 3 tercios, or parts. In the first part, the matador fights with a cape while the bull is provoked by the picador (a helper on horseback who holds a lance and prepares the bull for the final performance). In the second round, the banderilleros stick banderillas (sticks adorned with colored sashes) into the bulls upper back. Sometimes the matador himself will do this; however, usually it is done by the banderilleros. During the third round, the matador returns with a cape and sword and kills the bull.


If the matador makes a good kill, the public asks the president of the ring to reward the matador by waving bandanas or small fans. The reward is cutting the ears and/or tail of the bull; earning the tail is more prestigious than earning the ears. A higher reward is that of exiting the plaza de toros (bullring) through the front doors, which are called puertas grandes.
When he was four years old, David began to practice bullfighting using papers and rags in Pradollano Square. When he wanted to practice with the banderillas, he stuck forks in the sofa, pretending it was a bull.
‘El Fandi’ appeared for the first time in a becerrada (a bullfight with young bulls), in Armilla (Granada) on September 30, 1995. After a couple of these small bullfights, he made his first appearance as a novillero (bullfighting apprentice) on April 19, 1998 in Santa Fe (Granada).
El Fandi faced many hardships early in his career, having to fight in many difficult bullrings, many of which were close to Madrid. However, thanks to his agents, Antonio Rodriguez and Manolo Martín, he started to become a better bullfighter. In 1999, he was classified as one of the top banderilleros with 60 successful bullfights. Later in that year, he made his introduction to the world of bullfighting in the Monumental de Las Ventas in Madrid where he cut one ear from his second bull, thus earning his first prize.
El Fandi finished his bullfights in 1999 successfully. On October 31, he killed six bulls and cut five ears. Around this time, Emilio Miranda Casas and Santiago López began to represent El Fandi in his career. Emilio Miranda was the well-known and prestigious manager of the bullring in Granada. López was a retired matador, or bullfighter, and an agent to bullfighters with a lot of experience and a good reputation. Both men believed David could be the great bullfighter Granada was waiting for; however, it would be a long road. David needed to improve his fundamentals, Santiago López worked hard with him.
The year 2000 began with one goal in mind: El Fandi was going to become a matador in la Feria del Corpus (a weeklong fair in Granada honoring its city-saint, Corpus Christi). However, just before his alternativa (a bullfight in which the junior bullfighter is presented to the crowd as a matador), he suffered a fracture in his right elbow in a bullfighting accident in Murcia. However, despite the fracture, El Fandi decided to fight and become a matador on June 18, 2000. That afternoon, while wearing protection on his right arm and fighting mainly with his left, El Fandi cut two ears and became a hero in Granada.

Success 2012: Alex Guarnaschelli, celebrity chef and executive chef at New York City's Butter restaurant and The Darby . She is also a television personality on the Food Network shows Chopped and Alex's Day Off

Alexandra "Alex" Guarnaschelli is a celebrity chef and executive chef at New York City's Butter restaurant and The Darby . She is also a television personality on the Food Network shows Chopped and Alex's Day Off.
A Manhattan native, Guarnaschelli is the daughter of cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli and John Guarnaschelli. She is a graduate of Horace Mann School and Barnard College. Her culinary experience started while watching her mother test numerous recipes at home while editing cookbooks. After becoming a chef, Guarnaschelli worked at a number of restaurants in France, New York and Los Angeles, including Larry Forgione's An American Place and Guy Savoy's La Butte Chaillot. She also worked at Daniel Boulud's eponymous restaurant and Joachim Splichal's Patina before becoming the executive chef at Butter.
She married Brandon Clark, a personal-injury lawyer, on April 29, 2007; they have a child. Guarnaschelli was a competitor on The Food Network's Iron Chef America, taking on Cat Cora in the 2007 "Farmers' Market Battle." Cora won the challenge. Guarnaschelli has since appeared as a judge on the program. In 2011, she competed in the fourth season of The Next Iron Chef, where she placed as the third runner-up. She also competed on Food Network Challenge, Ultimate Thanksgiving Feast episode and lost the competition.. After competing in the fourth season of "The Next Iron Chef", Guarnaschelli has become a sous chef to Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian.
In 2008, she became the host of The Food Network's The Cooking Loft with Alex Guarnaschelli, in which the chef teaches a small group of students how to construct new variations of classic dishes.
Guarnaschelli has been a judge on Food Network's competition show Food Network Challenge, and frequently appears as a judge on Food Network's cooking competition show Chopped and on Food Network's series The Best Thing I Ever Ate.

Chef Guarnaschelli has appeared on Food Network’s Iron Chef America as both a challenger and a judge, competed on season four of The Next Iron Chef and this fall she will join the cast of The Next Iron Chef: Redemption. She is a recurring judge on the popular prime-time series Chopped and is featured on her own shows, The Cooking Loft, as well as Alex's Day Off, which launched in October 2009.

