What does Arnold Palmer mean to the game? Surely, he was the first superstar of golf. Fans loved him. As did his colleagues. Seven majors obviously help cement your legacy. But more than that, what Palmer did to golf and beyond that resonates years after his death. Justin Rose, as someone who has seen him up close and spent time with him, knows that.

The former US Open champion spoke about the King in the latest episode of Skratch. He was playing at the Old Marsh GC at Palm Beach with Dan Rapaport on the bag. The conversation moved toward Arnold Palmer. Or his almost inexplicable appeal that cuts across generations of golfers.

“Just Charisma,” Rose remarked. Rapaport added, “He had a lot of rizz.” The 2013 US Open champion nodded in agreement, “Rizz” it was. Palmer, indeed, had a lot of charm. Fans used to flock around him; they worshipped him. In fact, when Jack Nicklaus went toe-to-toe against Palmer in the majors, he had to endure a lot of ridicule and trolling from Arnie’s Army.

But Rose had a personal anecdote to share as well. It was in the 2015 Open at St. Andrews. Palmer was there, but he was unwell. Regardless, he walked up to Justin Rose for a five-minute chat. That short chat stood out for Rose because that little moment showed how much he loved the game.

In the podcast, the 44-year-old recounted, “It was the way he grabbed my putter. Man, this guy loves it—in his 80s, not feeling great, and you could just tell how much he loved the game by the way he held the golf club.” Sure, Palmer loved it. And the game loved him equally. How else do you explain the unanimous tag ‘The King’?

How Arnold Palmer changed the game on and off the greens

When Palmer started playing, golf was still at its nascent stage in terms of a broader appeal. Came the swashbuckling gentleman from Latrobe. Be it his charming smile or his thunderous drives, fans came in droves. It is estimated that at that time Palmer was ripping 270-yard drives. The sports broadcasting was yet to take off. Golf wasn’t on TV. But when it was Palmer, he was the star of the show.  He was as much a man of the commoners as he was a Hall of Famer. He had also served in the US Army.

As veteran sports columnist E.M. Swift wrote, “Men wanted to drink with him. Women wanted to dance with him.” For rising stars, he was a go-to guy for advice. Even an amateur Tiger Woods benefited from a dinner with Palmer. Will Zalatoris was the benefactor of the Arnold Palmer Scholarship at Wake Forest.

For Justin Rose, though, the appeal would certainly be a bit more. Arnold Palmer, after all, was the man who popularized the Open Championship among his fellow Americans. Jack Nicklaus followed in his footsteps to tee off on the other side of the Atlantic.

Beyond the greens, Palmer meant a lot to the community. Be it at Bay Hill, where the tournament now bears his name. Or, in Orlando, where a children’s hospital and a women’s hospital, the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies—where Rose’s kids were born—echo his legacy. Arnold Palmer was indeed The King. No two ways about it.