This was in June 2016, and he was sitting in a golf cart behind his office just across the road from Latrobe Country Club, the Western Pennsylvania course Palmer grew up on as the son of the greens-keeper-club pro and later bought. Like much of the golfing public, he was trying to make sense of the U.S. Golf Association ruling that had nearly cost Dustin Johnson the title at nearby Oakmont Country Club a day earlier.
''I'll tell you what I think: The USGA screwed it up,'' Palmer chuckled, using an even saltier term, ''but good.