Jack Nicklaus comments on how Arnold Palmer treated him throughout their careers on the PGA Tour

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Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer have gone down as golfing legends, with both having left a lasting impact on the game.

It is Nicklaus who leads his late friend Palmer in the all-time major championship titles list, with the former topping the pile with 18.

Palmer occupies T7 place with seven, with only the PGA Championship missing from his fantastic honours list.

Nicklaus and Palmer didn’t like the tree removal at Oakmont, which was the site of the former’s first-ever major win.

He beat his then PGA Tour rival Palmer in a playoff in the 1962 US Open at the Pennsylvania course, with Oakmont once again the host venue for the tournament this week.

Jack Nicklaus shares how Arnold Palmer treated him during their PGA Tour careers

And the legendary figure has now discussed that win in a press conference at Oakmont, having been asked what it was like to be paired with Palmer in the first two rounds before beating him in a playoff.

“Well, Arnie was the top player in the game at the time,” said Nicklaus. “He had won The Masters earlier in the year.

“He was the guy you had to beat if you wanted to win, and particularly here. It was really kind of funny because I never really heard the gallery.

READ MORE: Tyrrell Hatton shares his honest verdict on Oakmont immediately after his second round of the US Open

“I was a 22-year-old kid with blinders on and not smart enough to figure out that people rooted for people. I just went out and played golf. That’s what I did. I never really considered Arnold as something different.

“Arnold took me under his wing when I turned pro, and he never treated me anything other than as an equal, and became one of the closest friends I’ve ever had in the game.

“We just did… I didn’t look at it that way. He was just another guy that he wanted to beat me and I wanted to beat him, and I guess that’s what happened through the years with the two of us.”

What was crucial for Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller in their US Open wins at Oakmont

Nicklaus, who completed the career grand slam by winning all four majors, was joined at the press conference by fellow legend Johnny Miller.

He won two major championships during his fantastic career, including the US Open at Oakmont, just like Nicklaus.

And both were asked what club they would have donated that was crucial to their wins, as is sometimes the case with the USGA in modern golf.

READ MORE: Sam Burns advises what it’s ‘extremely important’ to do at Oakmont after shooting the lowest score of the US Open so far

Nicklaus responded to the question: “Well, I three-putted one time in 90 holes. I always had my laughs with Arnold.

“You’ve heard me say it before, but I told Arnold, I said… I shot 39 at Cherry Hills to lose to him there, and I told Arnold, I said, ‘Arnold, if I hadn’t shot the 39 the last nine at Cherry Hills nobody would have heard of you’.

“And he said, ‘Yeah, and if I hadn’t three-putted eight times at Oakmont nobody would have heard of you either’. It works both ways, and that’s probably right.

“If Arnold hadn’t three-putted eight times, he would have won the tournament, if it was eight times, whatever the number was. The key to Oakmont to me was not three-putting.”

Miller meanwhile said: “For me, I was up and down the first couple days. I wasn’t really hitting the ball that great, especially on the first round when I shot the 76, I did not play well at all tee to green.

“Then in the last round, it was like, my guardian angel out there said, ‘Okay, we’re going to put together a perfect round of golf’, and it was literally a perfect round of golf.

“I missed one fairway on 11 just by a couple feet, but the fact I hit every green and I hit the ball underneath the hole, only had one putt that was a little bit downhill, that’s hard to do at Oakmont, to hit 18 greens and have no downhill putts.

“But yeah, that round was just… I guess it was meant to be because I was not playing that great. I had played with Arnold Palmer the first two rounds, which was, back in those days, was a crazy experience with his gallery.

“His gallery was… they were crazy. Crazy good. But to get through the gauntlet of playing with Arnold on the first two rounds was pretty good. We both shot 140, and just handling the pressure that week was… that was the other part.”

Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller summarise Arnold Palmer’s impact on golf

Handling such pressure and finding greens with relative ease is exactly what the players will be aiming to do at Oakmont over the weekend.

But that has proved extremely difficult this time around, with even the world’s best struggling to deal with the conditions in Pennsylvania.

Sam Burns was, however, able to produce a superb five-under 65 on Friday to shoot him to the very top of the leaderboard.

He was joined by J.J. Spaun and Viktor Hovland as the only players to enter the weekend under par, epitomising just how difficult Oakmont has been playing so far.

Every man left will be eager to emulate legendary figure Nicklaus at the event, with the American boasting a joint-record four US Open wins.

But he continued to sing the praises of Palmer, having been asked alongside Miller for his thoughts on his impact on the game.

Nicklaus commented: “Arnold’s impact on the game? Arnold obviously had an enormous impact on the game.

“Arnold in many ways popularized the game of golf. He came along basically when television came along, and maybe television was great for Arnold, but Arnold was great for television and great for the game.

“He had a flair about him that nobody else had, and people loved him. And rightfully so. He earned what he got. He did a great job.”

Miller then added: “I agree exactly with what he said. Arnie had sort of like a Seve Ballesteros, sort of an aura about him.

“Not that they did anything like Chi-Chi Rodriguez, who I loved, but it wasn’t like he was entertaining, but it was something about the way they walk and handled themselves.

“Arnie was a man’s man, big-time man’s man. He could have been with John Wayne as two leading guys in a movie. Yeah, it’s nice to have a guy like that that can help push the game along, like Tiger Woods did.”