The memories at the Masters aren't just about golf for Arnold Palmer.
He rolls off names from the past as if he had just seen them earlier in the day. He can tell you not only how many people were at the champions' dinners in the 1960s, but who they were and maybe even where they sat.
Names like Nicklaus, Hogan and Snead, of course. But Ralph Guldahl and Horton Smith get almost equal billing, even if their names have been lost to most somewhere in golf history.
Palmer even remembers the real name of his first caddie at the Masters 59 years ago. Nathaniel Avery went by the nickname Iron Man, and he helped the young Palmer to a 10th-place finish.
"He was great and told me where to go and what to do, and that was the end of it," Palmer said this week.
I can occasionally think of sleeping and waking up in the middle of the night and watching him putt, and thinking about how smooth he was and how good he did the things he did on the golf course. And that pleases me
Ask him about Bobby Jones, though, and he really perks up. If Palmer is a link for most to the past at Augusta National, the great amateur champion and Masters co-founder is his own personal link to the days the tournament began.