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Paladino the man at Island Country Club
ROGER LALONDE / Staff
In Island Country Club golf circles Larry Paladino's name may be nearly up there with "The Squire" Gene Sarazen. Paladino won the annual club championship for the 14th time this year.
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When Larry Paladino speaks about golf, he has a good old boy style.
From Center Ridge, Ark., Paladino down plays his game, while his scores belie the chatter.
On a golf course Paladino is the man.
At 78, he recently won his 14th Island Country Club Men’s Championship. He won by more than 10 strokes overall in the three-day tourney.
“Larry is extremely competitive, very focused,” said Michael DeJordy, head golf professional at Island Country Club.
“He does not make mistakes. His tee shot is always in play and he can get up and down from anywhere. He does not let the course beat him.”
Might just add any golfer.
He’s won 16 other tournaments in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas and Arkansas.
He set the course record, 59, at Red River Country Club in Clinton Arkansas in 1997, at the age of 67.
“In checking records I’m pretty sure I hold the world record for shooting my age,” he said. “I began at age 64 and since then have shot my age, or better, 833 times.”
In the Island Club Championship he shot under his age one round and around his age the other two.
“I didn’t shoot very well, because of windy conditions and it was cold,” he said. “With those kinds of conditions I just concentrated on staying ahead of the field.”
He learned how to stay ahead of the field early in life, starring in football and baseball. He played quarterback and pitcher for Subiaco Academy in Arkansas. He went on to star at the University of Central Arkansas where he was all-conference in both sports.
He signed with the New York Giants in 1951 and won 17 games for the Giants Class A team in Muskogee, Okla. A broken ankle sidelined him, but he came back, pitching a shutout in spring training against the Cardinals with the big club in 1954. Unfortunately the club’s trainer popped a tendon is his shoulder, dooming his career.
Paladino went on to a business career with Raytheon Corp., serving as regional manager in the appliance division in Washington, D. C. and New York City before retiring. He also owned two appliance businesses in New York and New Jersey. He remains a major stockholder in his family’s ranch in Arkansas.
“The ranch is in the center of the Fayetteville Shell, one of the largest gas deposits in the U.S.,” Paladino said. “We drill gas wells, but there is a lot of oil underneath the gas.”
Paladino took up golf seriously at age 35. Although a consistent winner, he didn’t consider playing on the senior tour.
“In the late ‘50s there was no money in the game at that time,” he said. Paladino has paired with Jimmy Demaret in winning the Senior Pro Am in Scottsdale Arizona in 1983 and Miller Barber in 1984.
He suggests that anyone interested in golf should start out hitting golf balls. If they find the games are for them then they should take instruction and read up on the game.
As a player gets older Paladino says the short game can be the most troublesome.
“It becomes a mental game, where your nerves may not be as steady,” he said. “That can bring problems with your short game, chipping and putting.”
DeJordy doesn’t see that happening with Paladino.
“He stays in shape and plays four days a week,” DeJordy said.
Looks like win number 15 in the club championship is on the horizon.
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