The word 'legend' is vastly overused in sport but there is no doubt that in the world of golf the name Arnold Palmer is ranked amongst the pantheon of top players ever - and four thrilled golfers from Pembrokeshire have recently enjoyed the honour of meeting the great man at his very own course!
 
Tony Pratt is best known in local sport as a very good rugby referee but he's been playing golf now for 15 years at Milford Haven Golf Club and is currently playing off a handicap of 15 - and he joined Matthew Hearne, a golf professional at Milford Haven and Haverfordwest Golf Clubs who is a scratch golfer, plus Mark Owen and Andrew Sparks, members at Haverfordwest Golf Club who play off respective handicaps of five and six, on a 12-day golfing trip to Florida.
 
Top of their list of courses to play was at the Dayhill Golf Resort near Orlando, which was designed by the former top golfer Palmer and owned by him too. It has a total of 27 holes, 18 of them utilised for his famous annual invitational tournament in March, which attracts all the top players and is televised by Sky Sports.
 

Great chance to meet the great man

 
Tony and Co stayed overnight at Dayhill and when they arrived were told by the concierge that Mr Palmer was staying overnight. When they went down to dinner he was indeed there, but with friends, so the Pembrokeshire quartet didn't disturb him.
 
But when they went down for breakfast Arnold Palmer was sitting alone and the restaurant manager took them over to meet him.
 
"He was so polite and seemed pleased that we were staying at his resort," said Tony, " and asked us what we thought of it.
 
"He asked where we were from as he chatted to us for quite a while and there were handshakes all around, as well as our photograph of a special moment with him that all of us will treasure for the rest of our lives.
 

Beautiful, challenging course

 
"Then we played what is a beautiful, challenging course, where there are very long holes, with lots of water and deep sand to test amateur golfers like us.
 
"There were amazing properties scattered around the periphery of the course that must have cost millions, and we were provided with golf buggies and the use of a caddie called Kevin, who was dressed in the compulsory white overalls and provided expert advice in reading the greens etc.
 
"They were erecting huge grandstands for the forthcoming Arnold Palmer Invitational as we played our round, with Andrew and I taking on Matthew and Mark for a ten-dollar side bet.
 
"We lost narrowly so had to cough up but we actually won 5-3 overall as we played another eight courses that were superb but obviously not as memorable as Dayhill.
 
"Our Florida golf trip was like being in golfing paradise," admitted Tony, "and our short time in the company of a golfing 'great' like Arnold Palmer was very much the icing on our golfing cake!"