Travel
Drum and Quill brings a bit of golf history to Pinehurst
BY PATRICK K. KANE
To golf historians, 1960 was a huge year in professional golf. Arnold Palmer won the first two major championships of the year in a style that helped grow his legend as a swashbuckling go-for- broke player who connected to fans in a way that no golfer before him ever had. But the story of how he won the second major and what transpired from that win is what makes it even more compel- ling. It’s a story that new Drum & Quill Public House proprietor Kevin Drum knows well. Afterall, his dad played a major role in the story. Bob Drum was a beat writer who covered golf for the Pittsburgh Press, Arnold Palmer’s hometown paper. According to Kevin Drum, his dad started covering Palmer when Palmer played in the 1946 Western Pennsylvania Junior as a teenager. Their relationship grew and Palmer developed into one of the top players in the world. Palmer arrived at the 1960 U.S. Open, played at Cherry Hills in Colorado,
having already captured the first major of the year, the Masters, where he birdied the last two holes to edge Ken Venturi by a shot in a tournament filled with drama. He was a favorite to win the U.S. Open but Palmer strug- gled, and after 54-holes he found himself seven shots behind leader Mike Souchak.
In those days the U.S. Open played 36-holes on the final day and after his morning round 72 Palmer was in the locker room with a couple of golf writers and players. The writers were Dan Jenkins and Bob Drum. Palmer mentioned a score to the writers and asked them if they thought he could win if he could post that score. Drum told Palmer, in a tone of dismissal, he had no prayer.
“It really pissed me off, to tell you the truth,” Arnold Palmer said in golf historian Bill Fields’ Golf Digest article titled “The Mouth That Roared” which chronicled the 1960 U.S Open. “The more he talked, the madder I got.” Palmer stormed to the first tee, a 346-yard par-four, drove the green and
two-putted for birdie. He then birdied five of the next six holes to burst into the lead. Drum and Jenkins heard about the charge being made by Palmer and finally caught up to the action on the 7th green. When Palmer spotted the writers he asked them what they were doing watching someone who had no chance of winning the tournament. Palmer’s final round 65 turned his seven shot deficit into a six shot victory. “Arnold had to play great golf to get off to that kind of start,” said Kevin
Drum during a recent visit to the Drum & Quill. “But there’s no doubt that dad motivated him. Arnold mentioned that many times through the years.” Shortly after the U.S. Open victory, Palmer and Drum were on a plane headed to St. Andrews and the British Open. Palmer had a chance to win his third consecutive major championship. “My dad wanted the Pittsburgh Press to send him to St. Andrews to cover
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Arnold,” said Kevin Drum. “They refused so Arnold helped my dad fly coach while he rode first class.” Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean Palmer convinced Drum that anyone who won all four major championships in one year should be considered to be in possession of the “Modern Grand Slam”. Prior to that the term grand slam in golf referred to a player who had won both the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur as well as the British Open and British Amateur. Bobby Jones, a lifetime amateur, had accomplished it back in 1930, but top players were now turning professional and it was time to update the term. Bob Drum liked the idea and sold it to his readers, the British press and
golf fans. He wrote about Palmer’s chance to capture the modern grand slam and the term has stuck ever since. Drum went on to host a popular series on CBS golf telecasts called “The
Drummer’s Beat” where he would tackle various golf topics and issues in a segment that lasted about four minutes. His raspy voice and curmudgeonly manner, which couldn’t be seen when he wrote, was now on display for the golf world to see. What they saw was a scratch handicap in storytelling. When Kevin Drum had the opportunity to purchase the space, which is right smack in the middle of the village, he wanted to honor his dad with a writing theme. “I thought Drum & Pen, Drum & Typewriter, but they didn’t sound very
good and I settled on Drum & Quill,” said Drum, who was raised in Pine- hurst and remembers hanging out in the space where Drum & Quill now sits, back when it was an ice cream parlor. The inviting food and beverage establishment, which Drum says has been “embraced by the village of Pinehurst,” is filled with golf memorabilia and books and there is even a section on the wall towards the back of the build- ing that features a Drum “family only” photo collection. One of Kevin Drum’s most prized items, found hanging on the wall upon first entering through the front door, is a framed letter from Arnold Palmer himself. Palmer somehow found out about the Drum & Quill and wanted to congratulate Kevin on his new venture and wish him luck. “Knowing your father so well,” writes Palmer in the letter, “I’m sure that Bob Drum would have been a frequent patron, probably to be found hold- ing court at the bar.” There’s no doubt about that.
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