You arrived at the 1962 Masters as defending champion and almost won it again.

I could have become the first man to win the Masters two years in a row. There was one hole that was the most devastating of my whole career. I was two shots ahead of Arnold with three holes to play. I hit my tee shot 12 feet from the hole, whereas Arnold missed to the right. Nobody gets down in two from the right-hand side of the 16th green, because the ball gathers speed down the slope. My caddie tapped my hand and said, “We’ve got it.” I replied, “Yes we have.” That was fatal. You can never presume such a thing. Arnold’s chip looked as if it was going to roll right off the green, except that it fell into the cup for a birdie. You could hit that same chip shot 1,000 times and never do it again. Arnold beat me in the playoff, and that was the toughest day of my career.

Jack Nicklaus, a 22-year-old rookie, won the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Were you surprised by how good he was so soon? 

I was not surprised. Very few players in the history of the game have what I call “it.” When Nicklaus came out on tour, he oozed “it” immediately. Tom Weiskopf was a better golfer than Nicklaus, yet Weiskopf won one major and Nicklaus won 18.

At the Open Championship at Royal Troon, you missed the cut when your approach on 18 just rolled out of bounds. 

Me going out of bounds was a blessing. I packed my bags and went straight to Aronimink and won the PGA [Championship]. If I had made the cut at Troon, I would not have won the PGA. The wind blew quite strong at Troon, and Arnold played magnificent golf.

How did your early arrival at Aronimink help?

I played with some members and they have since made me an honorary member. I loved the course, but what is happening in America now is a tragedy: They are cutting down trees all over the place. They should be planting them. They are destroying nature. We need trees to fight pollution and to stave erosion. It is one of the great tragedies I have seen in golf. Aronimink is still magnificent, but people have advised these clubs incorrectly. They want to get the course back to its original state, but when these old courses were designed, golfers played with a ball that went 62 yards less.

You beat Bob Goalby by a shot, and you won $13,000 that week, which must have seemed like a lot of money at the time.

No, it did not seem like a lot of money. I might have even given my caddie the whole damn lot—I don’t know. This is what makes me upset when I see young tour players in a pro-am not looking after the amateurs, or if I see them not wanting to sign autographs, and I think about how lucky they are. They need to follow in Arnold’s footsteps. Arnold was the most wonderful person in terms of being kind to the public, thinking of his fellow man, and he never refused to sign an autograph. It is thanks to people like Arnold that players today are playing for so much money.

Do you remember that, for a seven-year spell, from 1960 through 1966, the Masters was won by one of the Big Three every year?

Yes—Arnold, Jack, and I fought it out every year, and we made Augusta with the publicity we made around the Masters, whether they like to admit it or not. When I go there, I feel I am walking onto a golf course in heaven, and I tread very carefully. I love Augusta so much, but I don’t like all the rules. I have been an ambassador for Augusta for all these years, yet they won’t let me have one round of golf in my life with my three grandsons, who are dying to know about their grandfather’s episodes on that golf course. All the courses that have hosted the Open, the U.S. Open, and the PGA would oblige, but they won’t do it at Augusta.

With Palmer and Nicklaus, was it hard to separate the friendship from the rivalry?

No. The three of us made it very clear that we wanted to beat the hell out of each other, but we had respect for each other, and we realized that sometimes you are going to win, and sometimes you are going to lose. Arnold and I traveled around the world together—we laughed together, and sometimes we cried together.