Arnold Palmer talks about golf, his hospitals and Central Florida in “Arnie: Conversation With the King.”

Pat Clarke questions the golf legend in the hour special, which airs at 7 p.m. Saturday on WESH-Channel 2.

“I don’t think a lot of people appreciate his impact on Central Florida,” Clarke said in an interview. “There wouldn’t be Bay Hill or the incredible hospitals or the Golf Channel if Arnold Palmer hadn’t come here.”

Palmer first visited here as a member of the Wake Forest golf team and seriously considered transferring to Rollins College.

“I fell in love with Central Florida, really, and the lakes, the pristine lakes,” says Palmer, now 80.  ”I decided this is where I want to settle.”

The special is a preview to the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which starts Monday at Bay Hill. Palmer speaks with pride about grandson Sam Saunders, who will play in the invitational.

“I think he’s got it,” Palmer says. “I just want to be around when it all breaks open.”

Has golf taken a hit from the Tiger Woods scandal? “No,” Palmer says. ”The game is bigger than any individual.”

Clarke has gotten to know Palmer over the years. “Golf is in his rear-view mirror,” Clarke says. “He is all about his hospitals. He is into cancer research. His hospitals are working in concert with the Mayo Clinic and M.D. Anderson.”

One of Clarke’s first assignments in Central Florida was interviewing Palmer.

“There was Arnold Palmer all by himself walking to talk to me in 1986,” Clarke said. “I told him, ‘I’m scared to death.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Turn on the camera  and we’ll have a conversation.’ It’s still the same Arnold Palmer. He’s a little bit older and his golf game isn’t quite what it used to be.”

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Arnold Palmer to WESH’s Pat Clarke: ‘I fell in love with Central Florida’.