The King and his clubs: “Like a kid in a candy store” | Golf News and Tour Information [Video]

Arnold Palmer’s history with golf equipment is at once personal and professional. The man’s legendary club workshop at home in Latrobe, Pa., was like a museum to equipment innovation over the last century, and while he remained an inveterate tinkerer on his clubs up to the end of his life, it was no idle hobby. The King and his clubs were at the forefront of the equipment business for the last 50 years. Palmer, who famously perfected the idea of athletes endorsing products when he and Mark McCormack shook hands on a relationship that would be the foundation for the sports agency International Management Group (IMG), signed his first golf-club deal with Wilson Sporting Goods just after winning the U.S. Amateur in 1954. While his relationship with Wilson may have resulted in his most notable playing successes, Palmer immediately saw the value and freedom of starting his own equipment company …