Tiger Woods opens up about Arnold Palmer's passing: 'It hurts'

Big Cat tells his favorite stories about Arnie and discusses what their friendship meant to him

Tiger Woods already paid his respects to the recently-deceased Arnold Palmer. This week at the Ryder Cup, Woods opened up a lot more about his relationship with Palmer and what Palmer's trailblazing life meant to his own.

"It's hard," Woods said of Palmer passing away. "It hurts."

"You have all the golf stuff but all the life stuff as well. He absolutely loved being Arnold Palmer. He just loved it. He was probably one of the most comfortable people in their own skin. That's different than a lot of people."

Maybe even different than Woods himself. Woods told a hilarious story about how Palmer still owes him $25 (which is about the most Tiger thing he could say right now) and then got serious when he talked about how he probably wouldn't be Tiger Woods if there was no Arnold Palmer.

"He globalized our sport," said Woods. "He put it on the map. It happened when his prime years were when TV just started coming along. To capture his bravado and the way he played the game, whether it was success or failure, it was always emotional. He always competed."

He continued: "[I'll miss] our friendship. It meant a lot. He's been one of those people I could always turn to. There's not a lot of people where you can pick up the phone and talk to and they can change your life. He's one of those guys."

Awesome stuff from maybe the best ever to maybe the most important to ever play this sport.