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. Like everyone else, he 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 chairman. He made double bogey with the embedded ball, par with the second ball that he dropped. On the 15th hole, he was told he was right and would have a par on the 12th.
"I played two holes" without knowing what he would make on the hole, he said.
He was sharp. He was funny. And he is busy.
One of his projects is a book being published by St. Martin's Press called A Life Well Played: My Stories. The book allows him to share new stories and provide more insight into old stories.
In a release announcing the book, Palmer writes, "Though I have written a number of books in the past, this one was particularly important to me because as I delved into the process, I realized just how much I still wanted to say to my friends in golf and to fans of the game in general."
The book is to be published at the end of October.
Life father, like son?
Lebron James Jr., 11, apparently already has scholarship offers from Kentucky and Duke.
"Not sure if dad will give his son any advice," wrote Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com, "other than not to announce his decision on an ESPN special."
Putter plans
Augusta National asks its champions each year to donate the one club that was pivotal in their Masters victories. If it gets the putter from Danny Willett, the club might have to wait until he gets it repaired.
Willett broke it in frustration late in the third round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont, although he didn't make it clear whether the pace of play or missed putts were the culprit.
"The putter has been bad all week," he said. "Just a bad week really on the greens. They're tricky to read, tricky to keep the pace and line the same. Obviously, the starting and stopping on Thursday, Friday, pace changed a little bit. ... Things just didn't quite go our way. One of them weeks."
Willett said the putter was in two pieces, and he'll get it refurbished.
"I won't be using it again," he said.
Sports on 06/23/2016