Rory McIlroy Has Dinner with Arnie; Goes Low in Round 2 with 5 Birdies

Rory McIlroy lived out the dreams of many amateurs and professionals when he had dinner with Arnold Palmer after his first round at The King’s tournament. It was complete with dessert, a banana split, at Palmer’s insistence.

“I’ll be going to the gym this afternoon,” McIlroy said about working off the calories. The dinner, he said, lasted two-and-a-half hours.

“He’s telling stories of the old days and talking about a few of the things he’s done, more from a commercial standpoint,” McIlroy explained. “The drink [Arnold Palmer ice tea] and golf courses and all this sort of stuff, stuff that I could potentially be getting into in the future.”

Palmer is still one of the most highly prized endorsers and has agreements with a number of products and services—everything from Rolex and Golf Digest to Cessna and Insperity. He was second to only Michael Jordan in celebrity sports endorsement contract in 2013.

Palmer, McIlroy noted, has been in golf for more than 60 years.

In fact, Palmer has been quite the ambassador for the sport and has played golf with several presidents. His experiences with those inhabiting the Oval Office, starting with President Eisenhower, led to an amazing comment in 1996 at the President’s Cup when Palmer was captain of the U.S. team.

Former President Clinton came out to the watch the event played in 1996 at Robert Trent Jones GC, and Palmer was asked what the president said to him. Palmer replied, “Which President?” Not many people can say that.

Both Palmer and McIlroy had close relationships with their fathers, and they shared stories about their family experiences and growing up in golf.

“It was just great to be in his company, and I had a good time,” McIlroy said without revealing a lot of detail. “It was a lot more than golf. It was life in general.”

They did not discuss Augusta National even though Palmer is a four-time winner of the event.

“I guess those days Augusta was so much different as well,” McIlroy explained. One change that occurred after Palmer’s victories and after all but one of Jack Nicklaus’ at The Masters was converting grass on the greens to bentgrass from Bermuda. That happened in 1981.

Meantime, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, McIlroy moved up the leaderboard. He improved over his first round 70 by posting a second round 66 which included five birdies in a row from Holes 2 through 6. He’s now in sixth place, five strokes behind leader Morgan Hoffmann.

“You can sort of feel the momentum building,” McIlroy said about his string of good play, which was actually on his back nine. “I think each and every day I’m feeling a little more comfortable, especially on the greens.”

He noted that playing in the morning, their groups had the better green surfaces compared to playing in the afternoon.

His goal for the weekend is to hit more fairways.      

“Even though Morgan is up there at 13 under, you’re in here with a chance and just got to go out and keep playing the way I’m playing,” he said.

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand or from official interview materials from theUSGA, PGA Tour or PGA of America.