This Day in Golf--Oct. 12

Arnold Palmer won the Pensacola Open twice, in 1960 and 1963, and lost a playoff in 1964 to Gary Player. It's a sign of how devoted Arnie was to the game that he would play a small-market tournament on the Florida Panhandle 12 times, but it was that type of event that built the tour to what it is today and players then enjoyed the small-town atmosphere perhaps more than today's player. On Oct. 12, 1980, Palmer should have played the final round of Pensacola that year, but he had missed the cut with 70-77 two days earlier and it became his final time to play there. The event itself ended in 1988.