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Saunders kept his team in the match with a 33, while Finsterwald struggled to a 36. At the break Palmer-Nicklaus held a 3-up lead.
Not that the team competition was the be-all and end-all.
The crowd was buzzing over the possibility that Palmer could shoot 59 or that he could at least break Finsterwald's course record. Among the caddies Nicklaus was also a prime subject of conversation.
Like Santor, Snyder had seen Jack up close in tournament play. In 1952 a 14-year-old Snyder went up against a 12-year-old Nicklaus in the district juniors, and the older player prevailed in 19 holes.
"And I bet he outweighed me by 40 pounds," Snyder recalls. "By the time Jack was 18 his power was phenomenal."
That power moved the earth in Athens, and the Ohio U players serving as caddies couldn't fathom the noise made when Nicklaus's clubface made contact with the ball.
"The crack, the boom," Reichley says. "It was a supersonic sound."
Nicklaus drove the green on the 330-yard 10th hole, landing his tee shot pin high and six feet from the cup. He missed the eagle putt and settled for a 3. Palmer also birdied the hole, turning the gallery on its ear.
"Watching Jack and Arnie," Reichley says, "we were awestruck."
Finsterwald went on a birdie binge to make up for his lackluster front nine, but Saunders faded. Palmer and Nicklaus were in the clear. Both were outmuscling the course, though Palmer was making more putts.
The caddies were watching Palmer's every purposeful step. He was the leading money winner on the Tour at that point, banking more than $42,000 for the season, yet he didn't walk with an air of superiority.
"So down-to-earth," Snyder says. "He never said an unkind word to me, never frowned, never acted as if I should've known better to do this or that."
The Ohio U boys also watched the body language between Palmer and Nicklaus. No one could imagine then that these two figures — separated by more than 10 years — would someday make up the greatest rivalry the game has ever known. But there was no extra effort on either player's part to bridge their generation gap.
"Arnold and Jack were cordial," Reichley says, "but Nicklaus wasn't much of a talker. . . . He kind of stuck to the business of the day."
That business was drumming every player on the course.
Nicklaus wasn't nearly as interested in winning the team competition as he was in shooting the lowest score. He didn't want to defeat Finsterwald and Saunders. He wanted to defeat Finsterwald, Saunders and Palmer.
