Thank you, Mr Palmer!

As most of you will know, Arnold Palmer died yesterday at the age of 87. The short video below captures something of the essence of the man and how he transformed golf. Perhaps an extract from an article by Ewan Murray in today’s Guardian newspaper sums it up even better:

Eighteen months ago in the clubhouse at Bay Hill, venue for the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the adopted winter home of this golfing icon, Rory McIlroy was approached. “Rory, if you need anything this week, you just let me know.”

McIlroy’s reply was as swift as it was pertinent. “Mr Palmer, I will never want for anything at all in life. That’s all because of you.”

My favourite anecdote, though, also from today’s Guardian but this time from the letters page, reads as follows:

In the 60’s my uncle, a keen golfer, took a friend who’d only just taken up golf to see the Open at Lytham St Anne’s. It was quite a long trip. They arrived and were bundled along by the crowds and found themselves on the front row of a tee where looking up, they saw the mighty wrists of Arnold Palmer addressing the ball. My uncle says that Arnold hit his drive with such aggression that there was a collective intake of breath from the watching crowd – all except my uncle’s friend who spontaneously shouted out ‘fucking hell fire’ as the ground shook and the ball sailed into the distance. The stewards promptly threw them both off the course. They got to see one shot. But what a shot.

Brilliant.

All da best  – and thank you, Mr Palmer!.

Dave B.