ARNOLD PALMER

Arnold Palmer died in 2016 but his business empire did not. He was the first golfer to earn $1 million in prize money, the first golfer to become a genuine celebrity brand, and the creator of what many consider the greatest non-alcoholic beverage ever invented (half iced tea, half lemonade, invented because that is genuinely what he drank).

He won 62 PGA Tour events including 7 major championships. He won 4 Masters and was so beloved at Augusta that his fans were named "Arnie's Army" — a name that stuck for 60 years.

More than any other athlete of his era, Palmer understood that playing a sport professionally was different from building a brand around it. He co-founded IMG with Mark McCormack in 1960 — creating the sports management industry that every athlete agent in history can trace back to that meeting.

The Arnold Palmer brand generates over $500M in annual revenue from licensing alone, two decades after his death.

Arnold Palmer Enterprises (brand licensing and management), Arnold Palmer Design Company (golf course design), Latrobe Country Club (Pennsylvania, family-owned), Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children (Orlando, named in his honor), AriZona Beverages partnership (the Arnold Palmer drink generates hundreds of millions in annual sales)

Palmer was the first athlete to systematically treat his name as a business asset. He licensed carefully, chose partners that fit the brand (wholesome, approachable, winning), and maintained extraordinary control over how his image was used.

His relationship with AriZona Beverages for the eponymous drink was a masterclass in licensing: he gave his name, they built the product, and the brand generates hundreds of millions per year decades after his death.

The Arnold Palmer drink. He did not invent a beverage as a business strategy — he just told a waitress what he drank on a hot day and she told other customers and it became a cultural phenomenon.

Eventually AriZona licensed it, and now it generates somewhere north of $200M in annual retail sales. The greatest accidental product launch in sports history.

His early investment in Latrobe Country Club involved some disputes with partners over renovations and the direction of the club. He eventually bought out disagreeing partners, but it was a messy period that he later described as his biggest lesson in the importance of choosing partners carefully.

Palmer believed that trust was the only real asset in the endorsement business. He famously said he never put his name on anything he wouldn't use himself — and he meant it literally.

He would call up companies to get the actual product and test it before signing any deal.

Married to Winnie Palmer from 1954 until her death in 1999. Two daughters, Peggy and Amy.

Later married Kit Gawthney in 2005. His grandson, Sam Saunders, played on the PGA Tour.

Wake Forest University on a golf scholarship. Left after three years to join the Coast Guard, then returned to professional golf.

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