a day ago
Split-second decision 30 years ago created special bond between Latrobe man and Arnold Palmer
The excitement and attention of the golf world return to Oakmont Country Club during this year's U.S. Open.
But the coverage leading up to this year's tournament harkened back 30 years to when one of the game's legends, and one of western Pennsylvania's most cherished native sons, played his final competitive round on a golf course.
During the 1994 U.S. Open, Latrobe native Arnold Palmer played in the tournament at Oakmont for the fifth time in his career, a record at the time. Latrobe resident Carl Gasper was the owner of Carriage Limousine Services, the largest luxury transportation company in the region at the time. Carriage was awarded the contract to be the official transportation company of the U.S. Open.
"Arnold Palmer and I became very close friends," Gasper said. "Every time he had to go to an event or go into Pittsburgh, we [came] out and picked him up, took him in, and we grew a great relationship after doing that for him."
Palmer, age 64 at the time, was playing in his last tournament in the 1994 U.S. Open, and Carriage Limousine transported Palmer from his home to Oakmont every day by helicopter during the week. But on Friday, the day of the second round, Palmer shot an 81, missing the cut, and the understanding of his swan song was known around the course.
"It was very rough realizing that would be the last competitive that he would be playing golf in a competition like this," said Gasper. "So, with him coming up and not making the cut on Friday night, as he [approached the 18th hole], he got an unbelievable response from all the people, and he took the hat off, and he was crying. It was a moving, moving event."
In that moment, Gasper made a split-second decision that created a lasting memory forever.
"I went down to the caddy shack, where they take all the flags off the golf course so nobody takes them, and I took the flag of the last hole he played," Gasper said. "As he was getting in the car, I said, 'Arnie, would you sign this?' And I gave him a Sharpie, and he looked down and says, 'Carl, what did you do? You know you can't do that.'"
Despite his shock, Palmer signed the flag, which Gasper framed and kept in his office for about nine years until another split-second decision added another chapter to the story.
"It struck me that my mother had never met Arnold Palmer," Gasper said.
It gave him yet another idea: to set up a lunch with his mother and Palmer.
"At that particular point, I took that memorabilia – the flag that I had made up – and I wrapped it up and I gave it to my mother to give to Arnie, a birthday present," Gasper said. "We sat back, and he started opening it up. As he opened it up, he cried like a little baby. He was so excited. 'Oh my God, Carl. I remember the day I was getting in the limo, and I signed it! I've got a special place for it.'"
That place was a workshop where Palmer helped design and retrofit golf clubs, an estimated 10,000 or so over time. Three decades later, that workshop was shown during national golf coverage, bringing the story back to life once again.
"They show this workshop on national TV, and there's my flag," Gasper said. "And the announcer had said, 'There's the flag for Arnold Palmer's last time that he played Oakmont.' So, I felt that was pretty special for me."
Gasper wrote a book, "A Dream That Came True," chronicling numerous stories involving local and national celebrities and personalities. But he says his relationship with Palmer is something he will forever hold dear, and the 1994 U.S. Open flag he gifted to Palmer was emblematic of it.
"It's something that money can't buy, no matter how wealthy a person is," he said. "You can't put a price tag on something of that nature."
