Dollie Llama Spring Special! - $389 per person
2 Nights / 3 Rounds

Stay 2 nights in our spacious 2 bedroom/2 Bath Talamore Villas, 3 Rounds of Golf , a $25 gift certificate to one of our Pro Shops and Breakfast at Mac’s Breakfast Anytime. While on your trip your group will enjoy one round of golf at the Rees Jones designed Talamore Resort Course and any combination of two of the following courses:

Beacon Ridge, Foxfire, Hyland Golf Club, Longleaf, Seven Lakes, Southern Pines, Tot Hill Farm, or Whispering Pines

For an additional $50 per person you can substitute the Arnold Palmer-designed Mid South Club for any of your rounds other than Talamore.

Valid 3/15/2010 – 5/17/2010.

Price based on 4 people staying in a 2 bed / 2 bath Villa at Talamore. Price includes all lodging fees, Greens fees, Cart fees and applicable taxes. One round required to be at Talamore. Mid South round can be substituted for any round except round at Talamore.

Customized Trips Also Available – Call Toll Free (800) 552-6292

http://www.talamoregolfresort.com/

This biography was given to us by the late Mr. Ed Seay, formerly of Palmer Course Design, not too long after we met Mr. Palmer at the opening of the club now known as the Mid-South Club in Southern Pines, NC. Mr. Palmer posed for a picture on the putting green there. I have to say that he was one of the nicest celebrities I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Notice how he was wearing his street shoes! We realize this biography is somewhat dated, for which we apologize.  We’re working on an update.

Arnold Palmer

Arnold Palmer is many things to many people… world famous golf immortal and sportsman, highly-successful business executive, prominent advertising spokesman, skilled aviator, talented golf course designer and consultant, devoted husband, father and grandfather and a man with a down-to-earth common touch that has made him one of the most popular and accessible public figures in history.

His popularity and success have grown with the tremendous golf boom in this latter half of the century to heights few ever anticipated. Certainly each contributed to the other, a fact given recognition when he was named “Athlete of the Decade” for the 1960s in a national Associated Press poll. Before, during and after that great decade, the famous golfer amassed 92 championships in professional competition of national or international stature by the-end of 1993. Sixty-one of the victories came on the U.S. PGA Tour, starting with the 1955 Canadian Open.

Beside the magnificent performance record, his magnetic personality and unfailing sense of kindness and thoughtfulness to everybody with whom he comes in contact have endeared him to millions throughout the world and led to the informal formation of the largest non-uniformed “military” organization in existence – Arnie’s Army. Seven of his victories came in what the golfing world considers the four major professional championships. He won the Masters Tournament four times, in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964; the U.S. Open in spectacular fashion in 1960 at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver and the British Open in 1961 and 1962. He came from seven strokes off the pace in the final round in that U.S. Open win and has finished second in four other Opens since then. Among the majors, only the PGA Championship has eluded him. He has finished second in the PGA three times.

Arnie’s springboard to professional fame and fortune was his victory in the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1954. He turned professional a few months later. His hottest period was a four-year stretch from 1960 to 1963 when he landed 29 of his titles and collected almost $400,000 at a time when the purses were minute by today’s standards. He was the leading money-winner in three of those years and twice represented the U.S. in the prestigious Ryder Cup Match, serving in 1963 as the victorious captain.

It was also during this period that his rapidly-growing business interests got their start, through the impetus of Palmer himself and with the guidance and efforts of his business manager, Mark McCormack, and his wide-ranging organization. Arnold is president of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, a multi-division structure encompassing much of his global commercial activity that is centered in Cleveland. He has been involved in automobile and aviation service firms in his Latrobe (PA) hometown, Charlotte, NC, and elsewhere around the country for many years.

Arnold is president and sole owner (since 1971) of Latrobe Country Club and president and principal owner of the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Orlando, FL, which he and a group of associates acquired on lease in 1970. Bay Hill hosts the annual Nestle Invitational on the PGA Tour. Arnold also is tournament professional and member of the Board of Directors of Laurel Valley Golf Club, Ligonier, PA, with which he has been affiliated since its founding in the late 1950s.

He is a major stockholder and member of the Board of Directors of ProGroup, Inc., Ooltewah, TN, (Chattanooga area), a sporting goods company which manufactures and markets various leisure-industry products focused on golf, including equipment bearing the Palmer name and design. Another important facet of his activities involves golf course design, management and teaching in businesses operating as Palmer Course Design Company, in which he is associated with Edwin B. Seay, past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects; Arnold Palmer Golf Management Company, and the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy. Since the mid-1960s, Palmer has put his stamp on some 200 new courses throughout the nation and world. His modest business empire and tournament play keep Palmer on the move much of the year, most of the travel in his Cessna Citation VII jet aircraft with Arnold at the controls when aboard.

Palmer was born on September 10, 1929, in Latrobe, a small industrial town in Western Pennsylvania at the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains some 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. He still spends the warm months of the year there, but makes his winter home in the Orlando area. He has numerous active and honorary memberships in clubs throughout the world, including famed St. Andrews in Scotland and prominent Oakmont in Pittsburgh.

