Jack Nicklaus, other players say farewell to Arnold Palmer
LATROBE, Pa. — A farewell to the King turned sombre when Jack Nicklaus, his voice cracking as a large tear formed in his left eye, urged the elite and the everyman to remember how Arnold Palmer touched their lives and “please don’t forget why.”
“I hurt like you hurt,” Nicklaus said. “You don’t lose a friend of 60 years and don’t feel an enormous loss.”
The service Tuesday at Saint Vincent College in Palmer’s hometown was filled with just as much laughter and warmth from stories of the most significant figure in modern golf. Nearly 1,000 golf dignitaries from around the world, referred to by former LPGA Commissioner Charlie Mechem as the “elite battalion of Arnie’s Army,” crammed into the basilica.
Some 4,000 others headed to remote sites across the college to watch. Long lines of traffic formed two hours before the service began.