Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 22, 1995 TAG: 9507240052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Knight-Ridder and Associated Press reports
DATELINE: ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND LENGTH: Medium
Be sure to get the blur of bright colors, the clothes of the people who jammed the balconies and the rooftops of Links Road and the grandstands of the Old Course. For detail, paint the young players staring from the other tees or taking snapshots with disposable cameras.
For the man in the center, use stark contrasts of light and dark. The jet-black sweater. The bright white hair. Draw him waving to the crowd, hat in one hand, putter in the other.
This is how you should remember Arnold Palmer's final round in a British Open, because this is the way it was. His final walk up the 18th hole was simply chilling, in a way that is far different from the chill of the biting wind that whips off St.Andrews Bay.
This chill penetrates your skin.
Palmer's 23rd and final Open came to an emotional end Friday. It came to an end with a heroic 75 after a disappointing 83 on Thursday. It came to an end with a typical Palmer go-for-broke drive at the Road Hole, and with a birdie try on No.18 that he charged like a madman, but narrowly missed.
And, oh, the ironies of those last two holes. As Palmer walked up the 17th fairway, Jack Nicklaus - the man who succeeded Palmer as the world's greatest player but never could eclipse Palmer's popularity - was putting out on No.18 to hearty applause, an appetizer for what was to come.
As Palmer hit his final drive and headed up No.18, the players began to assemble behind the green to experience this once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Nick Faldo, who had finished with a 67 three groups earlier, sat on the grassy bank. Brad Faxon, who had shot his way to the lead on this morning, sat on the stone steps. David Duval, 24, stood on the first tee with a camera. Payne Stewart, Steve Elkington and Tom Wargo jostled for a spot.
From the balconies of Rusack's Hotel, from the crowds pressed back into the doorways at the St.Andrews Woollen Mills, from the grandstands alongside the first tee and the 18th green, from the steps of the Royal and Ancient clubhouse where a knot of fellow pros gathered to see him finish, cheers tumbled down in waves.
Finally, Palmer pulled his golf ball out of the cup, pushed back his visor, inhaled deeply and 35 years after his first, savored the last of his competitive moments at the British Open beneath a bright noon sun. Friday's round of 75 yielded a two-day total of 158, 10 strokes on the wrong side of the cut.
``I guess it's over,'' Palmer said a few moments later, tears choking off his words one more time. ``There are so many things I can't help but remember.''
Chief among them, no doubt, was his first tour of the Old Course in 1960. Palmer arrived at St.Andrews in time to get in a practice round and went out in bedeviling 50-mph winds, shooting a 15-over-par 87. He went back to Rusack's, where he and his wife, Winnie, were staying, and told her to pack the bags. And if he did actually leave, who would have faulted him?
Palmer already was a dashing, dark-haired, soon-to-be-wealthy 30-year-old who that year had won the Masters and U.S. Open championships. He hardly was in need of new worlds to conquer. The British Open might have been the world's oldest tournament being played on the game's oldest course, but few Americans knew anything about it and most cared less.
But everyone cared about Arnold. And from the day his father, Deke, a teaching pro and greenskeeper, first put a club in his hands, the only thing Arnold cared about was winning. He stayed at St.Andrews, adapted quickly to the unique demands of links golf, and chased Australian Kel Nagle before coming up one stroke short.
When he followed that setback with championships the next two years at Royal Birkdale and Troon, television and the rest of the dominant American players soon followed him across the Atlantic. In quick succession Tony Lema, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson won silver claret jugs, helping lift the trophy to its rightful place on the top shelf of championships.
And now, with that work completed, Palmer struggled to find the words to say goodbye. In some ways, the scene was reminiscent of Palmer bidding farewell last year to two of the four other majors - the PGA Championship at Southern Hills and the U.S. Open at Oakmont.
When someone asked when he would do the same at the remaining major championship, the Masters, his mood lightened.
``The chairman said he wanted me to play there until I was 100,'' he said with a smile. ``And I told him, `If I reach 100, I'll play.'''
by CNB