Arnold Palmer sends heartfelt letter to NBC announcer battling cancer

NBC and Golf Channel’s Mark Rolfing announced earlier this monththat he was battling a rare form of salivary gland cancer and would start treatment immediately.

(Via MerlinFTP Drop)

His goal is to be back commentating by early next year, and he said that all the support he’s been receiving is helping him stay positive. One of the biggest boosts he got was in the form of a letter from Arnold Palmer, according to Ed Sherman:

“It’s a wonderful thing,” Rolfing said. “They’ve given me a reason to fight hard. I just don’t want to let them down.”

One correspondence stood out, and it came in the form of an old-fashioned letter.

“I got a letter from Arnold Palmer the other day,” Rolfing said. “I opened it and there were tears streaming down my face. It made me realize how lucky I am and what the game has done for me. A letter from Arnold Palmer in regular mail. It was typical Arnold. I’ve had a lot of support, but that one stands out.”

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport gets no-contact scanners

LATROBE, Pa. — 

Western Pennsylvania's Arnold Palmer Regional Airport now features a scanner that conducts full-body searches of passengers without physical contact.

More than 750 of the scanners, which use millimeter-wave technology, are utilized at 150 airports across the country. The Latrobe airport was provided the machine by the federal Transportation Safety Administration.

Executive Director Gabe Monzo tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review the machine will increase the airport's efficiency by making it quicker to process passengers and their baggage.

Monzo says the scanner gives the airport flexibility if it is ever expanded.

Westmoreland County Airport Authority officials say board members have been discussing a 20-year plan that includes a $7 million expansion of Arnold Palmer Regional Airport to add two more gates to the terminal.

Arnold Palmer’s name pulled for $973 Friday raffle at Latrobe Elks

Arnold Palmer doesn’t need any more money, but he could have added to the tally on Friday night in his hometown of Latrobe, Pa.

Palmer is a member of the Latrobe Elks, which has an 18-hole golf course on the property, and, each day, the club conducts a daily raffle drawing for a jackpot. Any of the over 800 members can come into the clubhouse bar and sign up for $1. Then, at 8:30 p.m. each night, three numbers are drawn from three separate containers and, combined, form the three-digit number of the winning member. If that person signed up that day, then they win the jackpot.

On Friday night, Palmer’s number came up. However, the King didn’t sign up that day — he’s not typically at the club — so he didn’t wind up winning the jackpot.

Better luck next time?

Champions Tour playoff event coming to Country Club of Virginia in 2016

Head or heart? PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem didn’t have to choose. Both were delivering the same message.

The Country Club of Virginia and the PGA’s Champions Tour will today announce a four-year agreement that will bring a Champions tournament to CCV’s James River Course beginning next year. The inaugural Dominion Charity Classic will be played Nov. 4-6, 2016, and will occupy a prime position on the Champions Tour’s Schwab Cup postseason playoff schedule.

“Let me say this,” said Finchem, a 1969 University of Richmond graduate and current UR board member. “The fact that I used to caddie (at the James River Course) and the fact that I used to sneak onto (CCV’s) Westhampton Course to play had nothing to do” with the selection of the tournament site.

The decision, he said, was rooted in analytics, not emotion.

Finchem said the Champions Tour’s decision to implement a FedEx Cup-style playoff in 2016 created a need for new venues offering agreeable October/November weather. He said CCV and the James River Course best satisfied a list of venue criteria. Among the requirements: accessibility, marketability, suitable-for-television panoramas and strength of club membership in the community.

He called the combination of event, venue and title sponsor — Dominion Resources, Inc. — “quite compelling.”

The Dominion Charity Classic will offer a $2 million purse to an elite field of 54 players. The 54-hole, no-cut tournament will be the final playoff tournament before the season-ending Schwab Cup Championship. Richmond results could have much to say about the makeup of the Schwab Cup Championship field.

The Champions Tour provides a top-drawer competitive environment for professional players 50 and older. Its popularity has surged since it was founded in 1980 as the PGA Senior Tour. In its first season, the tour offered four events with purses of $475,000. Today it offers 24 events with purses of more than $51 million.

Champions Tour event rosters are dotted with recognizable names. This week’s list of money leaders includes No. 1 Jeff Maggert, No. 2 Colin Montgomerie and No. 3 Bernhard Langer.

“I think people are going to see a great show,” said Bobby Wadkins, a native Richmonder whose professional résumé includes four Champions Tour victories. The James River Course “isn’t overly long by today’s standards,” Wadkins said. That being so, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see somebody” — he mentioned Langer and Fred Couples — “shoot 64 or 65.”

Today’s announcement will return Richmond to the professional golf map after a one-year absence. The Eagle Classic, a women’s Symetra Tour event, was held at Richmond Country Club from 2008 to 2014.

A men’s developmental tour tournament was held at the Dominion Club and Stonehenge Golf and Country Club under several names — most recently the Henrico County Open — from 1993 to 2008.

Richmond’s relationship with the 50-and-over tour is substantial. A Senior Tour event was held at Hermitage Country Club from 1983 to 1990, first as the United Virginia Bank Seniors and subsequently as the Crestar Classic. Chi Chi Rodriguez won twice at Hermitage. Arnold Palmer captured his last professional victory at the 1988 Crestar Classic.

“I’m just tickled pink about this,” Wadkins said. “It’s long overdue.”

Finchem said he knows from experience that the Richmond community’s affection for golf “is second to none.” He said he has “no doubt the Dominion Charity Classic will become one of the finest events of the Champions Tour season.”

Wadkins agreed.

“Think of all the people who play on all of the courses in the (Richmond) area,” he said. “If just the people who play around here come out — and that’s not counting the rest of the state — I think we’ll have a great turnout.”

Finchem said several local candidates — “at least 3-4” — were evaluated as potential tournament sites. One, Independence Golf Club in Midlothian, played host in February to a reception that included Finchem and Champions Tour president Greg McLaughlin.

Dominion, at that point, had not come aboard. Finchem said Dominion “is very happy” with the selection of the James River Course as the tournament venue.

Independence president and co-owner Giff Breed called the unveiling of the Dominion Charity Classic “incredibly exciting” and “a great opportunity” for the Richmond golf community.”