AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jack Nicklaus was on the golf course at Sylvania Country Club, practicing and getting ready for the 1954 Ohio Amateur, when it started to rain.
Nicklaus was only 14 at the time, one of the youngest players in the field. As it began to rain harder, he decided to come to the clubhouse. Nobody else was on the course, but one player was still on the range, hitting balls in the downpour.
“I had no idea who it was and I watched this guy, he looked like Popeye hitting these drilling 9‑irons that were going about 12 feet high,” Nicklaus said. “I said, you know, look at this guy, man, this guy’s strong. Boy, can he hit. He’d really drill it.
“So I watched him for about 20 minutes or so and then I walked in the clubhouse and said, Who in the world is that out on the practice tee? I said, that guy looks some kind of strong.
“He says, ‘Oh, that’s our defending champion, Arnold Palmer.’”
That was the first time Nicklaus had ever seen the man who would become his chief rival. And long-time friend.
When he was 22, Gary Player came from South Africa to play in the World Championship at Tam O’Shanter Golf Club in Chicago in 1957. That was the first time he saw the strong-armed kid from Latrobe, who had already won three times on the PGA Tour.
“Arnold’s forearms are like this, and I saw this guy and he’s got a follow-through like this,” Player said, mimicking the helicopter finish of Palmer’s trademark swing. “And I saw him bend down, it was a windy day, and he picked the grass up like this and threw it up in the air and didn’t even look.
“I said, Why do you do that? And he said, ‘All the good players do it, so I do it.’ Wow, this guy, he oozed with charisma.”
It was a much different scene Thursday morning on the sun-splashed lawn of Augusta National Golf Club. At 8:05 a.m., Nicklaus and Player stood on the first tee, ringed by thousands of patrons, and hit the honorary tee shots that ceremoniously signal the official start of the Masters. Seated nearby, in a golf cart that drove him from the clubhouse to the first tee, was Palmer, wearing the green jacket he won four times from 1958 to 1964.
Palmer, 86, has a hard time walking and standing, his balance affected by several health issues the past couple years that include spinal stenosis, separated shoulder and pacemaker-implant surgery. He moved haltingly when he exited the clubhouse to be helped into the golf cart and slowly gave his customary thumbs-up sign to the patrons as the procession of honorary starters and family members made their way to the tee behind his cart.
For the first time since he agreed to be an honorary starter in 2007, Palmer decided not to hit the first tee shot. He even declined Nicklaus’ suggestion to hit some type of shot with his two friends and long-time rivals, who, among them, combined to win 13 Masters.
“I don’t care if you putt it off the tee, I think everybody would love to have you do anything,” Nicklaus said Tuesday night to Palmer at the past champions dinner.
The King declined.
“It’s probably the right thing,” Nicklaus said. “Arnold’s balance is not good, and that’s what they’re worried about. I think he was delighted to be out there. I think we were delighted to have him there. Both Gary and I thought it was more about Arnold this morning than anything else, and that was just fine.”
Player, now 80, got up and striped his tee shot down the fairway. A fitness fanatic, Player said he did 1,300 crunches and leg-pressed 400 pounds the day before to get ready for his opening shot. He wasn’t kidding. The man who always marveled at the size of Palmer’s forearms dedicated his honorary drive to his friend.
“It was gratifying and sad, because everything shall pass,” Player said. “But it was nice to have him on the tee. I dedicated my first tee shot to him in respect.”
At the end of the day, Jordan Spieth, the defending champ, was leading by two shots after an opening 66. It was the fifth consecutive round in which Spieth, 22, held the lead all by himself at the Masters.
Fittingly, only one of the previous four wire-to-wire winners at the Masters ever held the lead after the first round the following year.
It was Arnold Palmer, who shared it with Bob Rosburg, in 1961.
Everything was much different then.
Gerry Dulac:gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac.
First Published: April 8, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
