TOI World Desk
Golf legend Arnold Palmer’s daughter reacted to Donald Trump’s unexpected tribute to her father and said that the references made were “a poor choice of approaches” to honoring his memory.
Speaking to news agency Associated Press, Peg Palmer Wears said, “There’s nothing much to say. I’m not really upset.”
“I think it was a poor choice of approaches to remembering my father, but what are you going to do?” she added.
Wears said that she had only had passing encounters with Trump at functions decades ago but that her father and the GOP presidential nominee, an avid golfer who owns courses around the world, primarily shared a kinship over “an interest in golf and a love of golf.”
Emotional at times as she recalled conversations with her father, who died in 2016 at 87, Wears said her father “believed in the Republican Party.”
Wears, who declined to say for whom she would vote in the upcoming Presidential elections, said she would be casting her ballot in North Carolina, a pivotal state, and described herself as an “unaffiliated” voter.
“The people of western Pennsylvania are very smart people, and they’re very hard working, and they’ll make their own decisions, as I will make my own decision, using all the history and awareness I have,” Wears said of the upcoming election. “And that’s what I hope people go vote with.”
“A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about what my father would say about something or what’s happening,” Wears said. “We didn’t always agree on things, but he was a quintessential American who believed fervently in this country, even when he questioned its direction.”
Earlier during a rally in Latrobe, Donald Trump spent over 12 minutes celebrating Palmer’s legacy and character, even making a surprising comment about the golfer’s genitalia.
He shared a anecdote regarding the reactions of fellow golfers when they showered with Palmer, saying, “They said, ‘Oh my God.That’s unbelievable,’” eliciting laughter from the crowd. “Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women,” Trump said.
“This man was strong and tough. And I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, oh, my god,” Trump quipped.
He suggested that the evening would have been more enjoyable if Palmer could have joined him on stage. As the rally continued, Trump shifted gears to discuss his campaign strategies, suggesting that he would begin previewing his closing arguments against Vice President Kamala Harris, with the election looming in less than two weeks.