Success 2012: Venus Williams, professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on February 25, 2002, becoming the first African American woman to achieve this feat during the Open Era

Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980), is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 46 as of August 27, 2012 in singles. She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate occasions. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on February 25, 2002, becoming the first African American woman to achieve this feat during the Open Era.
Her seven Grand Slam titles tie her for twelfth on the all time list and is more than any other active female player except for her younger sister Serena Williams. Venus Williams' titles consist of: seven in singles, thirteen in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. Her seven Grand Slam singles titles also place her with four other women for twelfth place on the all-time list, whereas five Wimbledon singles titles tie her with two other women for eighth place on the all-time list. Venus Williams is one of only four women in the open era to have won five or more Wimbledon singles titles. Between the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2001 US Open, Williams won four of the six Grand Slam singles tournaments held. She is one of only five women in the open era to win 200 or more main draw Grand Slam singles matches.
Williams has won four Olympic gold medals, one in singles and three in women's doubles.She and her sister Serena have won more Olympic gold medals than any other female tennis player. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Williams became only the second player to win Olympic gold medals in both singles and doubles at the same Olympic Games, after Helen Wills Moody in 1924.
With 43 career singles titles, Williams, along with her sister Serena, lead active players on the WTA Tour. Her 35-match winning streak from the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2000 Generali Ladies Linz tournament final is the longest winning streak since January 1, 2000. She is also one of only three active WTA players to have made the finals of all four Grand Slams, the other players being her sister Serena Williams and Russian Maria Sharapova.
Venus Williams has played against her sister Serena Williams in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of the 23 matches. They have played against each other in eight Grand Slam singles finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they opposed each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, the first time ever in the open era that the same two players played against each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, let alone sisters. On the doubles side, the pair have won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles playing alongside each other.
Williams is a powerful baseliner, equipped with an attacking all-court game. Her game is very well adapted to grass where she feels most comfortable, which is reflected in her five Wimbledon singles titles. Across her career, she has developed into a skillful volleyer and effectively utilizes her long "wingspan" (1.85m) and agility around the net.Williams also has great court coverage using her long reach to play balls that most players would not be able to reach and is capable of hitting outright winners from a defensive position. 

Venus Williams holds the record for the fastest serve struck by a woman in a main draw event. At the Zurich Open, she recorded 130 mph (210 km/h).  She also holds the record for fastest serve in all four Grand Slam tournaments: 2003 Australian Open quarterfinal – 125 mph (201 km/h), 2007 French Open second round, 2008 Wimbledon final, 2007 US Open first round – 129 mph (208 km/h). At Wimbledon in 2008, her average first serve speed was 115 mph (185 km/h) in the quarterfinal, 116 mph (187 km/h) in the semifinal, and 111 mph (179 km/h) in the final. 
 Williams has always been a explosive hitter of the ball off the ground, but her backhand is the more consistently reliable of her groundstrokes. Her backhand is equally effective down-the-line or crosscourt (frequently for a set-up approach shot). Her forehand occasionally breaks down under pressure. However, it is still the more powerful of her groundstrokes and yields many winners, from a variety of court positions.Additionally, it is one of the most powerful forehands in the women's game frequently struck in the 85 – 90 mph (140 km/h) range.In the 2008 Wimbledon women's final, Venus struck a forehand winner measured at 94 mph (IBM/Wimbledon).Only a few women (notably Ivanovic, Serena Williams, and Justine Henin) hit to these speeds off the ground. Williams's best surface is grass. She has won Wimbledon five times and has reached the final there in eight of the last ten years. The low bounces that grass produces tend to make her first serve an even more powerful weapon. Her movement on grass is also among the best on the WTA tour. Clay is Williams's weakest surface although she has suffered numerous injuries prior to the French Open.  Her movement is suspect and her powerful serve and groundstrokes are less effective.  Still, she has won numerous titles on clay.

Success 2012: Pancho Segura, a former leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. In 1950 and 1952, as a professional, he was the World Co-No. 1 player

Pancho "Segoo" Segura, born Francisco Olegario Segura on June 20, 1921, is a former leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. In 1950 and 1952, as a professional, he was the World Co-No. 1 player. He was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, but moved to the United States in the late 1930s and is a citizen of both countries. He is the only player to have won the US Pro title on three different surfaces (which he did consecutively from 1950-1952).

