The oldest sports museum in the United States is getting a worthy addition in the near future in the form of the “Arnold Palmer Center For Golf History.” Slated for completion in 2008, the center will honor the man who was the first to win a U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open and a U.S. Senior Open.
The purpose of the center is to house an exhibition gallery for USGA championship history, an archival storage space for artifact storage, and a research room for those studying materials housed there. With a price price tag of more than $16 million, the Palmer Center should be beautiful when completed. It will be over twice the size of the present museum.
The center will share the same grounds as the USGA Administration building, the existing golf museum, and the USGA Research and Test Center. The Research and Test Center is the place where the USGA tests clubs to make sure that they comply with the rules of golf.
Arnold Palmer, one of golf’s most influential characters during the past fifty years, expressed his appreciation to the USGA by saying, “I am thrilled to be forever associated with the USGA, an organization I have held dear fro nearly all of my life. I am honored and humbled, and I feel like I’ve just won the U.S. Open again.” The USGA picked one of the games best and most influential ambassadors to name the facility after.