ARNOLD PALMER INSISTS he’s not annoyed with Rory McIlroy, despite the World No 1 skipping the golf legend’s tournament this week.

Indeed Palmer was forced to clarify comments made yesterday ahead of his famous Invitational at Bay Hill, insisting he was ‘less than serious’ when it came to comments about breaking  the Northern Irishman’s arm the next time they meet.

“I sort of threw a casual fun at him,” Palmer said. “It was meant to be funny. I don’t know whether it was or not. I was kind of kidding when somebody said, ‘Is he playing?’ And I said, ‘Well, if he doesn’t I’m going to break his arm.’

“But it was meant in jest, and it was strictly a passing remark. Frankly, I thought he was going to play, and I was as surprised as a lot of people when he decided he was not going to play.”

McIlroy, who made a wholesale switch to Nike in the offseason, has completed only eight rounds this year. That includes a missed cut in Abu Dhabi and walking off the course at the Honda Classic at the turn of his second round. He also lost in the first round of the Match Play Championship.

But after four rounds at Doral — there is no cut — and a tie for eighth with a closing 65, the 23-year-old said he would not add a tournament. He plans to play the Houston Open next week and then go to the Masters.

“For some reason, I got it in my mind that he would be playing, but that obviously is wrong,” Palmer said. “What his reason or reasoning is, I don’t know. And I’m not going to worry about it.”

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