Troy Mills, age 6, of Santa Rosas, Calif., for his question:

HOW MANY YEARS HAS ARNOLD PALMER BEEN PLAYING GOLF?

One of the top golfers of the world today is the American golfer Arnold Palmer. The 57 year old athlete has been driving  and putting for 54 years. The son of a golf teacher, young Arnold has been at the game since the age of three. After serving in the United States Coast Guard for three years, Palmer won the National Amateur championship in the U.S. Golf Association in 1954 at the age of 25. A few months later he became a professional golfer.

Palmer was the first golfer to win the masters championship at Augusta, Ga., four times, having won in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964; he captured the British open championship twice, in 1961 and 1962. He won the U.S. Golf Association Open Tournament in 1966 and in 1966 he won the Australian Open championship. The following year he took individual honors in World Cup golf in Mexico City.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Palmer attracted a large popular following. He won the Bob Hope Desert Classic tournament at Palm Springs, Calif., in 1971 and again in 1973. Palmer is still going strong on the golf course in 1986 and recently won a tournament on the senior tour.