Chasing Greatness: Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer, and the Miracle at Oakmont Read Online Free PDF Page A

into bona fide celebrities. And Palmer reveled in the fun-loving, hard-drinking, ultracelebrity setting, dominating the event throughout his career—four wins in the previous fourteen years. When he rolled in lengthy birdie putts on the final two holes at Bermuda Dunes on Saturday, he sat just one in back of Nicklaus and twenty-five-year-old Johnny Miller, the heralded youngster from California who carded a jaw-dropping 63 on Saturday to spring into a tie for the lead.
    On Sunday, the pros finally said good-bye to their amateur partners and returned to Bermuda Dunes for a very un-Palm Springs-like final round. The course became a drenched oasis in the desert moonscape, thanks to torrential rains and gale-force winds the night before, but the thirty thousand spectators who braved the elements earned a special treat: Palmer and Nicklaus (along with John Schlee) were paired together in the final group.
    “There was a time when Jack and I played each other instead of the course, but not anymore,” Palmer assured reporters who strained to hype their head-to-head matchup. “I remember a couple of times we did it and a third man came along and beat us both.”
    When the celebrated grouping commenced play, Palmer picked up right where he left off the previous day. He birdied number one and excited “Arnie’s Army,” which was in its “usual form, cheering mistakes by Nicklaus and the other leaders, chatting and running while other players shot and roaring every time Arnie hitched up his pants.” As they sloshed through the wet course, Palmer kept Nicklaus and the others at bay early with a birdie on number four. But the rain and the wind intensified, exacerbating the already difficult conditions: Low scores were impossible.
    “I kept thinking the round would be rained out,” Miller said about his day, which began with a one over thirty-seven on the front nine. “I couldn’t concentrate.”
    Ignoring the soaked greens and the drops of rain that spotted his glasses—this week he chose to wear spectacles—Palmer stayed dialed in all day. He dropped a clutch nine-footer to save par on number one and led Nicklaus by two shots as the final group reached the eighteenth tee.
    But the Golden Bear would not let up. On the 501-yard, par-five closing hole, he launched a monster drive high above the soaked Bermuda Dunes turf, then reached the green with his second stroke, leaving an eighteen-foot eagle putt that might steal yet another victory from his rival. Palmer, unable to match Nicklaus’s length, was left with a short wedge to set up a birdie putt that looked like it might be necessary to secure the win.
    Palmer pitched adroitly to within eight feet of the cup, and when Nicklaus’s eagle flirted with the edge but failed to drop, all he had to do was two-putt and the $32,000 first-place prize was his. With vintage Palmer electricity, he rolled in the birdie, spun around in joy, and tossed his visor into the thrilled, rudely partisan, umbrella-toting gallery.
    “When you haven’t won as long as I hadn’t, you start thinking you might never again. But I made up my mind this year that I was going to do some things differently and try my hardest to win.”
    Afterward, Palmer admitted that the victory was especially rewarding because he had edged out Nicklaus, mano a mano, whom he had tried (in vain) not to compete with directly.
    “[I feared] someone else might sneak in and Johnny Miller almost did it,” Palmer said. Despite the weather distractions, the spirited young Californian had regained his focus on the back nine and pulled within one shot of Palmer with three holes left. He finished second, tied with Nicklaus.
    Sports pages all across the nation ran the photo of the smiling King hurling his visor into the crowd. Vice President Spiro Agnew, a frequent participant in the celebrity-studded tournament, flew in on the final day just to see Palmer close it out, and along with Bob Hope, he awarded Palmer his check and