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"He Plays Too Slow." On the very first hole, a downhill, 455-yd. par-four, Palmer pushed his drive into the rough, knocked his No. 6-iron approach over the green, overshot the pin by 15 ft. with a chip shot, two-putted for a weak bogey five. Playing near-flawless golf at a deliberate, almost indolent pace ("He plays too slow," said Palmer, "and I told him so"), Nicklaus made his par and took a one-stroke lead that he never relinquished. At the fourth hole, when Nicklaus hooked his tee shot into 6-in. rough. Palmer managed for the first time to outdrive the hefty Ohioan—and it was on that 544-yd. par-five hole that Nicklaus hit his best shot of the day. Forced to play a "safe" No. 3 iron from the clawing rough, Nicklaus faced an almost impossible third shot: a monstrous trap blocked his approach to the pin, set into the narrow neck of the pear-shaped green, 100 yds. away. Choosing a wedge from his bag, Nicklaus lofted the ball in a high arc over the trap, dropped it onto the green, just 6 ft. from the pin. He coolly sank the putt for a birdie four, went ahead in the match by two strokes.
After eight holes, grimacing, shaking his head, cursing his "crooked" putting. Palmer trailed Nicklaus by four strokes, and hundreds of his rooters streamed dejectedly toward the air-conditioned clubhouse bar. But at that moment, when his cause seemed most hopeless, Palmer's cold putter turned hot. Plagued all tournament long by putts that simply would not drop-including one eight-footer that hung stubbornly on the rim while he waited for 3½ minutes—Palmer now could not miss. He birdied the ninth and eleventh holes, holed another birdie on the twelfth, and sliced Nicklaus' margin to a single stroke. Scoreboards flashed the news, and fans flocked back to watch Palmer stage another of those whirlwind rallies that have made him the most exciting golfer of his time.
"Don't Be an Idiot.""I wasn't scared," recalls Nicklaus. "I wasn't supposed to beat him anyhow, so why should I be scared? I just told myself, 'Most people get flustered when Palmer does this and start bogeying. Don't be an idiot. Remember, you've played twelve holes and you're one up-that's all that counts. Just play your own game. Palmer can bogey them too.' " On the par-three, 161-yd. 13th hole, Palmer did just that: he underclubbed himself, hit the green 40 ft. short of the pin and three-putted.
Now Nicklaus had a comfortable two-stroke cushion, and Palmer was running out of holes. Like a poker player who has caught his opponent bluffing, Nicklaus raised the ante. "I told myself not to play conservatively for any reason," says Nicklaus, "because if I did, I'd lose. So I went for birdies on every hole. I didn't make them, but neither did Arnie. By the 18th, I still had a two-stroke lead.