The golfing great has been the recipient of countless honors, the symbolic plaques, trophies and citations scattered throughout his personal, club and business worlds. He has received virtually every national award in golf and after his great 1960 season both the Hickok Athlete of the Year and Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year trophies. He is a charter member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and a member of the American Golf Hall of Fame at Foxburg, PA, and the PGA Hall of Fame in Florida. He is chairman of the USGA Members Program and served as Honorary National Chairman of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation for 20 years. He played a major role in the fund-raising drive that led to the creation of the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando in the 1980s. A long-time member of the Board of Directors of Latrobe Area Hospital, he established a major annual fund-raising golf event for that institution in 1992.

The saga of Arnold Palmer began when he was four years old, swinging his first set of golf clubs, cut down by his father, Milfred J. (Deacon) Palmer, who worked at Latrobe Country Club from 1921 until his death in 1976, much of that time as both golf professional and course superintendent. Before long, Arnie was playing well enough to beat the older caddies at the club. He began caddying himself when he was 11 and worked at virtually every job at the club in the ensuing years.

The strongly-built young man concentrated on golf in high school and soon was dominating the game in Western Pennsylvania. He won his first of five West Penn Amateur Championships when he was 17, competed successfully in national junior events and went to Wake Forest University (then College), where he became No. 1 man on the golf team and one of the leading collegiate players of that time. Deeply affected by the death in an auto accident of his close friend and classmate, Bud Worsham, younger brother of 1947 U.S. Open Champion Lew Worsham, Arnold withdrew from college during his senior year and began a three-year hitch in the Coast Guard. His interest in golf rekindled while he was stationed in Cleveland. He was working there as a salesman and playing amateur golf after his discharge from the service and brief return to Wake Forest when he won the U.S. Amateur in 1954 following his second straight victory in the Ohio Amateur earlier that summer.

It was during this period that he met Winifred Walzer at a tournament in Eastern Pennsylvania. They were married shortly after he turned professional in the fall of 1954 and Winnie traveled with him when he joined the pro tour in early 1955. The Palmers have two daughters – Peggy Palmer Wears, of Durham, NC, and Amy Palmer Saunders, of Windermere, FL; four granddaughters, Emily (1127/81), Katherine Anne (912182), Anne Palmer (9/14184) Saunders and Nicola Wears and a grandson, Samuel Palmer Saunders (7130187). Arnold’s brother, Jerry, who succeeded their father as course superintendent at Latrobe CC, and sisters, Mrs. Lois Jean Tilley and Sandra Sarady, live in the Latrobe area. Jerry is now general manager of Latrobe CC and all Palmer properties there. Their mother, Dons, passed away in 1979 after a long, brave battle against crippling arthritis.

ACADEMIC HONORS
Honorary Doctor of Laws, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC
Honorary Doctor of Humanities, Thiel College, Greenville, PA
Honorary Doctor of Laws, National College of Education, Evanston, IL
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL

AWARDS

GOLF:

Charter member, World Golf Hall of Fame, Pinehurst, NC – 1974
American Golf Hall of Fame, Foxburg, PA
PGA Hall of Fame, Palm Beach Gardens, FL – 1980
All-American Collegiate Golf Hall of Fame, Man of Year – 1984
Ohio Golf Hall of Fame – 1992
Phoenix Open Hall of Fame
Bob Jones Award, U.S. Golf Association – 1971
Walter Hagen Award, International panel of selectors
William D. Richardson Award, Golf Writers Assn. of America – 1969
Charles Bartlett Award, Golf Writers Assn. of America – 1976
Herb Graffis Award, National Golf Foundation – 1978
Gold Tee Award, Metropolitan (NY) Golf Writers Assn. – 1965
Golf Digest “Man of Silver Era” – 1975
Old Tom Morris Award, Golf Course Supt. Assn. of America – 1983
Golfer of Century, New York Athletic Club
Commemorative Honoree, 1987 Golf Digest Commemorative Seniors Tournament
Golfer of Decade (1958-67), Centennial of Golf, Golf Mag. – 1989
American Senior Golf Association National Award – 1989
Chicago District Golf Assn. Distinguished Service Award – 1989
Ambassador of Golf Award, World Series of Golf – 1991
Bing Crosby Award, Metropolitan Golf Writers Assn. – 1992
Memorial Honoree, Memorial Tournament – 1993

GENERAL:

Associated Press Athlete of Decade – 1960-69
Hickok Athlete of Year – 1960
Sports Illustrated Sportsman of Year – 1960
Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County,Cambria County, North Carolina, Florida Sports Halls of Fame
Wake Forest Hall of Fame
Arthur J. Rooney Award, Catholic Youth Assn., Pittsburgh PA
Dapper Dan Man of Year, Pittsburgh, PA – 1960
Lowman Humanitarian Award, Los Angeles, CA
Distinguished Pennsylvanian – 1980
Partner in Science Award, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation
Theodore Roosevelt Award, National Collegiate Athletic Association
Business Leaders Award, Northwood Institute
National High School Sports Hall of Fame
Gold Medal, Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters – 1988
Sports Appreciation Trophy, Atlanta AC CC, Atlanta, GA – 1990
Van Patrick Career Achievement Award, Dearborn, MI – 1990
Eagle on World Award, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York – 1990
Pathfinder Award, Youthlinks Indiana – 1992
Outstanding American Award, Los Angeles Philanthropic Foundation- 1992
National Sports Award, Washington, D.C. – 1993
Sports Legends Award, Jr. Diabetes Foundation, Pittsburgh – 1993
Humanitarian Award, Variety Club International – 1993
“Good Guy” Award, American Legion National Commanders – 1993

