Palmer’s Grandson Embraces Lot In Life

By Ken Klavon, USGA

San Francisco – About nine years ago a precocious Sam Saunders, then 11, pronounced to his parents that his basketball career would be coming to an end. He had a new fervor.

Anyone who knows Saunders’ lineage might have uttered, ‘What took so long?’

"I was happy that he found something he was clearly passionate about," said his mom, Amy, pausing for the following that could be construed as a punch line. "On a personal level, here I thought I was getting out of golf."

Call it the curse of the family genes. For the Saunders, outside of the Nicklauses, are the closest kin equivalents to golf royalty. Amy’s dad and Sam’s grandfather happens to be a king of sorts, you could say. In fact, ‘The King’ has been a moniker he’s been tagged with through most of his career. To put it a different way, how often can someone say they can call upon Arnold Palmer at a moment’s notice?

Intent on improving his game, Sam Saunders has become keen at reading all of his greens, said his father Roy, who also serves as his caddie. (John Mummert/USGA)

The 20-year-old Saunders, a sophomore at Clemson University, has been a rising amateur since he put his face on the map at Winged Foot Golf Club at the 2004 U.S. Amateur. He hasn’t shied away from the connection, the fortuitous pipeline to one of golf’s top thinkers. The large shadow Palmer has cast could strangle him with anxiety if he allowed it. But the level-headed Saunders, from Orlando, Fla., nudges it gently it aside the way he’d delicately handle a ripe plum in the supermarket for fear of bruising it.

Yeah, it’s kind of cool to walk up to someone and say ‘Arnold Palmer is my granddad,’ but with that comes daunting pressure real or submerged to the point that one could drown in high expectations.

"My dad’s expectations are very high, not just about golf but about becoming a good person in life," said Amy, who lives in Orlando with husband, Roy. Besides Sam, they have three daughters - Emily, 26, Katie, 24, and 22-year-old Annie.

Easygoing with a penchant to look into the eyes of his interviewer, the lanky Saunders oozes a quiet confidence that belies the fine line between being modest and cocksure. The latter he clearly is not. He makes it a point to say his path in golf is not fueled by his grandfather’s background, nor has anyone pushed him into it. To live as a puppet, their dreams, doesn’t interest him much. And he doesn’t believe he’s trying to validate his worth as a golfer to Palmer.

"I don’t think I have to prove anything like that," said Saunders. "It would be nice to say, ‘Look what I did’ [winning the U.S. Amateur], but it’s not about that at all."

What it is about is growing into a well-rounded person. It’s about being the best he can be. Courtesy, modesty and being a model citizen is the foundation upon which Palmer preaches. It’s more than that, Saunders added, saying his parents are the biggest influences he’s had. How grounded is Saunders? He once worked on the Bay Hill Club & Lodge maintenance crew in Orlando for three months so he could see the game from another angle. The experience changed his outlook.

"Every golfer should be required to work on a maintenance crew," said Saunders. "I guarantee that they will not slam a club again; they won’t walk past a divot without fixing it."

Saunders described his relationship to Palmer as close. It’d be easy to get carried away with scenarios better placed in Hollywood – like Palmer hovering over his bloodline, cajoling his grandson with words of wisdom unlocked from his treasure vault of a mind, working his prodigy as inspiring orchestra music fills out the scene. That setting would be fraught with delusions of grandeur.

It’s not the way, of course. When Saunders needs advice, he turns to Palmer.

"[Palmer’s] pretty laid back," said Roy Saunders, who tried to walk on the University of Florida team in the 1970s as a scratch golfer. "He’s not big on teaching and training. He has the ability to translate the knowledge. Sam will go to him and he’s always subtle – it’ll be the grip, his stance – he’s never [one] for a lot."

Back in January Saunders had an epiphany. If he was to be the best he could be, he had to change. Physically change. He hadn’t been playing well, and found that the 210 pounds he lugged around exhausted him. Within a month 15 pounds disappeared from his 6’1 frame. He’s down to 165 pounds, admittedly saying he lost length but fine-tuned his all-around game for the better.

He said he feels better in the new body. The 2005 U.S. Junior Amateur medalist has renewed confidence on the course. On July 18 he shot a 63 in the first round of the Southern Amateur at the Country Club of North Carolina. Last week he was in contention at the Cardinal Amateur before finishing tied for ninth. Saunders feels like he’s close to posting his first victory as an amateur.

That said, the daunting task of having his career judged by the comparison to that of his grandfather – an impossible fate to escape and unfair by its own right – isn’t enough to dissuade him.

"As much as you try to divorce yourself from that pressure," said Amy, "you think that he has to be thinking about it."

It’s all second nature to Saunders. One that he embraces.

"I’ve dealt with it my entire life," said Saunders, adding that he doesn’t tire of the questions about it. "I’ve said it before: the positives outweigh the negatives by far. I’m not taking anything for granted. I use his help to better my position in golf. I have an opportunity to use it as a benefit."

Ken Klavon is the USGA Web Editor. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.