Russell Henley’s eyes danced around, searching for someone who could fetch him a bottle of water. The moments after victory, especially one of this magnitude, are a blur.

“I’m in shock,” a light-headed Henley said from just outside the scoring trailer.

Henley’s first professional win, 12 years earlier, was accompanied by a note of congratulations from Arnold Palmer. Now, in a new phase of life and with the biggest win of his career secured, Henley had just established another connection with the Palmer – one of the few to win his tournament, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard – a full circle moment.

Henley managed just a few sips before he was whisked away to a more private area at Bay Hill. The champion at Arnie’s tournament gets more than a trophy. Henley was about to get his first look at the other prized possession.

“There’s a ceremony that takes place that nobody sees but a few,” said Arnold Palmer Invitational Tournament Director Drew Donovan.

There, Henley got fit like a king. An assortment of red cardigans – the garment Palmer popularized in golf – lay across the table, neatly pressed. Since 2017, a few months after Palmer passed, the tournament has given one of these cardigans to each winner as a way to commemorate one of golf’s greats. Organizers are prepared for all outcomes, so Henley had more than a few to choose from. After initially picking a medium, Henley’s wife recommended he try on a large. She was right.

“Should I wear this on our next date?” Henley said to her with a laugh. His mind still scrambled, he tried to decide whether to button it or not. He thought he should, but couldn’t bring his hands to button it up, still shaking as the adrenaline of the winning moment kept pumping. His wife stepped in again.

“I need all the help I can get," Henley said.

Now on the 18th green, Henley posed for photos by himself, the Palmer family, organizers, volunteers, sponsors and seemingly everyone else under the sun. Everything was still moving at a mile a minute, but before it was over, he was sure to grab his caddie, Andy Sanders.

“Can you frickin' believe this? Henley said.

“I didn’t see it coming,” Sanders replied.

“I didn’t either!” Henley exclaimed.

The two posed for a few more seconds, then Sanders turned to Henley, noting: “That’s a good look.”

It’s a look that has become synonymous with one man in golf – Mr. Palmer – and a keepsake that has become coveted on the PGA TOUR. Palmer made the cardigan iconic when he began wearing it in the 1950s. It was Arnie’s look, and, because Palmer was a cultural phenomenon, it suddenly became a style many tried to emulate. The impact transcended eras and shifted the trajectory of the wool industry (more on that later). It remains a lasting part of Palmer’s legacy more than 70 years later.

"The cardigan is Arnold Palmer," Ernie Els, the tournament's 1998 and 2010 champion, said.

An enduring legacy

Arnold Palmer wasn’t the first pro golfer to don a cardigan on the course – that was Ben Hogan in the 1940s – but Palmer is credited with the style going mainstream. Palmer wore the garment during many of his historic victories, including the 1960 and 1964 Masters Tournaments. A cardigan he wore from the ‘64 Masters was auctioned off for more than $15,000 in 2014.

Palmer took the trend widespread in golf when he signed a licensing deal with Robert Bruce Apparel in the 1960s. Palmer was a key voice in the design process of the company’s golf line, which, of course, included the cardigan.

“I remain proud of the style, high quality, and functionality that came out of the Arnold Palmer clothing of that era,” Palmer wrote years later in his autobiography, "A Golfer’s Life." “Every now and then someone will pull me aside and show me their treasured Robert Bruce golf sweater, and I always feel a kick of pleasure at that, because I still own half a closet full of Arnold Palmer alpaca cardigan sweaters myself! Wouldn’t sell them for anything, either.”

Palmer wasn’t exaggerating there. Stories from friends of Palmer’s who visited his home in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, said Palmer had an entire walk-in closet dedicated to his collection of sweaters. Still to this day, the collection remains intact.

Sam Saunders, former TOUR pro and Palmer’s grandson, likened it to stepping back in time – once you get past the mothball smell, of course. If you’re generous, you’d call him a collector. If you’re a bit cynical, you’d call him a hoarder.

“He kept everything,” said Saunders, who now works for the foundation full-time after retiring from pro golf in 2024.
”And I mean, literally everything. Every pair of pants, every shirt, every jacket he ever had, every sweater, obviously.

