OAKMONT, Pa. — The way in which Jack Nicklaus describes the challenges of Oakmont Nation Membership in 1962 can simply as simply apply to Oakmont in 2025. The character of this championship golf course hasn’t modified.
“I knew that you just needed to drive the ball straight,” Nicklaus advised reporters Saturday. “I knew that placing was going to be a premium on this golf course.”
Here is the place Nicklaus’ story differs: To safe his first main championship — and, the truth is, his first skilled victory of any type — he additionally needed to go toe to toe with Arnold Palmer, one of the best and hottest golfer on the earth.
And for Palmer, from close by Latrobe, Pa., this was a house sport.
“I completed second (on the U.S. Open) in ‘60 and fourth in ‘61 and I type of felt like this was my Open,” Nicklaus mentioned. “I did not notice that, as a 22-year-old may not, that I used to be in Arnold Palmer’s yard.”
Palmer, 11 years Nicklaus’ senior, already was established with 5 majors to his title, together with the Masters earlier that 12 months. And Palmer’s galleries had been the stuff of legends. In Western Pennsylvania, the throngs had been even deeper.
When Palmer and the up-and-coming Nicklaus completed 72 holes in 1 beneath par, they had been despatched to an 18-hole playoff the subsequent day. Nicklaus shocked the followers by constructing a four-stroke lead by way of six holes, and he endured a mid-round cost by Palmer to win the playoff by three.
“It was actually sort of humorous as a result of I by no means actually heard the gallery,” Nicklaus mentioned. “I used to be a 22-year-old child with blinders on and never sensible sufficient to determine that individuals rooted for individuals. I simply went out and performed golf.
“I by no means actually thought-about Arnold as one thing totally different. Arnold took me beneath his wing after I turned professional, and he by no means handled me something aside from as an equal, and have become one of many closest associates I’ve ever had within the sport.”
Additionally available to talk with reporters Saturday was Johnny Miller, who wrote his personal chapter of historical past the subsequent time the U.S. Open was held at Oakmont in 1973. Miller had shot a 76 within the third spherical and was exterior the highest 10, six strokes off the lead.
He proceeded to creator a U.S. Open-record 63 on Sunday, passing each Nicklaus and Palmer on the leaderboard to win in gorgeous vogue.
“I had performed with Arnold Palmer the primary two rounds, which was, again in these days, was a loopy expertise together with his gallery,” Miller mentioned. “His gallery was — they had been loopy. Loopy good.
“However to get by way of the gauntlet of enjoying with Arnold on the primary two rounds was fairly good. We each shot 140, and simply dealing with the strain that week was — that was the opposite half.”
This 12 months’s U.S. Open marks the primary at Oakmont since Palmer’s dying in September 2016. Three months earlier, Dustin Johnson lifted the trophy at Oakmont, however Palmer was not wholesome sufficient to attend.
Nicklaus known as Palmer’s affect on the sport “monumental,” whereas Miller opted for an analogy to John Wayne as a “big-time man’s man.”
“He got here alongside principally when tv got here alongside, and possibly tv was nice for Arnold, however Arnold was nice for tv and nice for the sport,” Nicklaus mentioned. “He had a aptitude about him that no person else had, and folks liked him. And rightfully so.”
The world of golf has modified within the many years since. Nicklaus obtained $17,500 for successful the 1962 U.S. Open; the champion Sunday will take dwelling $4.3 million. However at Oakmont, the love for Palmer and his profession hasn’t died down, nor has the modern-day participant’s respect for his or her elders.
“I used to be speaking to a number of the guys in there, within the locker room a couple of minutes in the past, and so they’re saying — they mentioned, ‘What do you assume (of the course)?'” Nicklaus mentioned. “I mentioned, ‘Effectively, clearly placing is the important thing out right here.’ I mentioned, ‘I three-putted the fifty fifth inexperienced. I had one three-putt that week and I am nonetheless ticked off I three-putted that one. That was type of my mindset.'”
Miller, within the true tell-it-like-it-is vein of his broadcasting profession, added a jab on the 2024 champion who missed the minimize.
“It is nonetheless all about hitting that ball within the fairway,” Miller mentioned. “You see the fellows that do not — like Bryson DeChambeau, he was dwelling within the tough there these final couple days. In fact he will get to look at it on TV as we speak.”
–Adam Zielonka, Area Stage Media