Nicklaus and Palmer Are a Winning Team : Golf: Legends score first-round victory and have a good time doing it.

Dressed in charcoal slacks and short-sleeved shirts, the former heavyweight champions of golf stood tall in the bright sunshine and cast a long shadow over the green, as imposing as a couple of downhill putts.

There they were, 65-year-old Arnold Palmer and 54-year-old Jack Nicklaus, teaming up in the Diners Club Matches, together again Friday for the first time in 21 years.

Generously and sentimentally seeded first in the Senior PGA Tour bracket, they won their opening match, 1 up, over Simon Hobday and Tom Weiskopf on the first playoff hole on the Jack Nicklaus Resort Course at PGA West.

It seemed like old times, didn’t it?

“I got very nostalgic about a couple of putts Jack hit,” said Palmer, who was, of course, joking.

Palmer has been seeing Nicklaus’ putts roll in the hole since Nicklaus beat him in a playoff in the 1962 U.S. Open.

As partnerships go, it has been sporadic. Nicklaus and Palmer hadn’t teamed in match play since the 1973 Ryder Cup, but they must have had the 21-year itch.

Palmer and Nicklaus decided over dinner in Florida months ago to play the Diners Club, which seems like the perfect place for such a decision.

They won Friday when their opponents conceded Nicklaus a two-putt from 18 feet. It turned out to be a popular decision.

“We were very happy,” Palmer said. “But we were both a little surprised, to be perfectly honest about it.”

Palmer and Nicklaus, who have won 28 major championships between them, admitted they had a nice time playing together.

“We had a ball,” Nicklaus said. “We were walking down the fairway, I guess on 13, and I asked Arnie, ‘Are you having fun?’ ”

Palmer admitted he was.

“I would have had more fun if we were 2 or 3 up,” Palmer said. “But you know, we had fun. That’s not an idle sentence. We had fun.”

They also had the largest gallery, but one befitting their status as golf’s Dream Team. But even at their elevation, Nicklaus and Palmer never forget what year it is.

Their irons play shorter and their hair gets grayer.

Said Nicklaus: “We had our hands full; we didn’t have time to get nostalgic.”

*

Hall of so what?

On the opening day of the LPGA tour matches, Beth Daniel and Meg Mallon managed to defeat two Hall of Fame members, beating Patty Sheehan and Nancy Lopez, 6 and 5.

“The ball was rolling very well,” Mallon said.

The longest match of the day lasted 20 holes, with Fuzzy Zoeller and Curtis Strange outlasting John Huston and Brian Claar, 1 up, on the second day of the PGA Tour matches.

Zoeller and Strange will play Lee Janzen and Rocco Mediate in one semifinal today. Jeff Maggert and Jim McGovern will play Bill Glasson and David Edwards in the other.

Larry and Gibby Gilbert will face Raymond Floyd and Dave Eichelberger in a senior semifinal, and Nicklaus and Palmer play Jim Dent and Chi Chi Rodriguez in the other.

Nicklaus said he and Palmer are delighted to be playing today.

“We would be even more delighted to be playing on Sunday,” he said.