Ben Crenshaw: Voters Look for ‘Character and Trust’

Professional golfer Ben Crenshaw paid homage to the legendary Arnold Palmer and highlighted the importance of the late golfer’s traditional American virtues during an interview with “The Laura Ingraham Show” Monday.

Crenshaw, a champion golfer in his own right, looked back fondly on Palmer’s life and the lessons he taught him simply by watching Palmer play the sport he loved.

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“Everything that he did, Laura, was in honor of the game,” Crenshaw told LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham. “He had some old-style American values, you know, so many times. He really was a stickler for a very, I’d say, an old-fashioned value — you did not go into the clubhouse without taking off your hat. He was very much a stickler for that. If he saw you with a hat, he would just look at you, and you’d take the hat off.”

Both Ingraham and Crenshaw reflected on the role Palmer’s childhood in the steel town of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, played in shaping him into the golfer — and patriotic American citizen — he would become.

“I think it was that experience he had growing up. They weren’t fancy people. And so it didn’t matter where you went to school. It didn’t matter how much money you had,” Ingraham said. “Every indication that I’m getting is that he treated everyone with great respect and dignity, no matter what job they had. And I love that about him.”

Crenshaw concurred with Ingraham, saying that Palmer represented a core component of the American value system that is increasingly being stripped away from the fabric of society.

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“Growing up there in Latrobe among steel workers, a very tough life — he never, ever forgot that. But he talked to everyone. He treated caddies, he treated people with just sincerity — very simple sincerity,” Crenshaw said. “And listen, I’ve traveled these days, and it’s something that America has lost a bit — simple manners, looking someone directly in the eye, giving them your attention.”

Anticipating the upcoming presidential debate on Monday night between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Crenshaw expressed his hopes that American viewers would look towards the country’s future and take to heart the lessons that can be gleaned from Palmer’s humble roots, his diligent work ethic and his love for the everyman.

“This is an important day for our country,” Crenshaw said. “I’m just gonna simply say, people are going to view in tonight. They’re going to look for character and trust. I’ll just say this — that anytime that anyone laid eyes on Arnold Palmer, they were admiring him for the person that he was.”