“He's got some of the coolest clothing ever,” Saunders continued. “I actually have kind of like picked and chosen some of my favorite pieces that he had in there. I've got this awesome leather-gray bomber jacket with a big collar on it. I've got some of his cool pants that were custom embroidered and a couple of these camel skin topcoats, and they've all got embroidery on the inside that was made by hand for him.”

It was the red cardigan that took a foothold more than any of his fashion choices. That’s thanks in part to the fact that he wore a red cardigan when he sat for a famous painting from renowned artist Norman Rockwell. That cardigan is still on display in Palmer’s office, according to the Arnold and Winnie Palmer Foundation. He also wore the red cardigan in several of his final appearances at Augusta National, further entrenching him with that style and color combo.

It wasn’t the only color he wore, though. He’s pictured wearing yellow, navy blue and green, among others. It was Palmer’s fondness for bright colors that eventually changed the way the entire alpaca wool industry operates. Before Palmer, the wool industry was relying largely on darker colored alpacas than white alpacas. But as Palmer brought bright colored sweaters into the mainstream, it forced alpaca farmers to meet the demand. According to Modern Farmer, Peruvian alpaca was sold in round lots that had a certain amount of color in each of them, preventing importers from taking only white fiber. But as the need for more colors arose, importers started paying huge premiums for white alpaca fiber, which could be dyed various colors. That resulted in breeders favoring light-colored animals. Within a decade, the composition flipped, with 90% of the wool coming from white alpacas.

Variations of Palmer’s cardigans are still out there, though he halted the partnership with Robert Bruce after 15 years.

“The first such sweater we brought out cost $18.95, and when we stopped making them fifteen years later, the going price was more than $150, owing to the steeply rising cost of top-grade alpaca wool,” Palmer wrote in his autobiography. “What a shame. I still feel these were the best golf sweaters ever made, and a number of other people apparently think so, too, because I still get letters from people wondering where they can purchase them.”

'One of the coolest trophies in golf'

Scottie Scheffler’s cardigans are hung up in his closet at home. Unlike the green jacket, which the winner only gets to wear outside Augusta National property for 12 months, Scheffler has his cardigans in perpetuity. And, yes, he has multiple thanks to wins in 2022 and 2024. He seldom takes them out or wears them around. That’s not in his nature, but it did have coveted real estate next to the green jacket for the two separate times he’s won the Masters.

Did the two garments ever touch?

“Maybe if there's ghosts in there,” Scheffler said once. “They're a few inches apart.”

Kurt Kitayama’s cardigan has had more time out in the sun. Kitayama’s mom was so excited to see it when she visited him once in Las Vegas that she wore it around his house, beaming from ear to ear. So much so that Kitayama gave it to his parents, who framed it and put it up in their house. Recently, though, Kitayama had the hankering to get it back. It’s now proudly displayed in his home again.

“I like it there,” Kitayama said, chuckling. “Better looking than me wearing it.”

Though if he ever won a second cardigan, he might have a new strategy.

“Maybe I’d wear that one out, knowing I could spill on it and there’d still be one at home,” Kitayama said.

Rory McIlroy was one of the first recipients of the cardigan. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in 2018. His victory was a bit serendipitous. At the time, it was McIlroy’s first win in more than a year and a half. The last time he had won? September 25, 2016, the day of The TOUR Championship. It was also the day Palmer passed away.

The cardigan remains in McIlroy’s closet, and until recently, didn’t keep any company. The closet has been slightly more crowded since last April, though the sweater will soon have the space to itself again.

“I think it's one of the coolest trophies that we have in golf,” McIlroy said. “I wish Arnold would have been around to be with me on the 18th green then. That would have been the icing on the cake.”

Another cardigan will be given out at this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational and at every edition of the event in perpetuity. New players will come and go. Trends will ebb and flow. Palmer’s cardigan will remain timeless.

“The cardigans have come in and out of style, but whenever he wore them, they always looked like the perfect thing to wear,” Brad Faxon said. “When you see a red cardigan wherever you are, here at Bay Hill or across the country, you think of Arnold Palmer.”