Arnold Daniel Palmer was an American professional golfer, regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and the circuit now known as PGA Tour Champions. Nicknamed The King, he was one of golf's most popular stars and seen as a trailblazer, the first superstar of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s. Palmer's social impact on behalf of golf was unrivaled among fellow professionals. Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player were "The Big Three" in golf during the 1960s. In a career spanning more than six decades, he won 62 PGA Tour titles from 1955 to 1973, he is fifth on the Tour's all-time victory list, trailing only Tiger Woods, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan. He won seven major titles in a six-plus-year domination from the 1958 Masters to the 1964 Masters, he won the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, in 1974 was one of the 13 original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Palmer was born to Doris and Milfred Jerome "Deacon" Palmer in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a working-class steel mill town. He learned golf from his father, who had suffered from polio at a young age and was head professional and greenskeeper at Latrobe Country Club, which allowed young Palmer to accompany his father as he maintained the course. Palmer attended Wake Forest College on a golf scholarship, he left upon the death of close friend Bud Worsham and enlisted in the U. S. Coast Guard, where he served for three years, 1951–1954. At the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, he built a nine-hole course and had some time to continue to hone his golf skills. After his enlistment term ended, Palmer returned to college and competitive golf. Palmer won the 1954 U. S. made the decision to turn pro in November of that year. "That victory was the turning point in my life," he said. "It gave me confidence I could compete at the highest level of the game." When reporters there asked Gene Littler who the young golfer was, cracking balls on the practice tee, Littler said: "That's Arnold Palmer.

He's going to be a great player some day. When he hits the ball, the earth shakes."After winning that match, Palmer quit his job selling paint and played in the Waite Memorial tournament in Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania. There, he met his future wife, Winifred Walzer, they remained married for 45 years until her death in 1999. On November 17, 1954, Palmer announced his intentions to turn pro. "What other people find in poetry, I find in the flight of a good drive," Palmer said. Palmer's first tour win came during his 1955 rookie season, when he won the Canadian Open and earned $2,400 for his efforts, he raised his game status for the next several seasons. Palmer's charisma was a major factor in establishing golf as a compelling television event in the 1950s and 1960s, which set the stage for the popularity it enjoys today, his first major championship win at the 1958 Masters Tournament, where he earned $11,250, established his position as one of the leading stars in golf, by 1960 he had signed up as pioneering sports agent Mark McCormack's first client.

In interviews, McCormack listed five attributes that made Palmer marketable: his good looks. Palmer is credited by many for securing the status of The Open Championship among U. S. players. Before Ben Hogan won that championship in 1953, few American professionals had traveled to play in The Open, due to its extensive travel requirements small purse, the style of its links courses. Palmer wanted to emulate the feats of his predecessors Bobby Jones, Sam Snead and Hogan in his quest to become a leading American golfer. In particular, Palmer traveled to Scotland in 1960 to compete in the British Open for the first time, he had won both the Masters and U. S. Open and was trying to emulate Hogan's 1953 feat of winning all three tournaments in a single year. Palmer played what he himself said were the four best rounds of his career, shooting 71-69-67-69, his scores had the English excitedly claiming that Palmer may well be the greatest golfer to play the game. British fans were excited about Palmer's playing in the Open.

Although he failed to win, losing out to Kel Nagle by a single shot, his subsequent Open wins in the early 1960s convinced many American pros that a trip to Britain would be worth the effort, secured Palmer's popularity among British and European fans, not just American ones. Palmer was disappointed by his runner-up finish in the 1960 British Open, his appearance overseas drew American attention to the Open Championship, ignored by the American golfers. Palmer went on to win the Open Championship in 1961 and 1962, last played in it in 1995. Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the Royal & Ancient, called Palmer "a true gentleman, one of the greatest to play the game and a iconic figure in sport", his participation in The Open Championship in the early 1960s "was the catalyst to internationalize

Mattaponi Wildlife Management Area is a 2,542-acre Wildlife Management Area in Caroline County, Virginia. Located west of Bowling Green, the area protects a mixture of wetlands and upland forests at the confluence of the Mattaponi and South rivers. Prior to state ownership, the land, to become Mattaponi WMA was used for timber production and rock quarrying. After being identified as an opportunity to conserve diverse wildlife habitat in an area undergoing suburbanization, the WMA was acquired by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in 2010; the total purchase price of $7.6 million was shared between VDGIF and several partners, including The Nature Conservancy, The Trust for Public Land, Ducks Unlimited. A significant portion of funding – $1.4 million – was provided by the U. S. Department of Defense as part of a program to protect lands in the vicinity of Fort A. P. Hill. Mattaponi WMA was opened to the public on March 30, 2011. Mattaponi WMA covers 2,542 acres in Virginia's upper coastal plain, 1.3 miles west of Bowling Green in Caroline County.

It borders one and a half miles of the South River. Its boundaries contain both upland forests, various types of wetlands, open water habitats, including two rare oxbow lakes found within bottomlands where the Mattaponi once flowed. Management at Mattaponi WMA focuses on enhancing wildlife habitat, using techniques such as selective timber harvest, prescribed burns, controlling water levels within wetlands and ponds. 500 acres is used by Fort A. P. Hill as a wetland mitigation bank. Wildlife found on the property include a number of game animals, such as deer, bear and squirrels. Other game bird species, such as bobwhite quail and woodcock, are found at the property and benefit from management that periodically clears portions of the landscape of mature vegetation. Fish found within the river include bluegill, redbreast sunfish, largemouth bass. A survey conducted by the Virginia Herpetological Society indicated a healthy diversity of amphibians, turtles and snakes, including the carpenter frog, a species more found in extreme southeastern Virginia, with only occasional occurrences in Caroline County.

Mattaponi WMA is open to the public for hunting, fishing and primitive camping. Access for persons 17 years of age or older requires a valid hunting or fishing permit, or a WMA access permit. List of Virginia Wildlife Management Areas Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries: Mattaponi Wildlife Management Area

Robbie Mills Field is a baseball venue located in Laconia, New Hampshire, United States. It is home to the Winnipesaukee Muskrats of the collegiate summer New England Collegiate Baseball League; the Muskrats began play there in the 2010 season. The field was built in 2005 and is named after Robbie Mills, a Laconia boy, killed and robbed of his bicycle in 1998. Robbie Mills Field has a seating capacity of 1,200 spectators, in uncovered bleachers beyond both the first-base and third-base dugouts. There is a small bleacher section beyond centerfield, fans can set up their own lawn chairs beyond the outfield and behind the backstop. In 2009, after the arrival of the Muskrats was announced, the field underwent extensive renovations to comply with NECBL standards; the outfield fences were pushed back to 340 feet down the lines and 370 feet in the gaps. Additionally, a press box was constructed atop the existing concession stand and bleachers and dugouts were expanded. In 2012, the Laconia Muskrats added an 18' x 88' green outfield wall, a smaller replica of Fenway Park's Green Monster.

The wall, a popular feature of the park, is called the Muskrat Monster. NECBL website