Memorable day: Arnold Palmer’s final walk at Oakmont crossed over with OJ Simpson’s Bronco chase

OAKMONT, Pa. — Thirty-one years ago, at the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Arnold Palmer walked up the 18th fairway, tears in his eyes as he waved to the gallery applauding him. This was Palmer’s final hole of his final U.S. Open, and western Pennsylvania was giving its beloved native son the hero’s sendoff he deserved.

But although virtually no one at Oakmont knew it at the time — smartphones still being more than a decade in the future — another event was unfolding at that exact same moment that would dominate national news for the next two years. The stories of Arnold Palmer and O.J. Simpson, co-stars in a series of ridiculous Hertz commercials, would cross paths one last time.

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June 17, 1994, was a wickedly hot day at Oakmont, and Palmer, under a straw hat, labored his way around the course starting at 8:40 a.m. The surrounding galleries, all deputized into Arnie’s Army one last time, applauded every one of his 81 strokes. He was grouped with John Mahaffey and Rocco Mediate, who would gain fame 14 years later at another U.S. Open, the 2008 Torrey Pines masterpiece he lost to Tiger Woods.

This would be the record fifth time Palmer played in a U.S. Open at Oakmont, the same course where a young, chubby Jack Nicklaus had broken his heart in a playoff in 1962. Palmer received a special exemption to play in the tournament, a move that didn’t sit well with a couple of players who grumbled that Palmer was taking a spot from a more deserving young player. (Those complaints persist to this day, though not over players with Palmer’s stature.)

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At the same time as Palmer was teeing off, Simpson was at the home of his attorney Robert Kardashian. (Yes, of the reality-TV Kardashians.) Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole and a local waiter, Ronald Goldman, had been brutally murdered outside Nicole Simpson’s home just five days before. O.J. Simpson had already been questioned by police, and at some point during the day, Simpson and his attorneys were informed that he would be charged with the murders.

Palmer and Simpson both shilled for Hertz in the 1980s, and watching those ads today is a strange experience — there’s Simpson, 10 years away from the murders that would upend an entire country, happily goofing around with Palmer, as awkward in front of a camera as he was comfortable in front of galleries:

According to confidants — with, perhaps, a little historical revisionism — Palmer and Simpson weren’t particularly close. “I think O.J. tolerated Arnold,” a Palmer friend told ESPN’s Ian O’Connor in 2016. “O.J. had a lot of bluster and arrogance and during filming it was a lot of, ‘Arnold, you do it this way and I’ll do it that way.’ When they were together, Arnold would laugh at O.J. But I don’t think they were social friends, and I don’t remember them playing golf together.”

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Palmer closed out his U.S. Open career with that long walk up 18, and he wasn’t the only one crying. His slow walk was evidence of the ravaging effects of time, but his determined stride demonstrated the spirit that had made him a hero to millions and golf’s first modern star.

“I suppose the most important thing,” he said, sobbing into a towel, “is the fact that it has been as good as it has been to me.”

A few hours after Palmer’s sorrowful departure, Los Angeles police announced that Simpson — who had failed to surrender to authorities — was now a wanted fugitive. Simpson’s whereabouts were unknown until he called 911 just before 6 p.m. Pacific Time, riding in the back of a white Ford Bronco driven by his friend Al Cowlings. Simpson was finally apprehended around midnight Eastern Time, setting off one of the most divisive and fascinating trials in American history.

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That day ended up being one of the most memorable cross-sport news days of the 1990s, so much so that an exceptional ESPN 30 for 30 — called, appropriately enough, “June 17, 1994” — spotlighted the wildly varying events. In addition to Palmer and Simpson, the day featured the New York Rangers’ ticker-tape parade, a U.S. World Cup game, a New York Knicks victory in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and Ken Griffey Jr.’s 30th home run of the season.

Without social media feeding a constant stream of news and updates, many Americans may have missed one, or several, of the big moments. But no golf fan missed Arnie’s final walk. And an estimated 95 million Americans caught the Simpson Bronco chase. Palmer changed the trajectory of golf, and Simpson’s case changed the trajectory of American culture. For one day in June 1994, they shared that unexpected, final spotlight.