Arnold Palmer: Meet Doc Giffin, the King’s right-hand man
We hear today’s golfers talking about their “teams.” Usually they mean their caddie, their swing coach, their family, their physical therapist, nutritionist, club manufacturer and so on. But back in the day when Arnold Palmer began, those things didn’t exist. For him, it was one man. Doc Giffin.
The golf team is another thing Arnold Palmer invented that we often forget because it’s so commonplace today. Palmer may not have had a coach other than his father, but he had special people in whom he placed trust. One is Doc Giffin, his long-time press agent/ PR guy and advisor.
Today, Giffin; one of the best people ever in golf, made an appearance in the media center at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Giffin has been absent from the tournament for a couple of years with a health problem or two, but he looked like he could go 18 even though he said he’d given up driving, as in cars, not as in golf. He’s now 90.
A tournament photographer was taking his picture because he hasn’t been to the tournament since the media center was named for him. Ladies came up and gave him hugs and a kiss on the cheek. We knew that the men—maybe– would have liked to do that but – you know – they can’t. It’s unseemly somehow. So, we ladies made a fuss.
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Giffin, you see, is the guy everybody went to for answers, quotes, interview requests, background information or that elusive Palmer fact that was unfindable anyplace else. He and he late Bev Norwood; a legend at IMG while he was alive, probably knew more about The King than Palmer knew about himself.
For 50 years, Giffin maintained an office across from LaTrobe Country Club. He’s been an institution. But it wasn’t always so.
Doc Giffin began his golf career after being a sportswriter for a Pittsburgh newspaper. He was hired by the PGA of America as their press secretary. But once Palmer began winning tournaments around the world, he lured Giffin away from the PGA to work just for him as his personal assistant. That was in 1966. Since that time, Giffin’s been what everybody calls Palmer’s right-hand man.
A typical day with Palmer, he said, would conclude with a meeting in the late afternoon, as he told Golf Magazine:
“Usually around 4:30 or quarter to five in the afternoon, he’d say, ‘Come on up to the house and we’ll debrief.’ So, I’d go up there, maybe with the two secretaries and another guy from the office, possibly joined by some of Arnold’s golfing buddies. We’d just sit around talk and have cocktails. A lot of the times, Arnold would make the drinks for us.”
So it went for decades when Palmer was in La Trobe.
Then of course, Palmer’s health declined. But because Palmer’s condition deteriorated over a period of time, his death was not a complete surprise to Giffin or to others, but still, when it happens, it leaves a hole.
“I always told him that I would retire when he retired,” Giffin told Golf Magazine a year after the death of the legend. “Of course, I didn’t anticipate that he would pass away ahead of me. And I didn’t really think he’d retire, so I thought we’d both die with our boots on.”
These days Doc Giffin stays busy writing. One of his projects it called The World of Professional Golf, which is a thick book reporting the tournament results in golf from all tours each year. It is published by IMG.
dark. Next. Arnold Palmer Experience brings fans closer to The King
As we all watch the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week, knowing that Palmer’s ashes are scattered around the course, that his signature decorates the signage everywhere, that he was the force behind the tournament, it’s also important to give some thought to the people who backed Palmer up, who had the answers about him when they were needed, who could get the quote when required, and who always handled people with the same grace and charm as Palmer himself. One of those is Doc Giffiin, who will forever be called Arnold Palmer’s right-hand man.