LATROBE, Pa. (AP) — Arnold Palmer didn’t make a live television appearance at Bay Hill. For the first time, he didn’t hit the ceremonial first tee shot at the Masters. He struggles with mobility, which kept him from attending the U.S. Open.
Just don’t get the idea Palmer is slowing down entirely.
The day after the U.S. Open, he drove his golf cart up to the back entrance of his office across from Latrobe Country Club. The 86-year-old Palmer had just returned from hitting balls. And he was as frustrated as ever.
“I’m just not making very good contact,” Palmer said. “I’ll get there.”
Palmer, who lost in a playoff at Oakmont in 1962 and played in his final U.S. Open there in 1994, watched the final round and like everyone else, questioned the USGA’s handling of a penalty stroke on Dustin Johnson for his ball moving on the fifth green.
Palmer could relate. The conversation shifted to the 1958 Masters, as Palmer recalled a dispute with rules official Arthur Lacey over whether he was entitled to relief from an embedded ball on the fringe behind the 12th green. Told that he wasn’t, Palmer declared he was playing two balls until he could reach the rules…
