Arnie and Jack by Ian O'Connor

Author:Ian O'Connor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

11

Pebble Beach

BY THE SUMMER OF 1972, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus had their routine down pat. Half the time they acted like big brother and kid brother. The other half they acted like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Big brother/kid brother moment: They came together to win two more PGA team championships at Palmer’s Laurel Valley Golf Club, and at night they’d join Dave Marr and a few others for quiet get-togethers around the pool. “They even swim nice together,” Marr said of Arnie and Jack.

Ali/Frazier moment: Palmer was once playing in Charlotte when he was in the locker room with John Derr of CBS, looking for a sports section from that day’s paper. Someone handed him a copy of the Charlotte Observer, and Arnold headed straight for the men’s room. “I’m going in to take a Nicklaus,” he announced.

Big brother/kid brother moment: Palmer and Nicklaus won again as a team, this time at the 1971 Ryder Cup. “I think we were a little imposing on who we were playing to start with,” Nicklaus said. “I mean, they said, ‘We may be able to handle Arnold Palmer. We may be able to handle Jack Nicklaus. But the two of them together, we’re not going to be able to handle.’ I don’t think we ever got beat at much of anything.”

Ali/Frazier moment: Nicklaus often celebrated his January birthday during the Bing Crosby at Pebble Beach, and prior to Jack’s split with IMG, Mark McCormack would want to take him out to dinner. “But Arnold wouldn’t go,” said McCormack’s wife, Nancy. “So we didn’t go to dinner with Jack . . . With the tension with the Nicklauses and all that, it’s not what I’d call a holiday.”

Nicklaus won the Crosby in 1972, and five months later he was back at Pebble Beach for another crack at his third U.S. Open title. Using his father’s memory as inspiration, Nicklaus was playing the best golf of his life.

In 1971, when he won nearly a quarter-million bucks on tour, Jack took the PGA Championship (played in February that year) in Palm Beach Gardens while allowing Gary Player, his closest contender, to stay at his home.

Jack then lost the Masters by two shots to Charles Coody and was so upset he’d blown his chance at the calendar Grand Slam that he told his wife he’d go fishing rather than play in his next event, the Tournament of Champions.

“They’re going to think you’re a big, spoiled baby and that you’re pouting,” Barbara told him. “You made your plane reservations, and you’re going.”

Nicklaus won the Tournament of Champions, and that was the first and last time Barbara told Jack what he would and wouldn’t do with his playing schedule.

Nicklaus would claim his second consecutive Byron Nelson, then lose a U.S. Open playoff to the new star on tour, Lee Trevino. Jack would rebound the following spring to seize the 1972 Masters, the first played since the death of Bobby Jones, who was sixty-nine when the syringomyelia finally claimed him in December.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.