How the Garden Grows

It was a terrible building. The old passenger depot for the New York and Harlem Railroad had seating for 10,000 but no roof, which made for a lot of sweaty people in New York City’s summers—and a lot of chattering teeth in winter. Still, the first Madison Square Garden had its charms. P.T. Barnum saw [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.

James Walker, Jnr: Everyman Golfer

That hasn’t always been the case. In the first part of the 20th century it was hard enough to make it as a white golfer. But African Americans were barred from PGA membership until 1961. And following that, they still weren’t admitted onto many of the tournament courses, weren’t treated well by fans, and didn’t [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.

Andy Garcia: The Untouchable

A little like his character in Ocean’s Eleven, casino owner Terry Benedict, Andy Garcia has an acute sense of everything going on around him whilst maintaining a serene detachment. He may not be entirely in control of what’s happening, but nothing escapes the attention of his piercing, olive eyes. And so it was when the [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.

Black Cat: 2012 Jaguar XKR

There’s a school of Zen Buddhism in which students meditating in peace might suddenly be struck over the head by their teacher. The idea is that a violently abrupt awakening can shock one into enlightenment. As it turns out, the idea isn’t so crazy. I picked up the 2012 Jaguar XKR on an otherwise uneventful [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.

Riviera Country Club: Hogan’s Alley

Set upon the beautiful Pacific Palisades, the Riviera Country Club opened in 1927 with one of the most lauded golf courses in the world, and it’s been ranked among the Top 100 every year since. Not least among its distinctions are the winners—and one particular non-winner—who have made the course their own. Chief among the [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.

Palm Springs, My Way

It’s an inevitable truth of any party that if you keep at it long enough, the sun will eventually rise on the revelry. Which, for a party, is the same thing as the sun setting, metaphorically speaking. In the case of Palm Springs, the sun started to creep over the horizon sometime in the late [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.

Glenmorangie, Spirit of Tranquility

They say it’s impossible to have too much of a good thing, but our cups were perilously close to running over during a two-day visit to the historic Glenmorangie distillery in the Scottish Highlands this fall, especially as the sun had got his hat on and a round of golf over one of the world’s [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.

Mexico to a Tee

Just over the border We start our journey on the Pacific coast in one of Mexico’s most visited regions: Baja California. It was here in Los Cabos, on the Baja peninsula’s southernmost tip, that the Mexican luxury tourist story first unfolded back in 1956. The resort was founded by Abelardo Luis Rodriguez, son of a [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.

18 3rd Holes

Hole No.1 Par-4, 350 yards Augusta National, Georgia Known as Flowering Peach after a deciduous tree that blooms in time for the Masters, this short par-4 appears to offer the gentlest of starts. But its appearance is dangerously deceptive. Apart from the biggest hitters who might chance their arm by taking driver, most players will [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.

Lambeau Field

New Year’s Eve, 1967. Willie Wood, a safety for the Green Bay Packers, left the warmth of his Wisconsin home and stepped into a cold Sunday morning. With the air temperature at -15ºF and the wind chill closer to -50ºF, he wasn’t surprised to learn that his car wouldn’t start. “It’s too cold,” he told [...]

Kingdom Magazine by Arnold Palmer - Golf and Luxury.