2022 January Memorabilia Auction - Closing Date 02/06/2022
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/6/2022
Hal Sutton's - Arnold Palmer Award Presented To 1983 Leading Tour Money Winner - 17lbs!
The wait is over! This is very the first example of the bronze casted Arnold Palmer Award ever offered - the other examples on exhibit in private collections of winners Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, Curtis Strange and Tom Kite, among of PGA stars! Proudly standing before you is the sizable, prestigious, and never before publicly offered Arnold Palmer Award. It honors the Tour money leader from that PGA Tour season, in this case, Hal Sutton for his career year of 1983. The trophy's namesake, Arnold Palmer, paved the way for professional golfers of future generations to top $1 million in a single tournament, turning the sport from a relatively blue collar job to playing for six figures every week and receiving endorsements that total much higher. At the 1967 American Golf Classic Arnold Palmer eclipsed the $1 million career earnings mark, the first time a professional golfer would reach the previously unreachable.
One of only less than handful of awards given annually by the PGA Tour, the stoic Arnold Palmer is rendered on the tiered base with his hands resting on the top of the club grip and looking to his right in regal "King" like fashion. The detailed work of sculptor Jack Worthington tips the scale at an impressive 17 lbs. Worthington's original sculpture produced in 1980 was presented by the artist to Palmer, with the Tour awarding the honor from that time forward. Hal Sutton topped the earnings chart with $426,668 in his 1983 sophomore campaign behind victories at TPC Sawgrass and the PGA Championship held at The Riviera Country Club. Centered on the front of each rounded plinth tier is a name plate. These read respectively from top to bottom: "Arnpld Palmer Award" and "Hal Sutton - 1983 Leading Money Winner." A signed letter of provenance from Hal Sutton comes with this lot. This is an exceptional trophy easily the focal point of any room with its tremendous eye-appeal paying tribute to the player who transformed golf through the television era into the popularity we know the sport carries today. Trophy measures 22" tall
The Hal Sutton Collection
Hal Sutton's golf game flourished while growing up in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. In fact the highly touted amateur golfer chose to stay closeby after high school and went to local Centenary College. It wouldn't take much time for the All American to put his school and town on the national golfing map when he received 'Golf Magazine's 1980 College Player of the Year' after 14 victories and lifting the small liberal arts school to 9th in the Nation. Unsurprisingly Hal Sutton would find great success at the professional level, notching 14 PGA Tour victories between 1982 and 2001. The 1983 season was a one for Sutton, earning PGA Tour Player of the Year honors as the leading money winner and the new accolade of 'major champion.' Sports Illustrated's golf writer Dan Jenkins' emphatically recapped his 1983 PGA Championship triumph with "There's a New Bear on the Loose - Hal Sutton Put a Death Grip on the PGA Championship To Stop a Classic Jack Nicklaus Charge." This came only months after his The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass win. Representing his country became a common role Sutton found himself in, as a 4-time Ryder Cup player in 1985, 1987, 1999, and 2002, before being chosen as the Ryder Cup Captain in 2004. He was a victorious Walker Cup team member in 1979 and 1981. <br><br>After playing two decades on the tour Hal began to shift his attention to philanthropy, with that soon becoming a main focus. This didn't go unnoticed in the golfing community and Sutton was the 2007 Payne Stewart Award recipient. He would raise more than $2 million with fellow Louisiana natives David Toms and Kelly Gibson for Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims. The Golf Auction has been very appreciative of the opportunity to offer some of Hal's Collection, including his 1998 TOUR Championship Calamity Jane Trophy, Gold Plated Scotty Cameron Putter for 2000 Players Win and all four of his 2000 Players Championship winning scorecards when it was "The Right Club."
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