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Arnold Palmer - “Better Hearing Improved My Life”

Arnold Palmer is a golf legend.  His victory in 1954 in the U.S. Amateur Championship was a springboard to a professional golf career that has spanned four decades of accomplishments.  Many best remember his four year stretch from 1960 to 1963 when landed 29 of his titles and twice represented the U.S. in the prestigious Ryder Cup Match, serving in 1963 as the victorious captain.  He has amassed 92 championships in professional competition, and was honored with the title, “Athlete of the Decade” for the 1960’s.

Palmer began his golf career at the age of four when he was swinging his first set of golf clubs cut down by his father, Milfred Palmer who worked at the Latrobe Country Club.  Arnie was caddying at age 11, and  it didn’t take long before he was playing well enough to beat the older caddies at the club. 

Arnold Palmer still is one of the biggest draws in professional golf.  He also has another personal story of success, one of overcoming hearing loss.  “When I was 40, I noticed a hearing loss.  Just like my father and my grandfather.” he reports, “I, like thousands of other people, was reluctant to (wear hearing aids).   I had many tests through the years that indicated a gradual hearing loss and that I should do something about it to enhance the quality of life.”

An estimated 20 million American could benefit from wearing hearing aids, but only about five million have purchased hearing aids.  Hearing loss remains the third most common chronic health problem in the U.S. today. 

So, what keeps people with hearing loss from seeking help?  Is it price? Cosmetics?  Performance?  Palmer observes, “Some think a hearing aid will make them look old.  Well, how about not hearing.  Now, that makes you look old.  And asking “What?”  What? all the time.  That gets old for everybody around you.  It sure did for my wife Winnie.  Having your hearing back makes you feel younger.  You can participate more.  Enjoy more.”

Hearing loss affects the families and friend of those with the hearing problem as well as the person with the hearing loss.  The decision to get up and go can be influenced by whether someone can go there and hear.  Palmer reports that after several years of family and professionals encouraging him to seek help, that the final acceptance of his need to seek help occurred when one night he found that he was unable to hear the sound track during a movie. 

Palmer wears two hearing aids and is pleased with their performance.  “Hearing aid technology has made tremendous strides.  It’s the difference between the old wooden shaft clubs we used to play with, and these graphite shafts we use today.  New hearing aids are remarkably small.  Mine deliver natural sound in a variety of listening situations.”

People jokingly inquire if better hearing has improved his golf game. Palmer seriously responds, “When I walked out on the golf course the first day I had a hearing aid, I heard things I hadn’t heard on the golf course, like the click of hitting a put or hitting a golf ball, or the air going through the club when I was swinging it.  It made a tremendous difference.”

Rayovac Corporation, a Madison, WI based company, invited Arnold Palmer to work together with them to encourage hearing-impaired to get help.  Palmer, who is a spokesperson for other Companies such as Rolex and Penzoil, is very particular about the companies and products that he endorses.  “My associations with companies through my years of playing golf and representing various companies has lasted a long time.  I do not pass myself around freely.  I do not change companies quickly ... I believe, and my father taught me a long time ago, that integrity in a person is very important. Integrity in a product is also very important.  If they don’t perform you throw them away and you never go back to them.  If they do perform, you stick with them all your life.”