GOLF BOOKS AND VIDEOS

Arnold Palmer’s Golf Book, 1961
Portrait of Professional Golfer, 1964
My Game and Yours, 1965 revised 1983
Situation Golf, 1970
Go For Broke, 1973
Arnold Palmer’s Best 54 Holes of Golf, 1977
Arnold Palmer’s Complete Book of Putting, 1986
Play Great Golf, 1987-9 (book, videos)
The Arnold Palmer Story, 1991 (video)

You can find out more about Arnold Palmer at his web site: http://www.arnoldpalmer.com/

Source: Arnold Palmer: A Biography

While the llama caddies have been an interesting marketing tool for Talamore, the course itself is no laughing matter.  The award-winning Rees Jones design is well known as a thinking man’s course where course management may be your best “swing thought”.   It’s a par 71 that plays over 7,000 yds from the back tees with a slope rating of 142!  The course is very picturesque, with attractively shaped bunkers and mounding, typical of Rees Jones designs.  The greens are undulating and can be treacherous if the speed is up.   There’s plenty of trouble lurking, and you will find that Talamore offers an exciting challenge for golfers of all skill levels.

The clubhouse is very compact and efficient with a cozy bar and dining area.  Try the North Carolina BBQ for lunch.

Talamore also offers fantasic golf packages in modern, comfortable Golf Villas.  They also own nearby Mid-South Club, which is private, but can be played on Talamore Golf Packages.  The Mid South Club is home to the Arnold Palmer signature course and new luxury villas overlooking the 9th and 18th holes.  In a recent survey of local PGA professionals, Mid South ranked #2 in the Pinehurst area, second only to the venerable Pinehurst No.2.

The Dining Room is a time-warp to earlier times with antique furnishings, relish trays, fine food at reasonable prices and probably the best pork chop you will ever eat, if you can finish a 20 ounce chop that you can eat with just a fork!  Ambiance is everywhere at the Pine Crest and if you are lucky when you visit, you might walk into a chipping contest into the fireplace of the lobby.  If the weather co-operates, and it usually does in Pinehurst, you will want to sit on the front porch and enjoy a cocktail before dinner.

Live entertainment is provided by local legend Clarence Levine, who presides on the keyboard Thursday-Saturday evenings.

If you’ve never slept in a room at the Pine Crest Inn, you’re in for a treat. If you’ve been a Pine Crest Inn guest before, you know what we mean.  There’s the Telephone Cottage, so named because this building was once a telephone switching station at the inn. This large room helps make your stay at the Pine Crest Inn so enjoyable. It’s very roomy and comfortable – a separate cottage nestled in the trees next to the Inn with its own driveway. You’ll enjoy the extra single bed in its own little room next to the master bedroom – ideal for children. The Telephone Cottage offers privacy but all the amenities of the hotel which is only a few steps away.

Charleston golf is scattered through a series of islands and peninsulas making it one of the more scenic golf venues available anywhere.  The most famous is Kiawah Island Resort, located 45 minutes from downtown Charleston and home to 5 golf courses and the treacherous “Ocean Course”, designed by Pete Dye and host to the “Battle of 1991″, also known as the Ryder Cup.   Also represented on Kiawah Island are legendary golf course designers Tom Fazio, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Clyde Johnston.

The Isle of Palms is conveniently located to downtown Charleston and is home to Wild Dunes, where Tom Fazio designed the Links and Harbor courses, both nationally recognized as great layouts.

There is more great golf in Charleston and a lot of the courses you will want to play are not on a barrier island, but in the city of Charleston and the surrounding area.  The highly-acclaimed Arnold Palmer Signature course at RiverTowne Country Club in Mt. Pleasant still offers a limited number of non-member tee times and is a great choice.  Charleston National, a Rees Jones design is sculpted out of lowcountry marshland, with the cool ocean breezes creating different playing conditions between the morning and afternoon rounds. 100-year old oaks dripping with Spanish moss and Palmetto palms will make golfers forget they are less than 10 miles from Charleston.

Located on the site of the historic Lexington Plantation, is Dunes West Golf Club, another nationally acclaimed golf facility. Ranked by both Golf magazine and Golf Digest as a “Top Ten Resort Course,” this Arthur Hills design is a must play.  Located across the harbor just eight minutes from downtown Charleston, the famous Patriots Point Links offers all golfers resort quality golf. A Lowcountry tradition, this historic course features plush fairways, immaculate greens, unmatched service and breathtaking panoramic views of Charleston Harbor and Fort Sumter.