Masters Memories

Send-Off: Jack and Arnie
Jack Nicklaus’s victory of 1986 was another of the never-to-be-forgotten variety. He was 46 at the time and, though he had never enjoyed quite the same level of overt popularity as Arnold Palmer, everyone revelled in the sight of this older player, with his son, Jackie, on the bag, keeping the moderns at bay.
Today, Nicklaus has joined the still-more senior Palmer as an honorary starter at Augusta, a role which links the game’s past and present as nowhere else.
The early morning ceremony is never anything other than a distinctly moving affair, though it has to be said that, in terms of poignancy, there has never been anything to match Palmer’s last round as a competitor in 2004.
Arnie’s entire army was behind the ropes and, as the great man walked between greens and tees, so he appeared to be greeting each and every person by name.
It was a little cameo which captured the best of the man – and the Masters. - LM