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Masterful charge brings Palmer title
Back nine blitz gets third win
68 shakes off bid by Player
By Johnny Hendrix
Chronicle Sports Editor
Augusta, Ga., Tuesday, April 10, 1962 -- Arnold Palmer, the greatest comeback player golf has ever seen, made up five shots in the last nine holes Monday to win the 26th Masters Tournament by three shots. He scored a four-under-par 68 in the first three-way playoff in the tournament's history.
Palmer, who birdied two of the last three holes in the fourth round Sunday to tie Gary Player and Dow Finsterwald with a 72-hole total of 280, became the third three-time winner of the tournament, joining Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret in that exclusive club.
Three-Shot Lead
Player, who shot the front nine in 34 to take a three-shot lead over Palmer, finished at one-under-par 71, his fourth straight round at that score. Finsterwald, who got beat by two strokes when Palmer birdied the last two holes in 1960 to win his second Masters, scored a 77.
The victory for Palmer was worth $20,000 in prize money and he became the leading money winner, not only for this year with a total of $35,408, but for the modern era of professional golf with a total of $326,462.
It was Palmer's 31st victory in 223 tournaments since he became a professional in 1954 after winning the U.S. Amateur title. Besides the 31 victories, including a British Open and a U.S. Open, he has finished in the top five 75 times.
The native of Latrobe, Pa., whose great finishes in the past have made him one of the game's most feared clutch competitors, was never better than he was Monday.
Magnificent Finish
He started that magnificent driving finish with a birdie at the 10th hole to move one stroke off the pace Player had been setting, then took a one-shot lead with a birdie at the 12th hole. He added birdies at the 13th and 16th holes and but for a putt at the 17th hole that stopped two inches short of the cup, and one at the 18th which curled just out of the lip, he would have scored a back nine 29 on one of the most demanding golf courses in the world.
In retrospect, Palmer's victory borders on the fantastic. With only three holes to play in the final round of the 72-hole event, he was two shots behind. Then he chipped in at 16 for a birdie, sank a 45-foot putt at 17 for the second in a row and played the 18th - where he took a double bogey six to lose to Player by a stroke in 1961 - in par to join Finsterwald and Player in the deadlock.
It was a galling afternoon for Finsterwald, who had opened the tournament with a 74 and followed with rounds of 68-65-73 for his 280. That 65 was one stroke off the course record and the best round in this tournament. In the playoff, he was never in contention, starting with a bogey at the first hole and turning the front side four over to stand six shots behind Player.
Player, despite what he described as his best round of the tournament, simply was no match for the tigerish Palmer, who was a candidate for suicide almost every day when he finished the front nine in each of the five rounds.
But Palmer rose magnificently to the challenge that Player had put before him, responding in a fashion that must force even the greatest skeptic to accept him as the premier golfer of this time.
It was an angry Palmer that stepped to the 10th tee and lashed a screaming drive down the picturesque fairway of this 470-yard hole. He had hoped only to play the front nine in even par, but he could not accomplish this. His first six holes were in regulation figures and he had missed reasonable birdie opportunities at the second hole - a 16-foot putt - and the third - a 10-foot putt.
At seven, which he bogeyed on the final round Sunday, he hit a good chip from the back fringe and two-putted for a bogey, then at eight missed a four-foot birdie putt that he admitted later made him so mad he wanted to eat the club.
If he got one break during the round it came at nine, where his nine iron second shot landed in the crowd, hit a spectator's stool and bounded back on the green 30 feet from the hole. He two-putted for a par.
Then, he faced the 10th, one of the more difficult par-fours on the course and the longest. The day before he had made double bogey six here and it must be considered that this cost him the tournament over the 72-hole distance although he said this was what finally woke him up and started the run which eventually brought he playoff and the chance for victory.
Now he stood three shots behind Player, who had been doing a superb job with three birdies - at one, two and six - and a bogey - at seven - on the front nine. His five iron second was 30 feet to the right of the cup.
He crouched over the ball, his feet wide and his knees almost touching in that familiar pose that has become his trademark on the putting surface. He looked at the hole, the ball, the hole and back at the ball. Then frozen in that position for a good five seconds, he started the stroke that keyed the run to victory. The ball had a slight curl, but hit the hole and stayed in and he was starting that remarkable surge.
Palmer parred the 11th hole with a remarkable chip shot from 60 feet off the green that stopped two feet from the hole.
Now, standing on the 12th tee, where he lost the tournament in 1959 with a triple bogey, he was but one shot behind Player, who had missed the 10th green and two-putted from five feet after putting the ball back onto the carpet.
Palmer's seven iron flew straight at the flag and stopped four feet from the hole. Player also used a seven iron on the hole, and it finished 55 feet from the pin, from where he three-putted. Palmer's birdie putt put him in the lead.
He never trailed after that.
At 13, he flew a one iron onto the green 20 feet to the left of the flag and two-putted for a birdie. At 14, he forced a 16-foot uphill putt into the hole after an eight iron to the green, and at 16, he rammed in a 10-footer for a deuce after a six iron off the tee.
At 17 he almost holed it from 40 feet after his drive caught the tree in the left of the fairway and he had a five to the green. Then came 18. He was a cinch now, four shots in the lead, and he had an eight iron shot to the green, but he pulled the seven from the bag. It was this club that knocked him out of a second straight championship the year before when he bunkered his approach and took six and this was the third time in five rounds that he had used a seven when another club would have done the job. He flew it far back on the green, 35 feet from the hole, and snaked it down close for the par.
Player, despite Palmer's spectacular performance on the last nine, didn't figure he was out of the running until the 16th hole, where he went four shots behind as Palmer made his fifth birdie in seven holes.
He had jumped into the lead at the start, hitting a six iron 10 feet from the hole at one and making the putt. On the second hole, Player hit a low three wood 30 yards short of the green on his second shot, wedged it seven feet from the hole and made that putt to go two strokes ahead. He then parred the next two holes and after drawing a bogey at five when he missed the green and a seven-foot putt after a chip, he birdied the sixth to go two in front again.
When Palmer bogeyed the seventh hole, Player had himself a three-shot lead and that's where he stayed until Palmer's birdie at 10. Player's bogey at 10 was a result of a second shot that rolled over the green and stopped against a piece of ice that he moved before playing. He then missed the five-footer. After the bogey at 12, he missed the green and a six-foot putt after a fine wedge shot for another bogey. He picked up one stroke on par at the 15th hole when he played short of the lake and wedged it five feet from the hole, sinking the birdie putt, and at 18, where he made a 15-footer.
Finsterwald had only one birdie on the round, hitting a three wood 11 feet from the cup on his second shot at 13 and two-putting.
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