Palmer’s Final Open Leaves Him in Tears : Golf: Crowd gives Arnie a two-minute ovation after he is assured of missing cut with second-round 81.

Arnold Palmer could always shoot, and when he couldn’t shoot any longer he cried.

He couldn’t help himself. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the fatigue, maybe it was the two-minute standing ovation from the crowd, which strained against the ropes and filled the grandstands at the 18th green to watch the 64-year-old golfer walk up the fairway on the last hole of his last U.S. Open.

It didn’t matter so much that Palmer bogeyed No. 18 to close out the second--and his final--round in his 32nd U.S. Open with an 81.

What mattered to the fans at Oakmont Country Club was how they felt about Palmer and that they would never again see him in a U.S. Open.

Palmer, who missed the cut for the final two rounds with his 36-hole total of 158, had trouble composing himself. He broke down in a television interview at the end of his round and when he walked into the interview tent, his face was red and his eyes were puffy.

“I mean it is . . . you know . . . it is 40 years . . . of fun . . . work . . . enjoyment . . . ,” Palmer said between long pauses.

Then he shook his head. He buried his head in a towel and he cried.

Someone asked what has been the most fun.

“Oh . . . I think . . . as I said many times recently . . . the whole experience,” Palmer said, his voice cracking.

“I suppose . . . the most important thing is the fact . . . that it has been . . . as good . . . as it has been to me.”

Palmer said he had to leave.

He walked away in sort of the same way he left the 18th green, with a wave of his arm and tears in his eyes.

A little earlier, on the way down the 17th fairway, Palmer gave cheering fans a thumbs-up sign. One spectator yelled, “You’re still the man!” Palmer smiled broadly.

He doffed his cap as he reached the 18th green when the noise from the people in the stands grew louder with each step. Palmer bowed slightly from the waist to more applause.

Palmer, who had three-putted No. 14, No. 15, No. 16 and No. 17, finished with his fifth consecutive three-putt green. He shook the hands of playing partners Rocco Mediate and John Mahaffey, threw his arm around Mediate and was gone.

Mediate, who idolized Palmer as a child growing up in Greensburg, near Pittsburgh, felt fortunate to be playing in the same group with his hero.

“That ovation chilled me,” he said.

“How many times can you say you played with him (on his last U.S. Open round)?” Mediate said. “Only John and I can say that we did. I’ll remember it forever.”

In the locker room later, Palmer spoke to a handful of reporters. He said he nearly broke into tears at the reaction of the crowd on the 18th green.

“I probably did more choking coming up the last fairway than I have the last 40 years,” he said.