Arnie & Jack

Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry

By: Ian O' Connor

Narrated by: Alpha Trivette

Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

Surprisingly, one of sport’s most contentious, complex, and defining clashes played out not in the boxing ring or at the line of scrimmage but on the genteel green fairways of the world’s finest golf courses. Arnie and Jack. Palmer and Nicklaus. Their 50-year duel, in both the clubhouse and the boardroom, propelled each to the status of American icon and pushed modern golf to the heights and popularity it enjoys today.

Yet for all the ink that has been spilled on these two essential golf figures individually, no one has ever examined their relationship in this way. Arnie was the cowboy, with rugged good looks, Popeye-like forearms, a flailing swing, and charm enough to win fans worldwide. Jack was scientific, precise, conservative, aloof, even fat and awkward. Ultimately, Nicklaus got the better of Palmer on the course, beating him in major victories, 18-7. But Palmer bested Nicklaus almost everywhere else, especially in the hearts of the public and in endorsement dollars - Palmer was the top-grossing athlete for 30 years, until Michael Jordan surpassed him.

With dogged reporting and crisp, colorful storytelling, the award-winning sports columnist Ian O’Connor explores this heated professional and personal battle in fascinating, intimate, and revelatory detail. Drawing on unique and exclusive access to Palmer and Nicklaus, and informed by some 200 new interviews, O’Connor illuminates the two men’s extreme differences and sprawling influence through mini-dramas, such as their little-known first meeting on the course at the topsy-turvy U.S. Open in 1962, their early involvement with marketing and a small agency called IMG, and their intense competition for golf-course designs in their later years.

By the end of this pause-resisting narrative, which spans five remarkable decades, we see that each man wanted what the other had: Arnold had the adoring fans but wanted the trophies. Jack had the trophies but wanted the love.

©2008 Ian O'Connor (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Nostaligic sports history at its finest!

I was a late comer to Arnie's Army. He was already past prime, but I still wanted him to best Jack. That all changed into 1986, Jack's final major victory at Augusta, a glorious televised ending to a legendary career. I enjoyed Jack then as much as I had Arnie. Great one on one rivalries in sports are rare, especially now. Tiger Woods has no such counterpart, never will. Even Tiger would admit that the modern game of (and business of) golf has Arnie and Jack to thank for what it is to day and will be forever more. This was great read, albeit limited to those who love the arcane history of a sport that quite frankly is still mostly about rich or well to do kids with a talent for performing and making a great living on not the most stressful of backdrops. I would guess that mostly older men and golf fans as myself will enjoy this read the most, but if you're young and you really want to know about a rare sports duo that will likely never again be matched, try it out. The narration is smooth, a bit monotonous at times, but still lovingly given.

Good, but the narrator? Meh...

Really enjoyed this book, but the narrator read it like English wasn't his first language. Makes it a 3 star rather than a 4 star recording.

No Match

I listened to The Grand Slam, a book about Bobby Jones, prior to listening to this one. There is no comparison. The Grand Slam is a much better book. This one cannot come close to properly interjecting significant current events into the time line of the story being told, though this book tries. It is almost as though the author read The Grand Slam and tried following the same format. The narrator of this story is better suited to reading the time of day and the temperature when dialing "time" with your phone. He reads it as if watching a teleprompter, with -zero- emotion. Still, I did learn a few points of trivia regarding the careers of these two great golfers.