Activities Sports & Athletics 1958 Masters: Arnold Palmer Becomes a Superstar Share PINTEREST Email Print Arnold Palmer (left) receives a plaque from Bobby Jones after winning the 1958 Masters Tournament. Bettman/Getty Images Sports & Athletics Golf Golf Tournaments Basics History Gear Golf Courses Famous Golfers Baseball Basketball Bicycling Billiards Bodybuilding Bowling Boxing Car Racing Cheerleading Cricket Extreme Sports Football Gymnastics Ice Hockey Martial Arts Professional Wrestling Skateboarding Skating Paintball Soccer Swimming & Diving Table Tennis Tennis Track & Field Volleyball Other Activities Learn More By Brent Kelley Brent Kelley is an award-winning sports journalist and golf expert with over 30 years in print and online journalism. our editorial process Brent Kelley Updated November 04, 2019 There was a lot going on at the 1958 Masters, some of which has passed into golf lore. For example, the 1958 Masters is considered the place where "Arnie's Army" was born. Soldiers from a nearby military base were given free admission to Augusta National during the tournament, and they rallied behind the charismatic Arnold Palmer. They were referred to as "Arnie's Army," and that name became applied to all of Palmer's fans. The 1958 Masters is where Palmer became the biggest star in golf. It was his first major championship victory, and the first of his eventual four wins at The Masters. Some propitious events through holes 11, 12 and 13 helped Palmer to the victory, and in his post-tournament article for Sports Illustrated, author Herbert Warren Wind coined the term "Amen Corner" for those holes. So the 1958 Masters gave us the terms Arnie's Army and Amen Corner, was Palmer's first major championship, and propelled Palmer to superstardom. It was also the site of a rules dispute between Palmer and playing partner Ken Venturi in the final round, a rules dispute that Venturi was still disputing decades later. On the 12th hole, the par-3, Palmer's tee ball embedded in front of the green. Palmer felt he should get a free drop. Venturi and the rules official on the scene disagreed, requiring Palmer to play the ball as it lay. Palmer did, and made a double-bogey - which should have dropped him one stroke behind Venturi, with Venturi then leading. But Palmer invoked Rule 3-3a, which states that when there is doubt as to how to proceed, the golfer can drop a second ball and complete the hole with two golf balls. Before turning in his scorecard, the golfer reports the situation to the committee, which issues its ruling, and then everyone knows which ball (and, therefore, which score) is counted. So Palmer made a double-bogey with the original, embedded ball, then dropped a second ball and made a par. Which score counted? Was Palmer leading by one, or Venturi leading by one? Palmer made an eagle on the following hole, the 13th, and then on the 15th hole Bobby Jones arrived to inform Palmer and Venturi that Palmer's second ball - the one he dropped and with which he made par - would count. Venturi's beef with that ruling at the time rested in his claim that Palmer didn't announce his intention to play a second ball on the 12th until after making double-bogey with the first, embedded ball. If so, that should have rendered the second ball moot; the golfer must announce his intentions before taking another stroke when invoking Rule 3-3a. Palmer claimed he did announce he would play a second ball before continuing with the first. It was he said-he said, and Palmer won. Nearly 40 years later, Venturi wrote in his memoir, "I firmly believe that (Palmer) did wrong and that he knows that I know he did wrong." And Palmer has always maintained that he followed procedure correctly. Regardless, when Jones delivered the ruling on the 15th hole, it helped send Palmer to the victory. Venturi bogied holes 14 through 16 and finished two strokes behind, tied for fourth place. 1958 Masters Scores Results from the 1958 Masters golf tournament played at the par-72 Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga. (a-amateur): Arnold Palmer 70-73-68-73--284 $11,250 Doug Ford 74-71-70-70--285 $4,500 Fred Hawkins 71-75-68-71--285 $4,500 Stan Leonard 72-70-73-71--286 $1,968 Ken Venturi 68-72-74-72--286 $1,968 Cary Middlecoff 70-73-69-75--287 $1,518 Art Wall Jr. 71-72-70-74--287 $1,518 a-Billy Joe Patton 72-69-73-74--288 Claude Harmon 71-76-72-70--289 $1,265 Jay Hebert 72-73-73-71--289 $1,265 Billy Maxwell 71-70-72-76--289 $1,265 Al Mengert 73-71-69-76--289 $1,265 Sam Snead 72-71-68-79--290 $1,125 Jimmy Demaret 69-79-70-73--291 $1,050 Ben Hogan 72-77-69-73--291 $1,050 Mike Souchak 72-75-73-71--291 $1,050 Dow Finsterwald 72-71-74-75--292 $975 Chick Harbert 69-74-73-76--292 $975 Bo Wininger 69-73-71-79--292 $975 Billy Casper 76-71-72-74--293 $956 Byron Nelson 71-77-74-71--293 $956 a-Phil Rodgers 77-72-73-72--294 a-Charlie Coe 73-76-69-77--295 Ted Kroll 73-75-75-72--295 $900 Peter Thomson 72-74-73-76--295 $900 Al Balding 75-72-71-78--296 $900 Bruce Crampton 73-76-72-75--296 $900 a-Bill Hyndman 71-76-70-79--296 George Bayer 74-75-72-76--297 $350 a-Arnold Blum 72-74-75-76--297 a-Joe Campbell 73-75-74-75--297 Tommy Bolt 74-75-74-75--298 $350 Lionel Hebert 71-77-75-75--298 $350 Flory Van Donck 70-74-75-79--298 $350 Marty Furgol 74-73-75-77--299 $350 Dave Ragan 73-73-77-76--299 $350 Paul Runyan 73-76-73-77--299 $350 Jim Turnesa 72-76-76-75--299 $350 Julius Boros 73-72-78-77--300 $350 Jack Fleck 71-76-78-75--300 $350 Torakichi Nakamura 76-73-76-76--301 $350 Gene Littler 75-73-74-80--302 $350 Norman Von Nida 69-80-79-80--308 $350 1957 Masters | 1959 Masters