Palmer a cheat claims Venturi in new book

ONE month before he competes in his 50th and final Masters Tournament, American golf's most charismatic and enduring champion, Arnold Palmer, has been accused of cheating.

Reaching back almost half a century, Ken Venturi claims that in 1958 Palmer knowingly broke the rules en route to the first of his four Masters wins.

In a soon-to-be released autobiography, Getting up & down: My 60 years in golf, the 1964 US Open champion and former CBS golf analyst relives what turned out to be a free drop Palmer took behind Augusta National's par-3 12th green in the final round.

After being denied relief from a lie he felt constituted an embedded ball, Palmer holed out with both it and a second ball as allowed under rule 3-3a making a double bogey with the first and a par with the second.

Three holes later, officials ruled that Palmer was entitled to a free drop, so the par he made with the second ball was the score he was officially credited with. Palmer went on to win the event by a single shot from Doug Ford.

However, Venturi claims that Palmer did not decide to play the second ball until after he had made the five with the first. This is a breach of the rules.

As Venturi claims to have said at the time: "You have to declare a second ball before you hit your first one."

"I firmly believe that Arnold did wrong."

Palmer, through a spokesman, declined to comment.