AUGUSTA – If you were privileged enough to be at Augusta National yesterday or you were watching the Masters on television, you’re not human if you didn’t shed a tear watching Arnold Palmer walk onto and off the 18th green for the last time as a competitor.
Thousands of lucky souls who crammed around the 18th hole, making Augusta National look more like Giants Stadium in January for a Giants playoff game, were sapped with emotion as Palmer completed his 48th and final Masters.
The moment will be frozen in time forever in Masters lore: The 72-year-old Palmer marched toward the green, engulfed by perhaps the most thunderous cheers this hallowed ground has heard since Jack Nicklaus won his last Green Jacket in 1986, waved, took a bow and gave everyone a thumbs-up.
The manual scoreboard operator, out of respect for Palmer, left his score blank on the board next to those of his playing partners, Robert Hamilton and Toru Taniguchi.
Palmer’s double-bogey on 18 left him with a second-round 85 to go along with the 89 he shot Thursday, but his score didn’t matter. When Palmer walked off 18 for the last time, he was greeted by David Duval, Greg Norman and Ernie Els, who’d just finished playing their rounds and waited around to witness history.
The fans’ show of love for Palmer was so loud, one fan was heard to say, “It sounds like Arnie just won the tournament.”
He did in a way, because this 66th Masters will forever be remembered at least as much for Palmer’s classy final exit as it will for whomever wins the Green Jacket tomorrow.
“The Masters galleries are unbelievable,” Palmer would say later. “I marveled at the last few holes. I just said to Roy [Saunders, his son-in-law and caddie], ‘I’ve never seen anything quite like this.’ “
For a legend such as Palmer, who’s been shadowed by “Arnie’s Army” for so many years, those were strong words.
“It was a pretty special day,” said Hamilton, the U.S. Amateur runner-up who hit a veritable lottery by drawing Palmer for his historic final go-round here. “I definitely got goose bumps when he was going over the bridge on 12 and also at 16 and 18. It’s hard to describe. You just know it’s a moment.”
Palmer has mastered the art of creating moments for some 50 years now. Yesterday, his line of the day came at the beginning of his post-round press conference, when he was asked if he was disappointed not to have finished his second round Friday before rain postponed play.
“I was very excited, because I had not played on Saturday in a long time,” Palmer said, referring to not having made the cut at Augusta since 1983.
It that kind of humor that allowed Palmer to hold back the dam of tears that undoubtedly were to flow.