Golf · 1960 · Cherry Hills, USA
Arnie's Charge
Seven strokes off the lead starting the final round, Arnold Palmer drives the first green and rips off a 65 to win the US Open, launching the most popular era in the sport's history.
65
Final round
7 strokes
Deficit entering final round
Jack Nicklaus (amateur), 2nd
Runner-up
Arnold Palmer began the final round of the 1960 US Open at Cherry Hills seven strokes behind leader Mike Souchak, a gap that had every golf writer in the press tent focused elsewhere. Over lunch, Palmer reportedly floated the idea of driving the short, downhill first hole, a 346-yard par-4, to a group of sceptical reporters.
He did exactly that, and the eagle putt that followed set off a charge: birdies on six of the first seven holes turned an afterthought into the man to beat. Palmer closed with a 65, the lowest final round shot by a champion in the championship's history to that point, to win by two strokes over a 20-year-old amateur named Jack Nicklaus, with 47-year-old Ben Hogan fading late after finding water on the 71st hole.
The win, completed in front of a rapidly growing and increasingly vocal gallery that had already earned the nickname 'Arnie's Army', cemented Palmer as the sport's first true television-age star and its most popular player for a generation. The final round charge remains the standard reference point for a golfer coming from well behind to win a major on the back nine.
Watch the Moment
