Gary Palmer

The King and His Court

In his email responses, I could hear Player’s South African accent in the cadence of his words, his distinctive voice coming through even in text. “Arnold Palmer was one of the great forces of nature in our game,” he wrote. “When people speak about The Big Three, they often focus on the competition between Arnold, Jack, and me, but what Arnold truly brought to golf was an extraordinary connection with people. He had a completely natural charisma. When Arnold walked onto a golf course, people felt they knew him. That is a rare gift.”

Nicklaus echoes this sentiment. The two men have told stories about Palmer countless times over the years, but there’s no weariness in their reflections, no sense that these are rehearsed lines. The friendship was real, and the loss still resonates.

“Arnold was always great to me from the time that I first met him,” Nicklaus recalls. “That was 1958. The first time we played on the tour was 1962 at Phoenix, when he won there, and I finished second by 12 shots.”

That Phoenix tournament came months before their famous showdown at Oakmont, where a 22-year-old Nicklaus defeated Palmer in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open. It was a changing of the guard moment, the young Golden Bear dethroning the King in front of a hostile crowd that made no secret of their allegiance to Palmer.

“When I beat him at Oakmont, Arnold was never anything but nice to me,” Nicklaus says. “He was a little embarrassed by the crowd. He said that to me in time, but I told him not to worry about that. You were the king and people loved you. I didn’t have a problem with that. I was a big fan of Arnold’s.”

The graciousness went both ways. Despite the intensity of their rivalry, despite the fact that Nicklaus would go on to eclipse Palmer’s major championship total, the two men maintained a friendship that transcended competition.

“We had a great rivalry and we’d go out and beat each other’s brains out,” Nicklaus remembers. “And we’d get done, we’d shake hands and say, what time you want to go to dinner?”

Theatre on the Golf Course

Player grew up in South Africa believing golf should be a global game, and he credits Palmer with making that vision a reality. Palmer’s fans, known as Arnie’s Army, weren’t country club elites. They were working people who saw in Palmer a man who played with courage and passion.

“One moment that always stands out to me was the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills,” Player says. “Arnold attacked that golf course with fearless golf, driving the green on the first hole in the final round. That was not just a golf shot; it was a theatre that captured people’s imagination and showed the world that golf could be exciting and dramatic. Arnold understood, perhaps better than anyone, that great champions carry a responsibility to grow the game, and he did that magnificently.”

Palmer’s aggressive, go-for-broke style of play stood in contrast to Player’s meticulous preparation and Nicklaus’s strategic brilliance. But rather than diminishing each other, these different approaches elevated the entire sport.

“Arnold played golf the way a man lives life, with boldness and conviction,” Player explains. “He was never afraid to take on a shot that others might hesitate to attempt. That aggressive spirit forced everyone around him, including me, to think carefully about how we approached competition.”

Player’s philosophy was built around preparation. He believed in fitness long before it became common in golf, and he studied courses with scientific precision. But watching Palmer reinforced something important: great champions must play with courage, even if that courage needs to be balanced with discipline.

“When you played against Arnold, you knew that he could produce something extraordinary at any moment,” Player says. “So you had to be mentally prepared for that. His style pushed me to remain sharp and strategic. In that sense, Arnold made all of us better competitors.”

The Army and the Bear

Nicklaus faced a unique challenge in his rivalry with Palmer. He wasn’t just competing against a great golfer; he was competing against a cultural icon whose connection with fans bordered on the mystical.

“As I always said, I may have had to fight Arnold’s army, but I never had to fight Arnold,” Nicklaus could be heard chuckling in his audio notes to me. “Palmer was a good guy. He was a competitive guy. He loved to win. He hated being beaten by me. And of course, I think I probably won a fair amount from Arnold more than he won from me. But he handled it very well.”

The galleries never wavered in their devotion to Palmer, even as Nicklaus accumulated victories and major championships. “Even when Arnold was 65, 70 years old, the galleries were still the same,” Nicklaus notes. “Arnold was always King of the galleries and you just accepted that and moved on with life.”

Nicklaus never tried to manufacture a connection with fans to compete with Palmer’s natural charisma. “All I tried to do was be me,” he says. “I felt like if I was just being me, I didn’t think I was a bad guy. And Arnold didn’t think I was a bad guy. I certainly got my share of fans and adulation as time went on.”

