In 1960 Arnold Palmer had won the Masters and U.S. Open by the time the British Open was played that July at St Andrews. His first round over the Old Course, where golf has been played for 500 years, was a horrendous 84, including a 48 on the front side. To add insult to injury, he lost a ten pound bet to fellow-competitor Roberto DeVicenzo, the great Argentine player who would win the event in 1967. The following day Arnie returned and shot an even-par 73 (the 17th played as a par-5 back then.) The Old Course played firm and fast, and with a wind at his back, Palmer blasted a drive into the greenside bunker at the 409-yard 13th, and got up and down for a birdie. On the 16th, then playing 351-yards, his drive was ten yards past the hole and he holed the putt for an eagle two. The man was a powerful, exciting player to watch.
Palmer would go on to finish second to Kel Nagle that year, one shot back after rounds of 70-71-70-68=279. He would come back to win the next two Opens, but lamented that 1960 loss and blamed himself for not taking Scottish caddie Tip Anderson's advice and using a 5-iron for his second shot to the 17th hole. "I blew it," he said, "the 17th did it for me in every round till the last when I finally took Tip's word on the 5-iron." He had been on the road behind the green in every round but the last when he played short of the green and two-putted for a four. Of that disagreement with his boss, Tip would only say: "We played a 4-iron in the first three rounds and a 5 in the last round." I saw Arnie and Tip at the Open in 1995, Palmer's last at the Mecca of golf, and they were both hard at it, competing to the end. When Tip died in 2004 at the age of 71, Palmer sent over some money to help pay for his old friend's funeral.
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