Tiger Woods explains how meeting Arnold Palmer | Golf News

Arnold Palmer was nearly as well-known for his beneficiant and heat character as he was for his talents with a golf membership in hand, and Tiger Woods has explained how Palmer’s means with people rubbed off on him.

“The King,” who died aged 87 in 2016, was a seven-time major champion and stays revered as one of the best to ever do it. But there was a lot more to the great man than his penchant for successful.

Woods received the event an astonishing eight occasions, including 4 years in succession from 2000-03.

The 15-time major champion fashioned a close bond with Palmer, and Woods – notoriously introverted and laser-focused during his heyday – said the time he spent with the four-time Masters champion helped him open up.

“I was never as good as he was with the social interaction with people,” Woods told Golf Channel. “He brought everyone, like, in. That’s not how I played.

“I played, I was kind of focused on what I was doing. But I think that being around him, it just made me more comfortable about being around people, because I was never really comfortable with all the stuff that kind of came around me. Meanwhile, he just loved it.”

Woods admitted he longed to be more like Palmer in the way in which he interacted with followers. The 50-year-old said Palmer had the uncommon means to have a lasting impact on people from just a transient interplay.

“I wish I had that part of me like he did,” Woods said. “But being around him, hanging out with him at dinner, and how he interacted with people, it was just fantastic. Yeah, I was fortunate to meet him.

“It was amazing in a five-minute moment, the engagement he has with you. It’s just, he brings you in real quick and he gets out of there and you’re like, ‘That was the coolest moment of my life.”

Daniel Berger leads after the first spherical at Bay Hill, capturing a sensational nine-under-par 63 to open up a three-shot lead over Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Aberg heading into Friday’s second loop.