Palmer and Nicklaus.

The two most talented golfers of the 1960s made their marks as the decade opened. In 1960 Arnold Palmer won the Masters and the U.S. Open and earned $77,000 to lead all professional golfers. Second place in the U.S. Open went to a twenty-year-old amateur, an undergraduate at Ohio State named Jack Nicklaus. He shot a 269 over the seventy-two holes of the tournament. Nicklaus's last year as an amateur was 1961. He won the U.S. amateur title that year by eight and six strokes respectively in the final two rounds. He was prepared in 1962 to enter a head-to-head competition with Palmer to determine who was the greatest golfer of the decade and, arguably, of all time.

Palmer in 1962.

Palmer won his third Masters title and the British Open for the second year in a row in 1962, but Nicklaus beat him in a...