74 Golf World August 2017
T
heLowerCourseofBaltusrolGolf
Clubwasnoplaceforthefaintofheart
during the 1967 US Open. There was
lots of heat, literally and figuratively, for
what turned out to be one of the great showdowns
in golf history. Over two glorious days, Jack Nicklaus
and Arnold Palmer locked horns, two men at the peak
of their powers, paired together over the final 36 holes.
It was a hot and steamy four days in Springfield,
New Jersey, with conditions for the second and third
rounds particularly oppressive. The heat and high
humidity made things tough on a warhorse like
54-year-old, four-time champion Ben Hogan.
“Hot? Hell can’t be any hotter,” Hogan quipped.
“I’ll check that out one of these days.”
Baltusrol was hosting the US Open for the fifth
time – the second on the AW Tillinghast-designed
Lower Course – and it was a typically rigorous
USGA set-up with lots of punishing rough and four
par 4s on the front nine measuring 465 yards or
more. The Lower got started with one of the brutish
two-shot holes, where Deane Beman, the outstanding
American amateur who had recently turned
professional would have an amazing performance.
Beman, who tied for sixth, hit a 4-wood each day
into No.1 and played it 2-3-3-4, the future PGA
Tour commissioner’s eagle being witnessed by a
teenaged spectator named David Fay, who would
later serve as the USGA’s executive director.
Although Marty Fleckman, a powerful 23-year-
old amateur from Port Arthur, Texas, figured
prominently through 54 holes (see page 71), leading
after the first and third rounds, fans flocking to
Baltusrol would get what they wanted: Arnold
Palmer and Jack Nicklaus battling it out.The Big Two
Palmer, 37, and Nicklaus, 27, along with the other
member of the The Big Three, Gary Player, hadTHE BATTLE OF
BALTUSROL
THE LEGENDS^
Jack versus Arnie over 36 hot and
brutal holes. Fifty years on, Bill Fields
recounts a classic US Open encounter.