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By Brett Avery
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Pop quiz, true-false version: Jack Nicklaus once had an eight-month span when he defeated both Arnold Palmer and Gary Player in 18-hole playoffs.

Let's see ... Nicklaus defeated Palmer for the 1962 U.S. Open title in a 71-74 extra round. Player lost the Masters in a playoff that spring but to Arnold Palmer, 68-71. And when Player won the PGA Championship that summer Bob Goalby was one shot behind.

So it must be false.

Ah, but then you'd be wrong.

Jack Nicklaus remembers the days of 18-hole playoffs in regular TOUR events. (Marco Garcia/WireImage)

Years before a-winner-every-Sunday-night became the vogue in golf's television era, PGA TOUR events required an 18-hole playoff (In those good ol' days playoff participants pocketed part of the Monday gate receipts, too.).

So at 11 a.m. local time on the first Monday in February 43 years ago Nicklaus and Player shook hands on the first tee at Indian Wells CC to decide the Palm Springs Golf Classic, the tournament Bob Hope would adopt two years later.

Hard to believe, but it was the only time Nicklaus and Player met in a playoff.

It was anything but pretty.

But it certainly was historic.

"Nicklaus shot near-perfect golf in his match, just as he did last June in routing Arnold Palmer for the National Open title," Charles Curtis wrote in The Los Angeles Times. "He missed only one green in the 18 holes Monday, generally out-hit Player off the tee, and finished with a pair of 35 ft. putts for a birdie and eagle, respectively."

Player? Already three back at the 12th hole, the course's shortest par-4 at 340 yards, he thrashed through a 7 that found him at the base of two palm trees (and hitting left-handed from beneath the second).

Final score: Nicklaus 65, Player 73.

Though it was only his fourth TOUR victory, Nicklaus underscored his force in the game. He'd knocked off Palmer the previous summer and now thrashed the owner of three legs of a career Grand Slam (Player would complete the cycle with the 1965 U.S. Open).

Player missed out on his second victory of the year (San Diego Open Invitational) yet remained the clear money leader over Palmer and Nicklaus, who picked up $9,000.

Big deal. Stories drilled home the fact that Player remained a self-professed 0-9 in playoffs, losing for a sixth time in the U.S. (and third time in 10 months). Don't cry for Player just yet: By the end of the story there's a happy ending.

This could have been painted as a disaster week for Nicklaus if he'd dropped the playoff in the fifth and final week of the California swing.

Back then the Palm Springs stop utilized Bermuda Dunes CC, Indian Wells, Tamarisk CC and Eldorado CC. By the time Nicklaus moaned about cautious play in his Saturday 71 at Eldorado, the hardest of the quartet, he was at 14-under-par 273 and up by five.

"I'll hope for a conservative 68 or 69 tomorrow," he said after the round. "I may shoot a 65. Or maybe a 75, but I won't take foolish chances around trees or water."

He forgot to mention sand.

Nicklaus endured his only over-par round of the week (72) in which he twice lost shots from greenside bunkers. He dropped another after hitting behind a tree off the 16th tee.

He needed a three-foot birdie at the 90th green minutes after Player got up-and-down from the fringe for his own 4 and a 67. They deadlocked at 13-under 345, one ahead of charging Tommy Bolt's 66 while Gene Littler's 64 put him two back.

A Monday gallery estimated at 3,000 headed out to Indian Wells but didn't see much of a contest. Nicklaus won the coin toss and gave Player the honor, then hit his approach to 10 feet and made birdie to Player's par.

Nicklaus reached with a 1-iron at the 526-yard fifth for a two-putt birdie and stayed two ahead at the turn. Player hit approaches over three greens on the outward nine and remained clearly off his game before his disaster 7 at the 12th.

Nicklaus didn't need an inward 31 but it burnished his reputation as a closer. It brought his first of five titles that year, among them the Masters, Tournament of Champions (today's Mercedes-Benz Championship) and PGA. Not bad for a second-year pro.

Player? Ah, yes, the silver lining.

He may have finished second an astounding six times that season but the indefatigable one made an 0-9 record work as a motivator. The next year he clipped both Palmer and Miller Barber to win the Pensacola Open and in '65 completed that Grand Slam sweep by winning the U.S. Open.

In an 18-hole playoff.