Threesome Had a Lot Going for Them

Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player have 13 Masters titles between them and they drew a huge gallery when they played together Thursday.

Nicklaus had a 74 after making bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes. Player turned in a 76 and Palmer shot 78.

“I didn’t particularly like my score,” Palmer said. “The putts were tough.”

Player was fairly pleased with his score.

“I’m only one shot behind Tiger,” he said.

Nicklaus joined the post-round news conference a little late and sat down next to Palmer and Player. He said he felt he needed to hit a few balls right after the round.

“If I didn’t hit golf balls, at my age, I might break.”

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Just when you might think the performances of some of the aging former champions in the Masters field might lead to more complaints about their lifetime exemptions, along comes Tommy Aaron.

Aaron, 63, who won the tournament in 1973, defied age and the wind to shoot an even-par 72, three shots better than Tiger Woods. Only nine players in the field shot lower scores.

“Hope springs eternal for the golfer,” said Aaron, who played in 26 events but had no top-10 finishes on the Senior PGA Tour in 1999.

Not all the aging former champions fared so well. Doug Ford shot 94, failing to break Charles Kunkle’s record of 95, set in 1956, and Billy Casper shot 84. Both pulled out of the tournament after their rounds.

“This is the U.S. Open in April,” Casper said.

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Phil Mickelson said he thinks the new setup of the course, with rough narrowing the fairways, is difficult but fair, in large part because the greens, though fast, are holding well.

“With the changes, they’ve been able to have more defense on the golf course [against] lower scores,” he said. “And so consequently, the greens have not had to be the only form of defense.”

Are the greens playing differently?

“Absolutely,” he said. “You’re making a divot now. You can actually get a ball to stop. . . . We’re not seeing putts like I saw three or four years ago when Jeff Sluman lipped out a four-footer and had it roll 60 feet away.”

Mickelson, whose three birdies Thursday were on par fives, said his strategy this week will be to attack the par fives and try to remain even on the other holes.

“I feel every pin placement [on par fives] is birdie-able,” he said. “With the par threes and fours, that’s not the case.”

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Sam Snead and Byron Nelson were the honorary starters for the 64th Masters, only two-thirds of the group that had hit tee shots on No. 1 every year since 1984.

Gene Sarazen, who died last May at 97, was remembered with a moment of silence before Snead and Nelson hit.

Said Snead, 87, with an emphasis on feeling more than hard facts: “I’d known Gene ever since I was on tour; we played against and with each other many times. He was a great man, and I feel bad we lost him. He’s where we’re all going, but 97, that’s pretty good.”

Nelson, 88, hit first, used a driver (there was some speculation he might hit a three-wood) and smothered a hook into the left rough, maybe 150 yards away.

Snead hit the ball squarely down the right side of the fairway, about 200 yards.

“There were so many shadows back and forth, it was hypnotizing,” Snead said before ambling into the clubhouse. “I never saw the ball. I almost fell down.”

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Woods said that if he weren’t playing, he would have liked to have watched Nicklaus, Palmer and Player.

“On television,” Woods said. “I’m not walking this course.”

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Seve Ballesteros and Craig Stadler made quadruple-bogey nines at No. 15. Despite his, Stadler finished with 73.