Arnie: These days, best chips are the ones in his ears

Arnold Palmer, legendary golfer, business man and one of the highest profile commercial spokesmen in America, considers the most important chips on the golf course, these days, the ones he wears in his ears.

Without the better hearing achieved with the high tech computerized hearing aids that he wears, golf wouldn't be the same for him. They make a real difference in his game.

"I've noticed the sound of the golf ball being hit by the golf club is different and much more realistic with the hearing aids," he says to Healthyhearing.com. "The sound with the hearing aids makes sense and better represents what I know is happening to the golf ball. So you could say that the hearing aids help give me confidence regarding my golf game.

But more importantly, life wouldn't be the same, either.

Palmer whose famous "Arnie's Army" of devoted fans have followed him to victory in 92 professional golf championships, including seven majors, has worn hearing aids for about 30 years. His was the face that dominated the golf scene and popularized the sport in the early days of American television. He was named athlete of the decade by the Associated Press at the end of the 1960s, and will play in his 50th consecutive US Masters Championship at Augusta National next April. Yet, at age 74, Arnie is equally well known as the driving force behind the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women, and as the classy and ever-popular pitchman for a number of products, including Pennzoil, Wheaties, corporate jets, Cadillac, Sears clothing and even some dry cleaners and miniature golf courses, as well.

Palmer credits his hearing aids with making his life enjoyable.

"I've been wearing hearing aids for a long time," he says. "The technology available now is simply unbelievable. When I compare the new digital products to what we had 30 years ago, it's an amazing difference. The products have improved dramatically, and fortunately, they'll just continue to get better."

These days, he says, he finds the hearing aids to be so comfortable that he sometimes even sleeps in them, although this is not recommended.

Palmer is one of an estimated 28 million Americans with hearing loss. At one time, he says, he could not hear what most people said to him, most of the time.

"But with the hearing aids, I understand just about everything," he says. "So probably, if I had to identify one primary issue, it would be conversational speech, and I have to tell you, the quality of the sound is so nice now, it really is very impressive."

Source: Healthyhearing.com, December 8, 2003; Hear-it.org, August 24, 2004.