In his absence at Oakmont, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller share reverence for Arnold Palmer

Jack Nicklaus came to Oakmont Country Club as a new professional with his sights set on winning the 1962 U.S. Open and blinders blocking out everything else, except for the man standing in his way.

“The key was to beat Arnold Palmer. That was the key,” Nicklaus said. “The key at that point, I didn’t know much about Oakmont. I didn’t know anything about Oakmont.”

Nicklaus knew all about Palmer, having finished second to him as an amateur in the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills. Palmer had already won five of his seven major championships and was the favorite, not only to win but because of his hometown advantage as a Latrobe native.

“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.”

Johnny Miller was introduced to Arnie’s Army while playing with Palmer before setting a record with a final round of 8-under 63 in his 1973 U.S. Open victory at Oakmont. To get through the gauntlet of matching Palmer, as both shot 140, prepared Miller for the pressure.

“I had played with Arnold Palmer the first two rounds, which was, back in those days, a crazy experience with his gallery,” Miller said. “His gallery was — they were crazy. Crazy good.”

Nicklaus and Miller shared tales about their U.S. Open championships at a news conference at Oakmont Saturday morning, just as the start of championship play for the 125th U.S. Open began.

It was no surprise that talk of Palmer dominated the conversation. Their reverence for Arnie in his absence — Palmer died in September 2016, just three months after Oakmont last played host to the U.S. Open — was as evident as the impact he made on turning golf into a global phenomenon whose popularity continues to rise.

“Arnold obviously had an enormous impact on the game,” Nicklaus, 85, said. “Arnold in many ways popularized the game of golf. 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. He had a flair about him that nobody else had, and people loved him. And rightfully so. He earned what he got. He did a great job.”

Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller – two guys that know a thing or two about what it takes to win a U.S. Open at Oakmont.

Our 1962 and 1973 champions returned on Saturday morning to recount their all-time U.S. Open victories. pic.twitter.com/eqr4QjtJcg

— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 14, 2025

Miller, who became golf’s greatest television analyst, was in exact agreement. He likened Palmer to having the aura of Seve Ballesteros more so than the showmanship of a Chi-Chi Rodriguez, making Arnie the man everyone wanted to be as much as they wanted to beat.

“It wasn’t like he was entertaining; it was something about the way they walk and handled themselves,” Miller, 78, said. “Arnie was a man’s man, big-time man’s man. He could have been with John Wayne as two leading guys in a movie. Yeah, it’s nice to have a guy like that that can help push the game along, like Tiger Woods did.”

Nicklaus was the hotshot who had won the U.S. Amateur twice, in 1959 and again in ’61, won the 1961 NCAA championship while at Ohio State and took second in the 1960 U.S. Open and set a scoring record for amateurs with a 282 at the 1961 U.S. Open.

Yet Palmer took him under his wing when Nicklaus turned pro and “never treated me as anything other than as an equal” and became one of his closest friends he ever had in the game. They played the first two rounds of the U.S. Open at Oakmont together before being paired again for their legendary 18-hole playoff.

“He was the guy you had to beat if you wanted to win, and particularly here,” Nicklaus said of Palmer, who had won the 1962 Masters. “It was really kind of funny because I never really heard the gallery. 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. That’s what I did.”

The rivalry between Nicklaus and Palmer began in 1960 at Cherry Hills, where Nicklaus shot 39 on the back nine to finish second. That brought about their competitive banter, showing how they were as fierce competitors on the course as they were fast friends off the greens.

Nicklaus trailed Palmer by three strokes entering the final day in the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont. Nicklaus had only one three-putt in the tournament while Palmer had 10, including three in the playoff.

“I said, ‘Arnold, if I hadn’t shot the 39 the last nine at Cherry Hills nobody would have heard of you,’” Nicklaus said. “And he said, ‘Yeah, and if I hadn’t three-putted (10) times at Oakmont nobody would have heard of you, either.’ It works both ways, and that’s probably right. If Arnold hadn’t three-putted (10) times, he would have won the tournament.”

Miller also beat Palmer at Oakmont, though his required a furious finish with the record final round. He shot 76 in the first round and was 3-over and tied for 13th place behind leaders Palmer, Julius Boros, Jerry Heard and John Schlee entering the final day. He hit all 18 greens, birdied nine holes and had only one bogey, noting how hard it is to hit the ball underneath the hole and avoid downhill putts.

“Then in the last round, it was like, my guardian angel out there said, ‘OK, we’re going to put together a perfect round of golf,’” Miller said, “and it was literally a perfect round of golf,”

As much as Nicklaus and Miller regaled the crowd with tales about Palmer, their best exchange came when they were asked to share what they admired about each other. Where Nicklaus often took the lead in answering questions, Miller didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Well, I’ll go first this time,” Miller said. “He’s not a normal guy, this guy. He just believes in what he can do, and he had the length and he had the high ball and nobody could hit a 1-iron like he could. Nobody concentrated more than him. But he would be there — imagine in a major championship, this guy would be there a week early and for four or five days he’s the only guy that had been on the property. Who do you think, once the bell rang on Thursday, who do you think believed who deserves to win? This feeling of deserving to excel and win is a huge part of athletics.”

Miller had compared and contrasted Nicklaus’ swing to that of Scott Scheffler, the current No. 1 golfer in the world, and found similarity in how they worked harder on their game than anybody else in golf.

That drew praise from Nicklaus, who expressed his love for Miller’s swing arc and how he played — and called — the game with a streak of daring.

“Johnny carried that sort of — I suppose when you’ve got that thing going — a little bit of a swashbuckling attitude, and into broadcasting, too,” Nicklaus said, drawing a laugh from Miller. “He played it as it was and I think he said it as it was when he was on the air. I think you admire a guy for, sometimes he’s going to take a little bit of a hit for sometimes what he said, but for the most part that’s what he thought. I can’t criticize somebody for saying what they thought. Johnny did a really good job of that through the years of his broadcasting. He was probably the most insightful guy out there.”

On this day, Miller was rivaled in that regard only by Nicklaus, especially when talking about Palmer in his backyard.