Rory McIlroy shares photo of cool letter from late Arnold Palmer

During his pro-am Wednesday, a woman asking for an autograph wore a shirt showing a photo that Day recognized immediately: Palmer in a golf cart clasping hands with Day, with his wife and two young children.

It’s still hard to believe that Arnold Palmer has passed. But for those of us who weren’t around to enjoy his heyday, that sample in Florida was a taste of the swashbuckling genius that was Arnold Palmer.

Nicknamed The King, and widely accepted to have been one of the biggest factors in making golf into worldwide phenomenon that it is today, Palmer was as famous for his off-the-course behaviour and conduct as he was on.

“(Arnold Palmer Invitational) is a pretty special tournament for me; it was sad to see him pass a year ago.

Two weeks later, Day missed the WGC-Mexico Championship because of the flu and a double ear infection.

Palmer passed away previous year leaving a great hole in the game but a legacy that impacts to this day, popularising golf to a level that only Tiger Woods was able to pick up the baton and run with.

“You can’t live on how your previous tournament went”, Day said. From his signature on every autograph that he ever signed, to just the way he touched people and the way he gave back, he really was just one of the most rounded athletes that we can think of.

McIlroy wouldn’t make it to Bay Hill until 2015, but he is back in the field this week to honor the golf legend.

The world number 14 will now have just one tournament, next week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas, to find some form ahead of the year’s first major championship.

A repeat performance this year would keep an interesting trend going.

Three weeks out from the 2017 Masters, world No.2 Jason Day has talked of his lifelong dream of winning at Augusta. “Those memories you don’t forget”, Day said.