The 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club sparked one of the greatest rivalries in sports.
At the time Jack Nicklaus, just 22 years old, wasn’t the Golden Bear yet. However, he had one goal entering that U.S. Open.
“The key was to beat Arnold Palmer,” Nicklaus said Saturday morning at Oakmont, 63 years later.
Coming off two consecutive top-5 finishes in the U.S. Open, including a runner-up to Palmer in 1960 at Cherry Hills, Nicklaus felt his time was coming. But he was a little naive—and not because he had never played the punishing Oakmont setup.
“I didn’t realize that, as a 22 year old might not, that I was in Arnold Palmer’s backyard,” Nicklaus said.
Palmer, of course, is from Latrobe, Pa., roughly an hour south of Pittsburgh. He essentially popularized the sport, coming along when golf was just starting to be shown on television. The two were a perfect match.
“Television was great for Arnold,” Nicklaus said, “but Arnold was great for television and great for the game. He had a flair about him that nobody else had, and people loved him. And rightfully so. He earned what he got.”
In 1962 at Oakmont, Nicklaus and the King were paired in the opening two rounds, and Arnie’s Army didn’t faze Nicklaus.
“It was really kind of funny because I never really heard the gallery,” the 18-time major champion said. “I was a 22-year-old kid with blinders on and not smart enough to figure out that people rooted for people. I just went out and played golf. That’s what I did.”
The objective was the drive the ball straight and putt cleanly. Nicklaus had one three-putt all week (the 55th hole), which still has Nicklaus “ticked off.”
On the 72nd hole, Palmer had a 12-foot birdie putt for the win, but missed it. So an 18-hole playoff ensued. Palmer struggled to emulate Nicklaus’s success on the greens that week. The 32-year-old had 10 three-putts in 90 holes. In the playoff, he shot 74, and Nicklaus carded a 71.
With his first major, the Golden Bear was born.
“Not winning this one,” Palmer, who died in 2016, said 50 years later, “probably was the biggest disappointment of my life.”
However, the two brought the best out of each other.
“I shot 39 at Cherry Hills to lose to him there, and I told Arnold, I said, ‘Arnold, if I hadn’t shot the 39 the last nine at Cherry Hills, nobody would have heard of you,” Nicklaus said. “And he said, ‘Yeah, and if I hadn’t 3-putted (10) times at Oakmont, nobody would have heard of you either. It works both ways, and that’s probably right.”
As the years went on, there were many more battles between the two, but the respect was always there.
“I never really considered Arnold as something different,” said Nicklaus, now 85. “Arnold took me under his wing when I turned pro, and he never treated me anything other than as an equal, and became one of the closest friends I’ve ever had in the game. We just did—I didn’t look at it that way. He was just another guy that he wanted to beat me and I wanted to beat him, and I guess that’s what happened through the years with the two of us.”
But the zenith of their rivalry came 63 years ago at Oakmont. After that duel, the game was never the same.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jack Nicklaus Recalls Beating Hometown Hero Arnold Palmer at Oakmont’s 1962 U.S. Open.