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From Dave Shedloski, USOPEN.com

While major championships, by their very nature, sharpen understanding and context in the narrative of golf History, few represent genuine signal moments in the game’s lore.

The 1870 British Open would qualify, as Tom Morris Jr. won his third in a row and retired the Challenge Belt, forcing the creation of the Claret Jug. The 1913 U.S. Open won by young American caddie Francis Ouimet is another. There is the 1930 U.S. Amateur, in which Bob Jones completed the “Grand Slam.”

In the modern era, two such occasions are worth noting: the 2001 Masters Tournament that Tiger Woods conquered to win his fourth major in a row, and the 1962 U.S. Open in which Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus engaged in an epic battle that initiated one of the greatest rivalries in sports History.

The site of this passion play was Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club in suburban Pittsburgh. The world watched as Nicklaus not only usurped the reign of the game’s most dominant player of the time (Palmer), but he also embarked on his journey to elbow aside the records of all the Great Players who came before him.

When the two men arrived at Oakmont, Nicklaus, a two-time U.S. Amateur champion, was still an unproven rookie on the PGA Tour. He had played just 16 events as a professional, although he had already shown flashes of brilliance and prodigious length off the tee. Palmer, meanwhile, was the undisputed favorite in both skill set and popularity. Not only was he the reigning Masters and British Open champion, but he was playing close to his hometown of Latrobe, Pa., on a course with which he was quite familiar, having first seen Oakmont when he was just 12. His first U.S. Open appearance came in 1953, a year before he captured the U.S. Amateur.

But Nicklaus will tell you years later that he felt he was the favorite that steaming week in June.

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