2012 U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

This year’s U.S. Open marks the 50th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus’ 18-hole playoff  victory over Arnold Palmer in the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. It was Nicklaus’ first professional title and the event through the years has endured as one of golf’s great moments.

To celebrate the half century, the United States Golf Association (USGA) honored Nicklaus during the final day of practice rounds Wednesday at The Olympic Club prior to the June 14 start of the tournament’s 112th edition.

The USGA recognized Nicklaus’ achievement in three ways. It announced the medal it awards to the U.S. Open winner each year has been renamed the Nicklaus Medal. It will feature a silhouette of the four-time U.S. Open winner. The USGA also announced the USGA Museum in Far Hills, N.J. will have new addition called the Jack Nicklaus Room, anticipated to be open in early 2015.

Lastly, the USGA has produced its first television documentary called the 1962 U.S. Open, Jack First Major. The one-hour film will debut on NBC at 11 a.m. (Pacific Time) prior to the U.S. Open’s final round.  A 3 1/2-minute trailer to the documentary is available on the USGA website, via the link: www.usga.org/62usopenfilm.

After receiving the first medal which carries his name, Nicklaus, 72, who last played in the U.S. Open in 2000 at Pebble Beach, conducted a long Q&A session with media.

Nicklaus opened the session, saying: “Well, it’s kind of neat, isn’t it? Take and old guy and honor him. I think it’s pretty nice. It’s pretty humbling and meaningful, these honors, both the medal and the museum. I appreciate that.”

Here’s an excerpt from the Q&A session:

Question: What were the toughest conditions you ever faced in a U.S. Open, not weather related, mostly not wind related, and which were the easiest?

Jack Nicklaus: Toughest conditions? I don’t know whether you’d call them tough.  Whether I handled the conditions or not is another question. I may have had some conditions I didn’t handle very well and maybe some of the courses I didn’t handle very well. But some of them I did.

Pebble in ’72 was pretty difficult conditions. I think it was 1-over par won the championship then. I think that’s right. That’s a pretty high score at Pebble Beach. Pebble Beach really, without weather, Pebble Beach is not that difficult a golf course.  And you don’t really have weather this time of year. We had a little bit of wind that week, but not any you don’t have weather this time of year out here. You have a little fog and that kind of stuff. I thought that was a pretty difficult examination. The greens got really away from us pretty good and you really had to be really work hard in ’72.

Q: The promo to the movie mentions that you and Arnold went back for a day at Oakmont. What was that day like and what kind of emotions did that stir?

JN: Well, it was kind of funny, because Mike and I had gone to Merion the day before and looked at Merion. Mike asked me to stop by, which was nice of him to do that, to want to get my thoughts on Merion.

And then we went to Arnold’s house, and we stayed at Arnold’s house in Latrobe and we flew over in a helicopter at Oakmont the next day. And Arnold was most gracious in taking care of us and hosted us at Latrobe Country Club that night for dinner.

But we went over the next day and Arnold said to me, ‘Why are we doing this?’ He says, ‘You know, I lost that one.’ And he says, ‘They want to do one on Casper at Olympic. I lost that one.’ And I said, ‘Arnold, we did Cherry Hills first.’

Q: In terms of their emotional impact, how would you compare winning your first major at Oakmont in ’62 to your last at Augusta in 1986?

JN: Well, they’re just a couple of years apart. One, I was a young kid and the other I was an old man at 46, an old man. I’d like to run back to 46. I’d just like to be able to run, actually.

Oakmont, it was a different thing. I’d come very close at Cherry Hills in ’60. I played  well, I’ll go back quick. I shot 80, 80 at Inverness in ’57. I finished 40 something in ’58.  And then I shot a pair of 77’s at Winged Foot in ’59.

And then ’60 came along, I was the U.S. Amateur champion. I played very well. I felt like I should have won the golf tournament then. And if I’d known how to win, I might have won that tournament.

Then I had a very good chance again the next year at Oakland Hills and I played the last seven holes 2 over par to lose that tournament. I finished fourth that year.

So I felt going into Oakmont and particularly finishing second the week before and I had three seconds that year, that my best shot of winning a golf tournament was right there, because I loved playing in the U.S. Open. I loved playing USGA golf courses.

I didn’t realize I’m a young 22-year-old kid, I had no idea that Arnold Palmer lived anywhere near there or anything else about Arnold. Arnold was a friend and we’d played a lot of golf together. But I was, what a 22-year-old-kid. A 22-year-old doesn’t have much of a brain anyway and sort of goes along and whatever happens, happens.

And all of a sudden, 20 years later, you look back on it and say, ‘wow.’ That’s sort of what I did. Looking back on it you go back and say, wow, that was pretty special.  Something pretty good that I guess I’d learned how to win a golf tournament by then. Or I did learn how to win a golf tournament that week.”

James Raia is a California-based journalist who writes about sports and leisure. Visit his golf site at golftribune.com