Long before Open Tennis, Segura turned professional in 1947 and was an immediate crowd-pleaser with his winning smile, infectiously humorous manner, and unorthodox but deadly game. According to Bobby Riggs, Jack Harris (the promoter of the forthcoming Riggs-Kramer tour for 1948) attempted to sign Ted Schroeder to play the preliminary matches of the tour. Ultimately he failed and instead signed Segura to play the latest Australian amateur champion, Dinny Pails. Instead of a percentage of the gross receipts, as Riggs and Kramer were contracted for, Segura and Pails were each paid $300 a week.
Although he was overshadowed as a player by Kramer and Pancho Gonzales in his professional career, Segura won many matches against the greatest players in the world and was particularly brilliant in the annual United States Pro Championship. He won the title three years in a row from 1950 through 1952, beating Gonzales twice. He also lost in the finals four times, losing to Gonzales three times and once to Butch Buchholz in 1962 when he was 41 years old.
In the 1950–1951 professional tour in which Segura played the headline match against Kramer he was beaten 58 matches to 27, a noticeably better performance, however, than Gonzales's record of 27 victories and 96 defeats against Kramer the year before. In the following tour, that of 1952-1953, Segura was reduced to playing the preliminary match, where he beat the Australian Ken McGregor 71 matches to 25.
For the calendar year of 1952, when Kramer, Budge, and Gonzales all played sporadically, Segura was ranked as the world no. 1 player by the Professional Lawn Tennis Association, with Gonzales at no. 2.
Segura, Kramer writes, "was the one pro who brought people back. The fans would come out to see the new challenger face the old champion, but they would leave talking about the bandy-legged little suonuvabitch who gave them such pleasure playing the first match and the doubles. The next time the tour came to town the fans would come back to see Segoo." For this, according to Kramer, Segura made more than $50,000 in each of six or seven years during the 1950s, a time in which "there were very few baseball, football or basketball players making $50,000."

Segura, says Kramer, probably played "more matches against top players than anyone in history. Besides my couple hundred, he must have played Gonzales a hundred and fifty, and Budge, Sedgman, Riggs, Hoad and Rosewall all around fifty apiece. I beat him about 80 percent of the time, and Gonzales also held an edge over him. He was close with Budge. Pails beat him 41-31 on the Kramer-Riggs tour, but that was when Segoo was still learning how to play fast surfaces. With everybody else, he had the edge over: Sedgman, Rosewall, Hoad, Trabert, McGregor."
At a professional event in 1951 the forehand drives of a number of players were electronically measured. Pancho Gonzales hit the fastest, 112.88 mph, followed by Jack Kramer at 107.8 and Welby Van Horn at 104. Since it was generally assumed at the time that Segura had the hardest forehand among his contemporaries, it is possible that he was not present at that event.

In 1962, on the recommendation of good friend, Mike Franks, Segura became the teaching professional at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club. replacing Carl Earn. Most of Pancho's students were movie stars such as Dinah Shore, Doris Day, Julie Andrews, Richard Conte, Shelley Winters, Charlton Heston, Barbra Streisand, Dina Merrill, Kirk Douglas, Robert Evans, Lauren Bacall, Gene Hackman, Carl Reiner, Barbara Marx, George C. Scott, Janet Leigh, and Ava Gardner. Jeanne Martin (Dean's wife) was a favorite student of his. Pancho also found time to coach and teach Jimmy Connors and Stan Smith, two great tennis champions, as well as his son, Spencer, who played at UCLA. In 1971, he left Beverly Hills to become the teaching professional at the La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California, where he is now retired. He is widely credited with coaching, mentoring, and structuring the playing game of Jimmy Connors, starting at age 16, in 1968, when his mother, Gloria, brought him to Pancho in California. Dr. Abraham Verghese describes taking a tennis lesson from Segura during this period in The Tennis Partner.
Before the famous "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973, Segura openly supported Riggs. When King won the match, Segura declared disgustedly that Riggs was only the third-best senior player, behind himself and Gardnar Mulloy. He challenged King to another match. King refused.
Segura retired from playing tennis after the 1970 US Open at Forest Hills. However, he played his last doubles match as late as the 1975 US Open, at the age of 54.
Segura was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1984.

Success 2012: Arnold Palmer, one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. Nicknamed "The King," he was the first superstar of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s

 Arnold Daniel Palmer (born September 10, 1929) is an American professional golfer, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955. Nicknamed "The King," he is one of golf's most popular stars and its most important trailblazer, because he was the first superstar of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s. He is part of "The Big Three" in golf, along with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, who are widely credited with popularizing and commercialising the sport around the world.
Palmer won the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, and in 1974 was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Palmer was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He learned golf from his father, Milford (Deacon) Palmer, who was head professional and greenskeeper at Latrobe Country Club, allowing young Arnold to accompany his father as he maintained the course.^[1] He attended Wake Forest University, on a golf scholarship. He left upon the death of close friend Bud Worsham and enlisted in the United States Coast Guard, where he served for three years and had some time to continue to hone his golf skills. Palmer returned to college and competitive golf. His win in the 1954 U.S. Amateur made him decide to try the pro tour for a while, and he and new bride Winifred Walzer (whom he had met at a Pennsylvania tournament) traveled the circuit for 1955.