Beyond the Ropes

Over time, the rivalry faded and the friendship became what they cherished most. Inside the ropes, they wanted to beat each other badly. But once the round was finished, the friendship took priority.

“Arnold and I traveled the world together promoting golf, designing courses and meeting people who loved the game,” Player says. “He had a remarkable generosity of spirit.”

What Palmer taught Player more than anything was the importance of connecting with people. After long days at tournaments, when many players wanted to disappear to the locker room, Palmer would stay and sign autographs for hundreds of fans.

“One story that always stays with me happened many years ago when we were both playing overseas,” Player recalls. “We had finished a long day of golf and were exhausted. Yet Arnold stood outside the clubhouse for what must have been nearly an hour, signing autographs for young children. I asked him why he stayed so long when he must have been tired. He simply said, ‘Gary, that boy might remember today for the rest of his life.’ That was Arnold Palmer. A fierce competitor on the golf course, but a man with enormous kindness off it.”

Nicklaus has his own story that captures Palmer’s character. It happened at the celebration of life for Palmer’s wife, Winnie, who passed away in November 1999.

“We’re at the celebration of life, and Arnold came to me and he says, ‘Jack, I see where Gary’s doing well in the qualifiers,’” Nicklaus remembers. Gary Nicklaus, Jack’s son, was attempting to qualify for the PGA Tour at Q School in December. “I said, ‘Yeah, he is, Arnold.’ He says, ‘It’s on television. Why don’t you and I slip out downstairs for a while and watch that?’ Which we did.”

Nicklaus pauses, the weight of the memory evident. “That was a celebration of his wife’s life. And he thought enough of me and Gary and our relationship that it wasn’t all about him. It was about somebody else. That’s meant an awful lot to me.”

Flying Together

In the early years, Palmer and Nicklaus developed their friendship through countless exhibitions. Palmer would fly to Columbus in his Aero Commander and pick up Nicklaus, and they’d fly all over the country playing exhibitions together.

“He’d be the pilot, I’d be the co-pilot, just be the two of us going,” Nicklaus recalls. “We developed a great relationship and we had a lot of fun together. We played a lot of golf, and we competed in a lot of places. He didn’t have to do that, but he did. And I always thanked him.”

Nicklaus first saw Palmer hit golf balls when he was just 14 years old, playing in the Ohio Amateur at Sylvania Country Club in Toledo. “I came off a golf course with the rain pouring down. I was the only person on the golf course. And there was one guy on the practice tee. I watched this guy hit for about 20 minutes. And I said, man, this guy, he could really hit it. He looks like Popeye. I got to the locker room. I said, who is that guy? They said, oh, that’s our defending champion, Arnold Palmer. So that was 1954. He won the tournament again. And I was a big fan of Arnold’s.”

Nearly 65 years later, Nicklaus’s voice carries the same admiration. “I’m still an Arnold Palmer fan today, and I miss him.”

The Legacy

In their separate reflections, both men spoke about how their conversations with Palmer evolved over the decades. “As we grew older, our conversations were less about golf and more about family, health and the future of golf,” Player wrote. “I will always be grateful for that friendship. Arnold helped shape not only the modern game of golf but also the way champions should treat the people who love the game.”

When asked how golf would be different if Palmer had never picked up a club, Nicklaus considers the question carefully. “I think that somebody would have probably picked up that banner,” he says. “But Arnold came along at the right time. He came along with television. He came along with hitching the pants and so forth. And he was just that type of figure.”

The Big Three dominated professional golf for decades. In 1962 alone, they won all four major championships. Player holds 24 PGA Tour wins with nine major championships. Palmer accumulated 62 PGA Tour wins with seven major championships. And Nicklaus claimed 73 PGA Tour wins with a record 18 major championships.

But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. The Big Three changed golf not just through their victories but through their friendship, their rivalry and their shared commitment to growing the game. They showed that fierce competitors could also be genuine friends, that excellence and graciousness weren’t mutually exclusive.

“Arnold Palmer always treated me great,” Nicklaus says simply. It’s a fitting epitaph for a friendship that helped define an era and inspire generations of golfers to come.

PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on R.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.