Arnold Palmer reflects on years in Masters

Arnold Palmer will hit a ceremonial tee shot to open the Masters Tournament as long as he can – and he doesn’t even have to be upright.

“I think the chairman (Billy Payne) makes that decision,” Palmer said during a news conference at Augusta National Golf Club on Tuesday. “If he wants me to hit that first tee shot and I have to crawl, that’s what I’ll do.”

Palmer, 84, arrived at the club to do his news conference and attend the Champions Dinnern and on Thursday he will join Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player at 7:40 a.m. in giving the tournament its traditional start with their tee shots at No. 1.

The four-time Masters champion, who won his last green jacket 50 years ago, still gets sentimental when talking about almost any aspect of tournament week. At his age, The King clearly doesn’t take his annual trip to Augusta for granted.

“The feeling was so overwhelming that I felt like I had died and gone to heaven,” Palmer said of his first trip to the Masters in 1955. “I felt like I was walking on a cloud, it was so beautiful. It was probably the biggest, exciting thing that has ever happened to me in my life and in my game of golf. I had won the national amateur. I played in a lot of tournaments and I played some good golf, but there was a feeling that is very difficult to tell you … to be at Augusta and at the Masters. I was very thankful.”

On Tuesday, Palmer also was looking forward to the Champions Dinner, with defending champion Adam Scott as host. He said it’s been a highlight of every Masters Week since he won his first in 1958.

“When you’re sitting there with people I’ve read about and heard about, and then remembering those people and thinking about those years that they played golf,” he said when asked about his best memories of the dinner, and rattling off names such as Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Jimmy Demaret, Henry Picard, Ralph Guldahl and Ben Hogan. “When you’re in the game of golf like I’ve been and you dream about it … you can’t ignore the fact that these people were great players. And that excites me. Still excites me.”

Palmer also discussed his relationship with Bobby Jones and how the images of Jones’ swing and putting stroke from old newsreels stayed with him.

“He was a great guy, and I revere the opportunity … being here at Augusta and having drinks with him, shaking hands with him, talking to him about the game and what he thought about the game,” Palmer said. “I occasionally think of sleeping and waking up in the middle of the night and watching him putt and thinking about how smooth he was.”

Palmer said the 1964 Masters was special in that he didn’t have to sweat on the 18th tee. Palmer won in 1958 by one shot over Doug Ford and Fred Hawkins, won the 1960 Masters by the same margin over Ken Venturi, and outlasted Gary Player and Dow Finsterwald in an 18-hole playoff in 1962.

But in 1964, Palmer shot 70 or lower in all four rounds, became the first champion to have three rounds in the 60s, and beat Dave Marr and Nicklaus by six shots.

“I won three times and it was a squeaker every time,” he said. “The one thing I wanted to do here, after having won three times, was walk up 18 feeling comfortable.”