Rise to superstardom

Palmer won the 1955 Canadian Open in his rookie season, and raised his game status for the next several seasons. Palmer's charisma was a major factor in establishing golf as a compelling television event in the 1950s and 1960s, setting the stage for the popularity it enjoys today. His first major championship win at the 1958 Masters Tournament cemented his position as one of the leading stars in golf, and by 1960 he had signed up as pioneering sports agent Mark McCormack's first client. In later interviews, McCormack listed five attributes that made Palmer especially marketable: his good looks; his relatively modest background (his father was a greenskeeper before rising to be club professional and Latrobe was a humble club); the way he played golf, taking risks and wearing his emotions on his sleeve; his involvement in a string of exciting finishes in early televised tournaments; and his affability.
Palmer is also credited by many for securing the status of The Open Championship (British Open) among U.S. players. After Ben Hogan won that championship in 1953, few American professionals had travelled to play in The Open, due to its travel requirements, relatively small prize purses, and the style of its links courses (radically different from most American courses). Palmer was convinced by his business partner Mark McCormack that success in the Open -– to emulate the feats of Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Sam Snead and Hogan before him –- would truly make him a global sporting star, not simply a leading American golfer. In particular, Palmer travelled to Scotland in 1960, having already won both the Masters and U.S. Open, to try to emulate Hogan's feat of 1953, of winning all three in a single year. He failed, losing out to Kel Nagle by a single shot, but his subsequent Open wins in the early 1960s convinced many American pros that a trip to Britain would be worth the effort, and certainly secured Palmer's popularity among British and European fans, not just American ones.
Palmer won seven major championships:

• The Masters: 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964
• U.S. Open: 1960
• The Open Championship: 1961, 1962

Palmer's most prolific years were 1960–1963, when he won 29 PGA Tour events, including five major tournament victories, in four seasons. In 1960, he won the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of the year and Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award. He built up a wide fan base, often referred to as "Arnie's Army", and in 1967 he became the first man to reach one million dollars in career earnings on the PGA Tour. By the late 1960s Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player had both acquired clear ascendancy in their rivalry, but Palmer won a PGA Tour event every year from 1955 to 1971 inclusive, and in 1971 he enjoyed a revival, winning four events.
Palmer won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average four times: 1961, 1962, 1964, and 1967. He played on six Ryder Cup teams: 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1971, and 1973. He was the last playing captain in 1963, and captained the team again in 1975.
Palmer was eligible for the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour) from its first season in 1980, and he was one of the marquee names who helped it to become successful. He won ten events on the tour, including five senior majors.
Palmer won the first World Match Play Championship in England, an event which was originally organized by McCormack to showcase his stable of players. Their partnership was one of the most significant in the history of sports marketing. Long after he ceased to win tournaments, Palmer remained one of the highest earners in golf due to his appeal to sponsors and the public.

In 2004, he competed in The Masters for the last time, marking his 50th consecutive appearance in that event. After missing the cut at the 2005 U.S. Senior Open by 21 shots, he announced that he would not enter any more senior majors. Since 2007, Palmer has served as the honorary starter for the Masters. He retired from tournament golf on October 13, 2006, when he withdrew from the Champions Tours' Administaff Small Business Classic after four holes due to dissatisfaction with his own play. He played the remaining holes but did not keep score. Palmer's legacy was reaffirmed by an electrifying moment during the 2004 Bay Hill Invitational. Standing over 200 yards from the water-guarded 18th green, Palmer, who is known for his aggressive play, lashed his second shot onto the green with a driver. The shot thrilled his loyal gallery and energized the excitable Palmer. He turned to his grandson and caddie, Sam Saunders, and gave him a prolonged shimmy and playful jeering in celebration of the moment.

Golf businesses

Palmer has had a diverse golf-related business career, including owning the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, which is the venue for the PGA Tour's Arnold Palmer Invitational (renamed from the Bay Hill Invitational in 2007), helping to found The Golf Channel, and negotiating the deal to build the first golf course in the People's Republic of China. This led to the formation of Palmer Course Design in 1972, which was renamed Arnold Palmer Design Company when the company moved to Orlando Florida in 2006. Palmer's design partner was Ed Seay. The Palmer-Seay team has designed over 200 courses around the world. Since 1971 he has owned Latrobe Country Club, where his father used to be the club professional. The licensing, endorsements, spokesman associations and commercial partnerships built by Palmer and McCormack are managed by Arnold Palmer Enterprises.
One of Arnold Palmer's most recent products is a branded use of the beverage which combines sweet iced tea with lemonade.