NBC on Sunday will take an in-depth look at Arnold Palmer's lasting impact on golf with "Mr. Palmer's Legacy," airing at 1:00pm ET ahead of the final round of the WGC-Mexico Championship. With presenting sponsorship from Mastercard, the hour-long documentary examines five separate areas of Palmer's life: International Icon, The Gentleman, The Underdog, The Family Man and a look at The Arnold Palmer Invitational. PGA Tour Entertainment Exec VP & Producer Greg Hopfe caught up with THE DAILY to talk about the show's creation and what impact he hopes it leaves.
Q: What were the reasons for making the film now?
Hopfe: Mastercard is a big client of ours at PGA Tour Entertainment. There’s already going to be buzz about the Arnold Palmer Invitational the week of the event, so this is kind of leading into and starting to draw awareness to it. This week in Mexico is also NBC’s first golf event of the year, so it’s some nice coverage as they go into their first final round of the year.
Q: When did you start working on the project? How does it compare to other projects you've worked on?
Hopfe: We started asking some questions knowing that this was coming down the line at Tour Championship last year, so as far back as last September. Everyone that’s working on it is so passionate because you’re talking about one of the greatest icon figures in the sport. It’s not one you have to work very hard on to find compelling stories, they kind of just pop up. His legacy is still so far-reaching. Today’s players, his legacy still stands strong in a lot of things they do. As you watch the show, you’ll see that come through.
Q: What might be in this film that wasn’t in Golf Channel’s “Arnie”?
Hopfe: That one is really about just his entire life from start to right up to that year it aired. What we tried to do with this one is carry on the legacy and modernize the legacy, so you’ll see that even today these players are still touched by things he did. We’re not just talking about Mr. Palmer back in the ‘60s and ‘70s -- we’ve tied it to the current, modern-day player and how a lot of the things he did still resonates with these current, modern-day players.
Q: How does the film highlight Palmer’s impact on sports marketing?
Hopfe: There’s a big section on that, how he was the first entrepreneur and businessman. You’ll see the Pennzoil, you’ll see the tractor, you’ll see his umbrella. We’ll talk about Mark McCormack, and that’s a really compelling piece, it’s a big segment in there. Graham McDowell talks about how he’s opened up restaurants, Bubba Watson has a candy store, Bubba’s baseball team, all these guys are doing different things. They’re all doing it and he was definitely the frontier in all this.
Q: What do you hope the film's impact is?
Hopfe: Educating younger golf fans about how big of a character and impact Mr. Palmer had. The second thing is to carry on his legacy by the charitable work he did. Arnie’s Army and the charitable work they’re doing have to live on. That’s very important to anyone that was close to Mr. Palmer. That would be the legacy that he wants, not how many wins he had, but the impact he had off the golf course.
