He was an Arnold Palmer fanatic. But he became so much more

There is no settled case law, or the golf-history equivalent, for the exact definition of the Big Three. Harry Vardon, J.H. Taylor, James Braid: a threesome for the ages. Arnold, Big Jack, Gary Player, the same. And then (of course) this trio: Dr. George Franklin Grant; Dr. Cary Middlecoff; Dr. Howdy Giles. Another Big Three, at least under the popular game-show category Notable Golfing Dentists.

Dr. Grant invented the wooden golf tee (U.S. patent number 638,920).

Dr. Middlecoff won two U.S. Opens and one Masters tournament.

Dr. Giles was Arnold Palmer’s dentist and unofficial photographer.

Howdy Giles took thousands and thousands of photographs of Arnold over the years. The basement of his home in Wilmington, Del., was a sort of Arnold Palmer museum, and the house itself (per Arnold’s longtime aide-de-camp, Doc Giffin) was done in Early, Middle and Late Palmer. Howdy didn’t push Wake Forest, Arnold’s alma mater, on his two daughters — but they did wind up there. Howdy had a ball marker made out of one of Arnold’s old gold fillings. It hardly needs to be said that Howdy published a book called “The King and I: An Unlikely Journey from Fan to Friend.”

Golf has lost a true original. Howdy died last month at age 84. This is the first Arnold Palmer Invitational without him.

Forgive the personal intrusion here: On a weekday in May in 1987, early in my nine-year stint as a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, I visited the Chester Valley Golf Club, where a senior event was being played. Arnold was 57, silver-haired and tan, baking in the afternoon sun as he sat on a golf cart behind the driving range, chatting casually with a couple people. I was loitering with intent. A man, unknown to me but seeing my press button, asked me if I wanted to interview Arnold Palmer.

That would be swell.

I fumbled my way through the interview. I wrote up something. I drove to New York City and had what turned into my first date with the woman who became my wife. I know exactly what I wore, interviewing Arnold that afternoon and then at dinner, because of Howdy. Howdy made the introduction, then took a photo of me interviewing Arnold. Later, with no advance notice, Howdy printed up the photo and mailed it to me. As I type this, that photo, and a matchbook from the Lion’s Rock (316 E. 77th Street), are on my desk. I remain stunned by his generosity and effort.

Over the past nearly 40 years, I saw Howdy dozens of times. On several occasions, when Arnold was coming to greater Philadelphia for a banquet dinner or to greater Wilmington to have his teeth checked, Howdy brought me in. Howdy was a part-owner of a restaurant called Stanley’s Tavern in Wilmington, and I once had meal with Arnold and Howdy there. When Arnold flew into the Wilmington on a new plane, Howdy invited me to come for a look-see.

Arnold gave me a tour of the plane. He noted the cashmere blankets on each seat that, Arnold said, he got for his wife, Winnie. When I left Arnold and Howdy that afternoon, I must have noted that my wife and I were looking to buy a new (that is, new to us) car. Arnold, devoted to Cadillacs for reasons both personal and professional, said, “Well, I hope it will be a G.M. product.” You can’t buy a moment like that. Howdy made it possible.

Howdy, as all true originals do, made a lot of his own moments. I recall being greenside on Father’s Day at Baltusrol in 1993 when Lee Janzen won the U.S. Open. When the putt dropped, there were four people on the green: Janzen, Payne Stewart, their caddies. Then came a fifth — Howdy, camera in hand. He was so earnest, unassuming and nice nobody could ever say no to him.

I just went to look at the USGA’s highlight reel from that Sunday, available on YouTube, hoping I might see a glimpse of Howdy. I didn’t, but Arnold, the longtime and ultimate USGA ambassador, opens the show by offering some straight-to-the-camera welcoming remarks, in that foghorn voice. Howdy was a USGA rules official. They were both members at Pine Valley. Howdy once showed me a Golf Digest cover from 1957 that showed Arnold in full smile. “I shaved this tooth down a little bit,” Howdy said, pointing to a dangler. “It had a little bit of a fang to it.”

Howdy, a competitive swimmer at the University of Delaware, fell into Arnold’s spell through the magic of TV in the 1960s. To the amusement of his fellow dental-school students at Temple University in Philadelphia in the late 1960s, Howdy started buying his clothes out of the Arnold Palmer line at the legendary Philadelphia department store, Wanamakers. (A quote with legs from Howdy: “They’d say, ‘Hey, what’s with all the Palmer gear?’ But who has the last laugh now?”) When they were dating, Carolyn Boddorff gave her boyfriend a set of Arnold Palmer clubs. Needless to say, they had a long and happy marriage. (The two daughters married Arnold-o-philes; the four grandchildren are all getting inculcated.) When Howdy joined Bay Hill in the mid-1970s and met Arnold’s dentist, Benny Tacke, Howdy said it would be his dream to be Arnold Palmer’s dentist. “Arnie’s a lousy patient,” Dr. Tacke said. “When I die, you can have him.” Two years later, Dr. Tacke died and Dr. Giles had a new patient.

The last time I saw Howdy at Bay Hill was during the 2024 tournament, the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Carolyn had died three years earlier and Arnold had died a half-decade before that. Howdy, curiously, had developed the same kind of walk that Arnold had when he was in his early 80s, where the left shoulder dips left on the left step and the right shoulder dips right on the right. He was warm and engaging as always but time had taken its toll. He had lost his two great partners.

Howdy once described the first time he played with Arnold at Howdy’s home course, the Wilmington Country Club, mid-spring, 1976:

“Sixteenth hole, par 5, 603 yards. The caddie bets Arnie that he can’t get home in two. The bet is for a beer. Arnie hits driver, driver, chips in with a sand wedge from 15 yards off the green for a three. Gets a six-pack for the caddie and signs the cans. Budweiser. Shoots 67. Amazing. My idol comes to Wilmington to play golf and have his teeth checked. He stays at our home and I drive him to the airport. As he flew off in his jet, I had tears in my eyes.”

Maybe you’ve seen the photo of Arnold that adorns cans and jugs of the AriZona Arnold Palmer half-and-half concoction. Arnold is maybe staring off at a distant green that just might be reachable. He’s well into his senior career. The old caddies had their own nickname for Arnold, Bull, for his flaring nostrils, particularly in the heat of battle. They’re on full display in this Howdy Giles snap for posterity. Do you think Howdy asked for anything, for the use of this photo? There’s not a chance.

Arnold once introduced Howdy to George H.W. Bush. Arnold said, “Mr. President, I want you to meet Howdy Giles, my dentist, my photographer and my good friend.”

“Oh sure,” President Bush said. “We were talking about you at dinner last night.”

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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