A dinner at the White House led to a memorable exchange between two icons. Golf legend Arnold Palmer was asked a question by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.

During an appearance on the Vanity Index Podcast, Jim Nantz recollected the time when Queen Elizabeth made her first social visit to the White House after 16 years. And Nantz was sitting to Palmer’s right with two empty spots in front of them. 

When President George W. Bush escorted Her Majesty into the room, they walked around and stopped right in front of them, and took the empty seats.

Nantz said, “So finally, she took this into her own hands, and she said, ‘Mr. Palmer, may I ask you a question?’ Arnie could not hear at the end. He wore hearing aids in both ears, double-barreled.”

At the time, Palmer had been using hearing aids for a long while. As fans may know, he struggled with hearing and conversational speech.

“She said, ‘How many people in your lifetime do you figure you’ve played golf with, and you cannot count the same person more than once?’ [Palmer] looked at me and said, ‘Huh?’ So I interpreted the question for him.” 

And Palmer just shrugged. Queen Elizabeth guessed that it was 100,000 people. But Palmer asked her to go higher after Nantz interpreted the number to him. And when Queen Elizabeth guessed that it was 500,000 people, Palmer gave her his iconic grin with a thumbs up. 

But we all know no one can play against that many different people. 

Arnold Palmer Got the Reality Check After Two Weeks

About two weeks after that dinner, Nantz and Palmer were in Maryland. That’s when Arnold Palmer asked him why he didn’t ask about the Queen’s question before. And Nantz’s response pointed to the math that didn’t add up. 

He said, “If you came out of the womb, day one, and they put a diaper on you with the umbrella logo, the drink, you got your Ketel One in a sippy cup, and you got your Uncle Jerry, your dad, and another guy, we can’t count them again. Well, round numbers, that’d be a thousand people a year. You have to be 500 years old!”

Palmer admitted that Nantz was right. And the story became Nantz’s favorite moment with Arnold Palmer. 

He even shared the story at Palmer’s eulogy in 2016. Reflecting on the legendary golfer’s life, Nantz said, “I just made the point, though, that Arnie felt like he touched, and he did, hundreds of thousands and millions of people with his kindness and warmth.”

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Written by

Krushna Pattnaik

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar