PACIFIC PALISADES – One of Arnold Palmer’s grandkids drew attention to himself Thursday. Not for who he is, but for what he did, and how he did it.
In what he called a somehow “stress-free” round of 7-under-par 64 at Riviera Country Club capped off by seven birdies and without a bogey, Sam Saunders didn’t have to flash his ID to cut to the top of the early leaderboard at the PGA Tour’s Genesis Open.
Because of morning fog that delayed most everyone’s tee times by about an hour, even a push to get as much completed Thursday with heavy rain on the way still left 48 players out on the course when darkness hit at 5:34 p.m., including Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama.
If play doesn’t resume until sometime Saturday, it gives Saunders an unlikely extra few hours to soak in the fact he at least has a two-shot lead.
Besides, in a field that includes more than a dozen of the world’s top-ranked players, how cool is it when the name of Arnold Palmer can come up in the conversation?
Palmer captured three L.A. Open PGA titles – 1963, ’66 and ’67, the last one 50 years ago. None of them were at Riviera Country Club, where Saunders realized that while he may not have his own army of followers, the gallery did noticeably increase as the afternoon wore on for his group, the last one of the morning 72 that went off from the 10th hole.
“Yeah, it did happen actually,” said the 29-year-old. “Like, ‘Who is this guy? I’ll go check him out.’”
Saunders’ mother Amy is the youngest of Arnold and Winnie Palmer’s two daughters. She and husband Roy manage operations at Latrobe Country Club and the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Fla., where the PGA’s Arnold Palmer Invitational is held every March.
It’s not that there’s any striking resemblance with Sanders and Palmer. There’s also the story about how Sanders’ future wife, Kelly, didn’t know about the DNA connection to Palmer until she Googled his name about a month into their dating.
Granted one of four exemptions by Genesis Open organizers to be included in this field of 144 – it had to be a gesture in some way to honor of his grandfather, who died at age 87 last September – Sanders is a card-carrying member of the PGA Tour card and has finished as high as a tie for sixth in one of the 24 events he got into last season.
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Saunders shot a 32 on both the back and front side of Rivera, acknowledging he got some fortunate bounces near the greens, although he added that he had four shots using his 6-iron for about 175 yards into the wind and “all of them were good.”
Saunders said he knows all about the Palmer history of golf in L.A. “I think his celebrity matches pretty well with the celebrity atmosphere that you have here, so he was very comfortable with that,” he said.
Saunders may actually be better known for one of the poignant eulogies he delivered at Palmer’s funeral.
“I think we celebrated his life in a really special way,” Saunders said. “I feel like I’ve taken on a little bit of a different role, trying to be more part of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, now on the board of Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundations, and throw on top of that I’m still trying to be a husband and raise two kids.
“It’s been busy, but busy in a good way. I’m still young and life should be busy at this point.”
He has vacated his Fort Collins, Colo., home and has been training in Florida to give him more time to play rounds instead of just hitting balls at a driving range. He has been in and out of the Web.com Tour, finishing eighth at a recent event in the Bahamas.
Through it all, he has gotten used to just being called “Arnold Palmer’s grandson” when introduced around golf courses.
“Listen, I just want to get myself in a position to win any tournament – and if it came here, sure, It would be special, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” he said.
“I don’t need to compete against my grandfather’s career – nobody can. I don’t care how many golf tournaments you win, nobody will compete in terms of doing what he did for the game. For me to try to promote my own brand or name would be foolish because I have such a great opportunity to continue what he has already done. That’s what I’m going to do and not make it about myself.”
Except, right now, those running the Genesis Open surely want to make Saunders feel like a king.
Contact the writer: thoffarth@scng.com
