Jack Nicklaus recounts U.S. Open win in Arnold Palmer’s backyard

OAKMONT, Pa. — The way Jack Nicklaus describes the challenges of Oakmont Country Club in 1962 can just as easily apply to Oakmont in 2025. The character of this championship golf course hasn’t changed.
“I knew that you had to drive the ball straight,” Nicklaus told reporters Saturday. “I knew that putting was going to be a premium on this golf course.”
Here’s where Nicklaus’ story differs: To secure his first major championship — and, in fact, his first professional victory of any kind — he also had to go toe to toe with Arnold Palmer, the best and most popular golfer in the world.
And for Palmer, from nearby Latrobe, Pa., this was a home game.
“I finished second (at the U.S. Open) in ‘60 and fourth in ‘61 and I sort of felt like this was my Open,” Nicklaus said. “I didn’t realize that, as a 22-year-old might not, that I was in Arnold Palmer’s backyard.”
Palmer, 11 years Nicklaus’ senior, already was established with five majors to his name, including the Masters earlier that year. And Palmer’s galleries were the stuff of legends. In Western Pennsylvania, the throngs were even deeper.
When Palmer and the up-and-coming Nicklaus finished 72 holes in 1 under par, they were sent to an 18-hole playoff the next day. Nicklaus stunned the fans by building a four-stroke lead through six holes, and he endured a mid-round charge by Palmer to win the playoff by three.
“It was really kind of funny because I never really heard the gallery,” Nicklaus said. “I was a 22-year-old kid with blinders on and not smart enough to figure out that people rooted for people. I just went out and played golf.
“I never really considered Arnold as something different. Arnold took me under his wing when I turned pro, and he never treated me anything other than as an equal, and became one of the closest friends I’ve ever had in the game.”
Also on hand to speak with reporters Saturday was Johnny Miller, who wrote his own chapter of history the next time the U.S. Open was held at Oakmont in 1973. Miller had shot a 76 in the third round and was outside the top 10, six strokes off the lead.
He proceeded to author a U.S. Open-record 63 on Sunday, passing both Nicklaus and Palmer on the leaderboard to win in stunning fashion.
“I had played with Arnold Palmer the first two rounds, which was, back in those days, was a crazy experience with his gallery,” Miller said. “His gallery was — they were crazy. Crazy good.
“But to get through the gauntlet of playing with Arnold on the first two rounds was pretty good. We both shot 140, and just handling the pressure that week was — that was the other part.”
This year’s U.S. Open marks the first at Oakmont since Palmer’s death in September 2016. Three months earlier, Dustin Johnson lifted the trophy at Oakmont, but Palmer was not healthy enough to attend.
Nicklaus called Palmer’s impact on the game “enormous,” while Miller opted for an analogy to John Wayne as a “big-time man’s man.”
“He came along basically when television came along, and maybe television was great for Arnold, but Arnold was great for television and great for the game,” Nicklaus said. “He had a flair about him that nobody else had, and people loved him. And rightfully so.”
The world of golf has changed in the decades since. Nicklaus received $17,500 for winning the 1962 U.S. Open; the champion Sunday will take home $4.3 million. But at Oakmont, the affection for Palmer and his career hasn’t died down, nor has the modern-day player’s respect for their elders.
“I was talking to some of the guys in there, in the locker room a few minutes ago, and they’re saying — they said, ‘What do you think (of the course)?'” Nicklaus said. “I said, ‘Well, obviously putting is the key out here.’ I said, ‘I three-putted the 55th green. I had one three-putt that week and I’m still ticked off I three-putted that one. That was sort of my mindset.'”
Miller, in the true tell-it-like-it-is vein of his broadcasting career, added a jab at the 2024 champion who missed the cut.
“It’s still all about hitting that ball in the fairway,” Miller said. “You see the guys that don’t — like Bryson DeChambeau, he was living in the rough there these last couple days. Of course he gets to watch it on TV today.”