At 57, Arnie Still One to Watch : 67 Players Beat His 76, but He Steals Show in First Round

There may be better golfers these days than 57-year-old Arnold Palmer, but there isn’t a better showman among them.

When the PGA of America elected three years ago to give ageless Arnie a lifetime exemption to its tournament, the PGA Championship, it was a stroke of genius.

Sixty-seven of the 150 starters beat Palmer’s 76 Thursday on the PGA National Golf Club’s Champion course, but the day belonged to Arnie.

In a threesome for the ages, Palmer teed off for the first round with Jack Nicklaus, 47, and Tom Watson, 37. Among them, they have won 37 major championships but, except for a Skins Game, it was the first time they had ever played together in a tournament.

The largest gallery of the sweltering, steamy day was at the first hole to watch the Hall of Fame trio.

Palmer hit first, ripping a drive down the middle of the 369-yard hole, well beyond where his partners would hit.

Nicklaus was next. He pushed his 3-wood tee shot into the rough and was short of the green with his shot from the dreaded three-inch-high Bermuda grass.

Watson hit a 1-iron off the tee and onto the fairway but knocked his 8-iron second shot over the green.

The stage was set for Palmer, resplendent in off-white shirt and pants, apparently to match his unruly mop of gray hair.

Slashing at the ball with a blacksmith’s power, Palmer ripped into it with such fury that a couple of pounds of divot accompanied the ball nearly to the green. When the ball settled a few feet from the hole, the gallery let out an Arnie’s Army-type cheer.

As he strode to the green, hitching his pants as he moved along, the crowd cheered his every step.

He didn’t disappoint them. Standing over his birdie putt with that distinctive knock-kneed stance, he rolled the ball true to the hole.

“It felt different on the first tee (than in other tournaments),” Watson said. “There was a lot of history out there. One guy had won five PGAs (Nicklaus), and the other two guys hadn’t won any.”

Nicklaus has won 20 major events, Watson 9 and Palmer 8.

“We were kidding around after we hit off,” Watson continued. “About the 57-year-old guy using a driver, the 47-year-old a 3-wood and the young guy, that’s me, using a 1-iron.

“When we walked to the second hole, Arnie grinned at us and said, ‘Who’s smart now?’ ”

Palmer had made a birdie, Nicklaus a par and Watson a bogey.

Watson also bogeyed the second hole but rallied to finish with a 70. Nicklaus and Palmer both had 76s, but Palmer’s was much more entertaining.

His score card included six bogeys, two birdies, a double bogey and an eagle.

He got the eagle on No. 11, a 533-yard, par-5 hole, where he hit a 3-wood second shot to the water-protected green and sank a 40-foot putt for his 3.

Then he did a little jig around the green for those left in the gallery who had weathered the temperature of 93 degrees and the humidity of about the same.

Watson said: “It was the hottest I’ve ever been on a golf course.”

The only ones who disagreed with him were those who had played last week at Memphis, where the temperature reached 111 degrees.

“Along about the 11th or 12th hole, I began to feel rubbery,” Watson said. “I felt drained. I like it hot to get loose, but not so hot I feel rubbery.”

Once the three masters left the scene, the gallery looked more like something you would see at a State Open. The inside of the PGA Sheraton Resort clubhouse was more inviting.

The same threesome will go at it again today.

“It was kind of sad when we finished the round,” Watson said. “My caddy said tomorrow’s round would probably be the last time the three of us would ever be playing together in a tournament.”

Asked what the difference was in his game, which produced a 70, and Palmer’s 76, Watson said:

“About 20 years, I imagine.”